"Spaces in our lives..."

This is from a writing by John Ruskin which has a very helpful truth, and a reminder about those times when there are spaces in our lives which seem empty and silent:
"There is not music in a rest, but there is making of music in it.  In our whole life-melody, the music is broken off here and there by 'rests', and we foolishly think we have come to the end of time.  God sends a time of forced  leisure - sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts - and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator.  How does the musician read the rest?  See him beat time with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.  Not without design does God write the music of our lives.  But be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the 'rests.'  They are not to be slurred over, nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote.  If we look up, God Himself will beat time for us.  With an eye on Him, we shall strike the next note, full and clear."