These Halls

Courage is not...
Standing tall with a smile...
It is still holding on...
In the midst of your trial...
Courage is not...
Putting on a pretense...
It is brutally honest...
When life makes no sense.
It's that fragment of hope...
That lies hidden away...
And the thought that perhaps...
You might use it one day.
Life is a challenge...
As is understanding...
Who are the courageous?
They are those still found standing.
Faith doesn't mean...
When the long day is done....
That you will be certain...
The battle's been won.
Faith doesn't promise...
To take all your fears...
And make you stand strong...
In the midst of your tears...
Faith is unseen...
It means knowing in part....
It can only be seen..
Through the eyes of your heart...
Faith is that step...
That you doubt you'll be taking...
It's the foothold of certain...
Right here in the making...
It's in seeing the never's...
But still holding tight...
It's in knowing that someday...
The wrongs will be right.
Hope doesn't promise...
That "happy" tomorrow...
It's the last thing to hold...
In the midst of your sorrow...
And sometimes it's tattered...
To the very last thread...
And you wonder if you...
Should just give up instead...
But hope says, "Go on"...
"I think you can make it"...
And somehow you do...
As you just cannot break it...
Behind these doors...
Within these walls...
Up a few floors...
Come roam these halls...
Love lives here...
And so does hope...
Day in day out...
As families cope...
Tears fall freely in this place...
As a new life unfolds..
That we wish to erase...
Fear and doubt can always be found...
In the eyes of the families...
All scattered around.
The unit is closed...
And tensions arise...
There's no need for words...
Only tears in our eyes.
That could be us...
I think with a sigh...
That's other's I've known...
I can't help but cry...
How can one place possibly be?
A place of both grief and security?
I've come to know these halls I roam...
Indeed it seems my second home...
No words I know could prepare you...
For life...inside this ICU...
Through the lobby...
Within these walls...
I only know...
God walks these halls.

~Stephanie Husted
Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you fufill the law of Christ.~Galatians 6:2