Through the Darkness, Change Your Life

By Brigitte Weeks, New York, New York

As appeared in

I feel very blue today," I said to my husband.

"It's the rain," he replied matter-of-factly.

It wasn't. I had no real reason to be down, but I felt as if the light had been switched off in my life. My mother always said, "Keep your bad moods to yourself." So I put on a smile when I got to the office, and went to check my schedule with a colleague.

She was not at her desk, but her computer was on. I focused on the words of green light moving across the screen. Usually these screen savers are jokes, shapes or flying toasters, but not this one. "In a dark time," the line read, "the eye begins to see." Then it disappeared off the screen and began again at the other side. The words were from a poem by Theodore Roethke.

I began, then and there, to count my blessings, to see in the darkness. I thought of faith, how prayer had comforted me when I lost my job; of my husband and three children; and friends, old and new.

The light came on again in my world, and I remembered a very old prayer, giving "most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men. We bless thee," it goes on, "for our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life."

No more than two minutes had passed. The owner of the office returned, saying, "Well, don't you look cheerful today!"

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