What Time Cannot Erase

By Muskan Joshi

---

In deep moments of darkness, when everything feels overwhelming, injustices persist, and hope seems like a distant memory, it can get very hard to hold on to faith in the world, in the people around you. The survival instinct to turn inward, to shield oneself from the pain and disillusionment, is natural. But it is in these very moments, that faith becomes not just an act of comfort but something of extreme courage. 

Faith does not mean blind optimism and ignorance to the suffering around you. Rather, faith is a quiet resistance, and a strong insistence to believing in the existence of goodness, even when it's hard to see. It is choosing to believe that kindness, resilience, and transformation is possible, even in the middle of chaos. It’s believing that change can be born from despair.

Having faith in the world also means recognizing the quiet acts of goodness that rarely are seen: a neighbor lending a hand, a stranger showing unexpected kindness, communities coming together in times of need. These moments may be small, but are evidence of a light that continues to flicker in the dark.

Sometimes, faith can also be a simple decision to keep going. To get up, just one more day. To treat others with compassion even when you may have every reason not to. To create, to connect, to listen. It’s in the poetry written during grief, the protests amid the fear, the hands held in hospital rooms, and the songs sung through sorrow.

Faith is a part of hope. Two sides of the same coin. When we find the world harsh, we can also be gentle. When we feel forgotten, we can remember others.

In doing so, we end up becoming living proof that the world still has something worth believing in, thus giving others a reason to keep their own faith alive.

Humanity has been through it all from the pain, the suffering, the turmoil. Wars, pandemics, natural disasters, and the rise and fall of empires. What once seemed eternal and indestructible has crumbled with time. Yet through all those impossible times, one thing has remained: hope. A quiet, unwavering hope. for a better tomorrow, a brighter future, and a kinder world.

Hope is not just about “holding on” because we are sure of the outcome, but because we know that giving up will lead to more pain and despair. It is these small acts of faith which quietly tip the world toward light, even when things are bleak.