keep the flame flame burning

It's raining here tonight and the moon is hiding behind the clouds. It's a fitting end to a slightly uncertain day. I'm feeling frustrated with my lack of progress on my PhD. Oddly, a stranger I met on the train home cheered me up a little. I was sitting, leafing through a pile of books I'd just just borrowed from the University library, and he noticed and commented on them. We got talking, and as he got up to get off the train he wished me luck with it. It was a chance encounter that somehow brightened a slightly depressing day.