Around 16 years ago, I decided to leave one job for another. However, my initial hopes for happy employment didn’t come to fruition, and I realized that I had made a dreadful mistake—or at least that’s how it seemed to me at the time. 

For the next six months, as I sought alternative employment, I knew my state of mind was plummeting. I was haunted by a sense of having made an awful mistake, and my waking hours felt dark. Relief came when I slept, but then I’d wake to feelings of hopelessness. I contacted a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful help and was able to continue functioning in my job and my everyday life, even though I still felt on the verge of a breakdown.

One evening, unexpectedly, this feeling completely lifted when I attended a church business meeting. The clerk of the church opened the meeting by reading a poem titled “Evening affirmation.” The first two stanzas delivered a wave of relief: