when it feels like the walls are closing in around you
and the darkness is louder than the silence and the footsteps that once created a sense of companionship are now gone
and it feels like there is no breathing soul in sight and it feels too hard to breathe in the sharp, stinging air,
know that as the days pass and one day turns into the next in a blur of passing days and passing time and changing seasons and shifting horizons
that when the sun rolls into the clouds and the clouds roll into darkness,
And a pink sky emerges with golden streaks and an orange sun spreading from the center outward from one edge of the earth to the other
that the world is opening itself up to you.
and as the oceans calm and the tides settle, and the palm trees sway and the flowers blossom think with a smile and a breeze of relief to the verse because it will ring true in every particle of the air:
“Surely with hardship comes ease.”