I can accept that life has its ups and downs, but I had not expected my week to begin with the latter. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, then that definition still held true by the middle of the week because I had lots of hope, but I still had not seen Sheila.

It had rained overnight and, as a result, Thursday morning was depressingly muggy. The good part: the sun hung in a cloudless sky. The bad part: I did not want to go to work. So, when I boarded th...