I was sitting in my writing chair listening to some beautiful instrumental Christmas music. It was a piano solo. As the pianist continued to play a soft melody, in the distance, I heard the wailing song of a siren clearing the way in route to an unknown trauma. The melding of the two sounds was strangely beautiful.

As the two songs played on, I was reminded how much of life is a blend of both joy and sorrow and how both can play at the same time. No one is free from this blending of sound because every life will contain both joy and sorrow.

Finally, the siren song ended, and the Christmas music remained continuing to fill our home with its warmth. This is the essence of a life of faith. Hope birthed in faith helps us believe that our sorrows will eventually fade under the influence of love and in the end, only beauty will remain and our joy will return. The sound of sorrow fades because hope has a greater and more enduring power than any sorrow we will ever experience, no matter how deep and painful. Hope tells us that things will get better and our joy will return.

If you are experiencing sorrow begin your process of healing by choosing to exchange the ash of your sorrow for the beauty of hope. Do this each the overwhelming feelings of loss come to visit. Over time, as you continue to make this exchange, the sound of sorrow will begin to fade giving way to the enduring sound of hope.