Hidden Inspiration

from Wikipedia

from Wikipedia

My life had been turned upside down. I found it difficult to function. This morning, everything had gone wrong and I hadn’t even dressed for work. I rushed to the dressing table I had inherited from my grandmother.

Stressed, I pulled on a drawer too hard and it fell out upside down, emptying its contents onto the carpet. This was the last straw and I burst into tears.

Then, I stopped. Folded many times and tucked between the bottom and the back of the drawer, only visible from this angle, was a tiny, yellowed scrap of paper torn from an exercise book.

I prised it out and opened it. In my late grandmother’s handwriting was a message from beyond the grave. Stunned, I read these beautiful words:

In the dark night of the soul,

Bright flows the river of God.

A message reaching out to me in perhaps my darkest hour. I dried my tears, put the drawer back and made it to work on time.

I have never forgotten this beautiful message and say it to myself whenever things are grim. I often think of my grandmother and what may have inspired her to write this verse on a scrap of paper and tuck it in the back of a drawer where I would find it decades later. Yet it was only recently that I thought to wonder where she had found these glorious, inspirational and healing words.

This was how I discovered the heart-rending story of Saint John of the Cross; his love and piety; his evil treatment at the hands of so-called men of God. Part of his story can be found here.

Sometimes, when I come upon the dark things of History, it is good to remember that there are wonderful treasures there, too.

Words to inspire your life: From a man who should know!

Angel of Song Goodreads’ Giveaway Winner!

 

Congratulations to my two Goodreads’ Giveaway Winners! You will be receiving your copies of Angel of Song in the mail by the end of March.

It’s so wonderful to send these gifts all over the world. I’ve got one prize going to a lucky lady in Georgia USA, and another to a gentleman from the beautiful Nova Scotia in Canada.

Goodreads - Meet your next favorite book!

Goodreads – Meet your next favorite book!

Thanks to all 750 entrants, and keep your eye out for future giveaways!