Finding Hope in the Smallest Things

Hope is not a feeling. It is a practice.

In the early days, hope feels impossible. And that's okay. You don't need to feel hopeful to be healing. Sometimes healing looks like simply getting through the day.

Where hope hides

Hope hides in small places:

• A stranger's kindness at the grocery store.
• The way light falls through a window in the morning.
• A friend who sits with you and says nothing.
• The first time you laugh and don't immediately feel guilty.

You are allowed to hope again

There will come a day when you notice the sky is beautiful and you don't feel betrayed by it. That day is not a betrayal of your child. It is a continuation of the love they left behind.

Hope does not replace grief. It grows beside it — two candles in the same room, each making the other brighter.