Some time ago, I was awoken by a very loud songbird singing outside my window sometime in the wee hours of the morning. It was too beautiful of a sound to be annoyed. On the contrary, it spoke hope to my soul.

The world is dark. Yet, the bird wasn’t threatened by the night. And I know she wasn’t oblivious to the blackness surrounding her. Instead, her hope wasn’t in sunshine because that bird carried sunshine within her. She had a song to sing. A voice to be heard. And she sang unapologetically for any who would listen.

There’s such a lesson in singing songs in the night. So many people are surviving in the darkness of depression, poverty, sickness, disease, joblessness, bankruptcy, infertility, mental illness, or other soul-piercing blackness and the weight of those things can be crushing. Sometimes, as much as we want to will our loved ones into the light, the light is beyond us. Outside of our control. Just out of reach.

But our songs of hope and light and survival are not. I implore you to use your voice, friends. Sing, speak, and sow hope into the atmosphere. Our world needs you.

And to those finding themselves in the shadows, allow the songbirds to surround you. May their voice be a beacon of hope until light shines