"You push and plod through because of the hope of that gray hint of dawn. Because even when it's dark, and the moon and stars have all disappeared in the raging storm, the sun will still rise; morning will still come! Be it ever slow and cold, it will come! And that moment, when the light of dawn's first rays touch the horizon you can look up and know that you have the strength to make it through the darkness. And you'll know it was worth it not to give up."

I surprised myself when I read this again, because I'm actually the person that said it. I was encouraging a friend who was going through a tough time because the only guy she'd ever truly loved at that point now hated her for no reason, and her mom and step-dad (the only father she'd ever known) were going through a divorce. Things were pretty messed up for her, and she didn't really want to go on. But the truth is, we all have it in us to go on.

Hope is not a blazing, burning fire! Hope is a cool and gentle gray light far in the distance that just might turn into a sunrise. And although it is cool and not very bright, it appears as bright as the midsummer sun and as warm as the wood in the fireplace compared to the cold, dark, dismal storm around us that whips so quickly and forcefully past our faces that it threatens to steal the last breath from within our throat. It seems that nobody hears that echoing scream in the hours of our nights, but truth be told, we are never alone in the darkness. Just because we can't see our hand in front of our faces, or hear over the grieving and howling winds, or feel our hands and feet, doesn't mean there is nobody else being battered in the rage with us. The taste of blood in our mouths is not a sign of our end, but the sign that we have blood in us to be able to bleed.

But the sunrise will come! The world has not ended, even if yours has. And when your world ends, you must pick up the pieces of who you thought you were, and throw out the ones associated with that world, keeping only what you can rearrange and recreate to be you, stronger, better, and realer because of it.