The Forest of Vanishing Stars

by Kristin Harmel

“But maybe it shouldn’t be. Perhaps they need only know whether you are kind, decent, capable, well-intentioned. It is within your own heart that you find God. And we all walk our own path toward him. Don’t we?”

But there is light, too. In the times of greatest darkness, the light always shines through, because there are people who stand up to do brave, decent things.

“And you’re not broken, Yona. It’s the cracks in us that make us who we are, and you… you are stronger than anyone I have ever met, I think.

She knew how to disappear in public, though, not by looking down but by walking with her head held high, meeting people’s eyes for fleeting instants instead of shying away from their gaze. It made her look as though she had nothing to fear, nothing to hide, but she also knew to avoid the kind of extended eye contact that made bears, wolves, and men feel as if she was an aggressor.