Widening the Room

Devotional #63

“I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
which shall be the darkness of God.”
-T.S. Eliot

“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
-Psalm 30:5

One of the hardest things to do when we are overwhelmed emotionally is to widen the room again.

When grief or anger takes hold, it has a way of narrowing our world. Our thoughts circle the same memories. Our attention returns again and again to the same wounds. Before long it can feel like there is nowhere else to stand.

The room gets smaller.

But healing rarely happens by forcing ourselves to ignore the pain. It doesn’t come from pretending everything is fine or rushing toward artificial positivity. Instead, it often begins in small and quiet ways, moments that remind us the room is bigger than the emotion we’re feeling.

A conversation with someone who listens without trying to fix everything.
A quiet morning with a cup of coffee.
A laugh that surprises us when we thought laughter was gone.

These moments don’t erase grief.

They expand the space around it.

Little by little the room begins to widen again. The pain may still be there, but it no longer defines the entire house.

Hope cracks open a window.
Connection pulls up a chair.
And life slowly begins to breathe again.

Takeaways

• Healing rarely removes pain immediately, it expands life around it.
• Small moments of connection can widen emotional spaces that feel closed.
• Your life is always larger than the moment you are stuck in.

Charge for the Day

Today, look for something small that widens the room.

A walk outside.
A text to a friend.
A quiet moment to breathe.

You don’t have to solve everything today.

Sometimes healing simply begins by opening a window.