I walked the hospital stairs yesterday. I was visiting my father, who still is there, reminding me that time is taking things. Not only things. People. Time is not letting me remain where I am. It is refusing my need to stay in one place. It walks me through losses at a steady pace. Will my father live? Who am I to say? Will he remember, when I visit, I’m still just a child. Only now, today, I am nearing 60 and as time tells my story, I remember that life is more about faith than feeling. It is more about love than loss. It is more about grace than grief. And, today, with Jesus as my guide, I can honestly grasp how these stairs might betray the heartbreak that so many have felt. So many lives, feet treading across each step, unknowing of outcomes, unsure of what to expect… But, most of all, expect Jesus. He’s there in the silence, in the tears, in the stillness of a moment when His love frees and heals. He’s there with me, taking each hesitant step, guiding me, kindling a fire inside me. He is with me and that is more than I can comprehend. But, because He is with me, I can appreciate and accept. I can meet each step toward the hospital with assurance that He will be there, protecting, healing, lifting the weight of this fear and offering me the lightness that comes from knowing His love is always there. And He will always share more light than I dare. Seek the One who writes the hope into hopelessness and remember that He is with you, whatever shadow is engulfing you. Matthew 28:20 “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order throughout the poem, and appear together in the last couplet (last two lines). Hospital Stairs These stairs have wept a million tears walking from parking lot to hospital room Hearts travel them, to meet their worst fears Through shadows and shame, past years Blessed by the memoires who consume These stairs have wept a million tears With the music of a soul ringing in my ears There’s more love and grace than gloom Hearts travel them, to meet their worst fears Families, friends, echoing their cheers There’s more to this story than doom These stairs have wept a million tears The room grows silent when the dust clears Soon the dream’s soundless spring will bloom Hearts travel them, to meet their worst fears In seas of wonder, my gentle volunteers Remembering, He once rose from a tomb These stairs have wept a million tears Hearts travel them, to meet their worst fears
