Happy Easter.

I could moan and bitch right now about being alone at Easter. About missing my family. And believe me, I do miss my family. It hurts.

But this morning. I forced myself to go to Mass. And during the Homily, I heard a message of Hope. It's the first Hope I've had in a long time. and I choose to share that with you instead.

Over the last few Sundays, I've gotten the impression that there was a miracle of Pentecost going on. The sermons have seemed specifically targeted to my circumstances. I don't know if the rest of the congregation heard the same Homily I did, or not. I didn't ask.

The message I heard today related to Good Friday, and Easter. You can't have an Easter Celebration without looking back to Good Friday, and Good Friday is meaningless, without Easter. And the theme of the Message (and I've been hearing variations on this theme all through Lent) is that God has something good in mind for me, too. I can't point to specifics, it's just the germ of an idea, that these bad times I have been going through are not the end. That there is something wonderful waiting for me at the end of this painful experience.

I have Faith. And I will freely admit that it's a weak Faith, but it's there, quietly refusing to stop knowing that God is here, in the midst of things, working things out for the good of His wayward child. I'll be honest, I don't know why, I gave up on me years ago.

Now I have Hope, that there is something good waiting for me, as this unfolds to it's ordained end. I don't know what it is, but it's enough for now. I have the hope of a whispered and half heard Promise. Just. Keep. Going.

And oddly enough, I have Love. There's the obvious, I love Progeny. But even after all that's happened, I still love my wife. She told me that she's happier, now, without me. So out of love for her, I will not deny her her happiness, even if it means my own pain. I miss them. Terribly. But love means looking towards the good of the beloved, even, sometimes, at your own expense.

She's told me she's filing for divorce. And that she doesn't trust me with joint custody of Progeny. She's told me she "might remarry me in the future, if she can learn to trust me again," which strikes me as trying to let me down easy. If divorcing me is what will make her happy, then so be it. I do intend to fight to stay in my little girl's life. I can't do otherwise.

I will freely admit that I may go back to "woe is me" tomorrow. For right now, in this moment, I'm going to cherish this gift of Hope my Lord has given me.