The glimmering star
Good Morning from the International Space Station, by Scott Kelly
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
“If in the dusk of the twilight, dim be the region afar,
Will not the deepening darkness brighten the glimmering star?
Then when the night is upon us, why should the heart sink away?
When the dark midnight is over, watch for the breaking of day.”
— Alice Hawthorne, aka Septimus Winner, 1868
These words are from a hymn that I’ve known and sung throughout my early life, but never particularly liked. Its title is “Whispering Hope” which might have been part of the problem. I want hope to shout at me and shut down all the fears and doubts. I want it to drown out all the chaos and noise. But as the prophet Elijah found out, God doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes we have to listen for “a gentle whisper.”
In any case, for reasons unknown to me (as I haven’t heard the song in a long time) the words of it came back to me recently, playing in my head, and I could appreciate them much more than I used to. I’ve found it’s that way with a lot of things that I didn’t fully understand when I was younger. I suppose growing older tends to open us up. Sometimes it happens naturally, of our own accord, but sometimes we have to be broken open. Either way, it can ultimately be a blessing if we hold fast to what is most important.
If you are in the midst of a dark midnight, and the future seems only dimly visible, I wish for you a glimmering star of hope to light your fears with promise of better times to come. The universe, apparently, is mostly darkness. But what an incredible difference the lights make!
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
Defeat Despair 
Good morning, Julia!
I share your sentiment about hope – I’d like it to be louder, to drown out the competing noises!
I found a pleasantly soupy version of “Whispering Hope” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_1IeRzhbvG4?si=yr1Q5kJMdehaU9US
I guess I am willing to put in the time to pause and listen for hope this winter.
Blessings on your day!
Hi Susan, we could definitely use a lot more hope nowadays. I’m glad you are also a believer in its power! At the risk of sounding very unhip, what does “soupy” mean in this context?
Loved the poem…but, you brought me back to the winter of ’62. I sat in church beside Grandmother, holding my hand with the softest leather glove on hers, and the opening lines, “soft as the voice of an angel…”, came forth. It all seemed to fit so perfect.
Thank you, for this, Julia!
Hi Steve, thank you for sharing this precious memory with us! These everyday moments are truly gifts, part of the rich legacy left to so many of us by our families. It’s always a joy to hear from you. I hope all is well in your world.