my friend c is about to give birth to her 5th child.

my heart beats a little faster just thinking about that new life.

soon i will hold him in my arms and snuggle him up close to me.

there is nothing else quite like the smell of a brand new little person,

nothing else that pulls quite so hard at my heart as those first tiny cries.

now, my whole being longed to be able to do something

when the chilean miners were trapped suddenly underground

and i ached inside to hear that one of them was about to be a papa

while separated from the world topside by raw earth that could not be moved

fast enough for him to be there for her birth.

still,

in the midst

of that,

her parents

named her

‘esperanza’ (hope).

i want that kind of faith.

the kind that hopes

when the solution

is not at all in sight.

the kind that

believes

no matter what.

the kind that was

not too bitter

and not too afraid

to name her ‘hope’.

so that i will always remember, i have named this scarf ‘esperanza’.

these three cables attached only by horizontal strands of yarn

are somehow strong and beautiful and deep.

i thank God that He chose to rescue every

miner from that deep hole in the earth

where each man found himself

held fast for a time.

‘earth’ taken from 65:5 in the psalms.

photo courtesy of ‘triple c photography’.