I hid myself
Amongst the trees, feeling my heart cleave and crackle, feeling completely disoriented.
And I just wanted to be alone with You.
You touched me with pain because You longed to hear my voice,
Crying out to You.
You let me shatter into shards of grief because You wanted to put my pieces together,
Recreate me.
And, if only for a moment, You made me feel like something beautiful and free.

No one else will know how that bark felt against my lips as I pressed my face to it and wept.
No one else will see that flowing bead of clear, amber sap,
The way it magnified ashy grey bark,
Igniting it into a cool flame when a beam of sunlight licked the sappy sweetness.
All held within a moment that only You and I will ever know.
I feel my faith
In the fragile,
In the secret miracles.

Sana Ghani is a fellow young Muslim woman with an inkling to write, studying at the University of Alberta.