I find myself clinging desperately to snippets of good news that are coming forth.

New York officials report that the number of hospital emergency room admissions is starting to level off; the increase in deaths from the coronavirus is decreasing; some nations are beginning to lift restrictions; the projected death count in the United States is being reduced; social distancing is doing its job.

My wife and I sit in our house in Collin County, Texas. Our son and his family in a next-door community are isolating themselves, too. Our son in the Texas Panhandle is restricting his own movement per the warnings from the state and local officials.

We have been buried under an avalanche of frightening news. The pandemic that ignited in China and moved quickly to Europe has frightened us.

Now we’re getting morsels of news that give us a glimmer of hope.

But hold on! We aren’t nearly home free. The moment when the dust clears still appears to be a long way off. However, the moment is beginning to take shape way out there in the distance. It is getting a little more defined.

I am not naïve to think that the end of the crisis is at hand. I am enough of an optimist, though, to hope that the good-news nuggets we are getting will be more prevalent in the weeks to come than the avalanche of tragedy that has buried us.

As they say, every journey we take begins with a small step.