The story it tells.
When I first took this picture years ago, I thought to myself, these first shoots of spring remind me of love. And of course I thought that — because I was in love! After many years of searching, and many moments of disappointment, I had finally married the person who watered the seed of love in my heart, tending to it with mercy and constancy.
That seed grew and grew, until it blossomed into the most beautiful love I had ever known.
When my husband was killed, it was as though someone took an axe to what we had grown together. Winter overcame me again. I felt that everything within me was dead. I couldn’t see my potential anymore. I didn’t accept that the seed of hope in my heart would ever stir again.
But the seasons passed and my winter ended. Just like these first shoots of spring pushing their way out of the thawing ground, the hope that was dormant within my heart began to grow again.
I wasn’t surprised, because I knew that Allah (swt) could bring back to life anything we thought was dead within us. Our hearts will not be broken forever. Our pain will not last forever. Even death will not last forever.
“And of His signs is that you see the earth stilled, but when We send down upon it rain, it quivers and grows. Indeed, He who has given it life is the Giver of Life to the dead. Indeed, He is over all things competent” (41:39).
We all go through moments in our lives when we feel like we’ve been crushed, when the winter of heartache lasts so long that we can’t see beyond the frigid darkness. But beneath the frozen soil, beneath the icy exterior of our chests, something is stirring…
A seed is awakening. A potential is growing. A beautiful thing is pushing its way to the surface. — Asmaa Hussein, my beloved sister in faith and one of my favorite writers. God bless her soul!
