“Tenderly.
“‘I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there’ (Hos 2.14 NLT). These are God’s words about His wayward people, spoken to the prophet Hosea, who had a wayward wife named Gomer. God’s plan required a desert–an arid, dusty, inhospitable climate. Today, our desert equivalent could be our corners of hiddenness. Our anonymous cubicles. Our support roles. Our 3:00 a.m. baby feedings. Our fifteenth sojourn in the doctor’s waiting room with an ill child, condition still undiagnosed. Our 136th day in the carpool line. Our crowded church sanctuaries. Our Friday nights alone. Our monotonous shifts in the grocery store that barely pay the bills.
“It is there, in whatever this desert is, that He promises to speak tenderly.”
(Sara Hagerty, Unseen, the Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to be Noticed)
Witnesses to Hope 
I find that all of your “tender” pieces here are lovely, evocative, and, as much as I’d avoid suffering, intriguing. I am more and more attracted to the word “tenderly.” Or, rather, to the concept of God’s meaning for it, which flourishes in a desert (which includes a hidden well, said the Little Prince). It’s astoundingly clear in a winnowing tender desert of His offering that we certainly did not choose Him; He chose us. I cannot imagine any more important truth, nor how to pass it along to my kids. Or anyone, really. Hence, I am greatly indebted to Sisters of the Lord, priests and poets.
Thank you for your beautiful comment.