As you know, I’ve been writing this series of blog posts as part of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer‘s #BlogElul challenge. I’ve also been talking about her 7 year old son, Sam, who has just received a bone marrow transplant because of persistant leukemia.

I don’t know if Rabbi Sommer had the fact that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in mind when she set today’s theme to Hope. I know for sure she did not know Sam’s transplant date at the time. But now we all wait and hope that the transplant will take nicely, while Sammy deals with side-effects of the chemo and radiation used to kill his own bone marrow cells. It’s a hard time.

And so, I turn to the poet Emily Dickinson, who had the best words about hope.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Sending strength, love and hope to Sammy and all his family.