Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
The Greatest Power
Romano Guardini
Truth is power, but only when one has patience and requires of it no immediate effect. And one must have no specific aims. Somehow, lack of an agenda is the greatest power. Sometimes it is better not to think in terms of plans; here months may mean nothing, and also years. Truth must be sought for its own sake, its holy, divine greatness.
Truth is power, but only when one has patience and requires of it no immediate effect. And one must have no specific aims. Somehow, lack of an agenda is the greatest power. Sometimes it is better not to think in terms of plans; here months may mean nothing, and also years. Truth must be sought for its own sake, its holy, divine greatness.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Unless You Become a Child...
Dorothy Day
One thing children certainly accomplish, and that is that they love and wonder at the people and the universe around them. They live in the midst of squalor and confusion and see it now. They see people at the moment and love them and admire them. They forgive and they go on loving. They may look at the most vicious person, and if he is at that moment good and kind and doing something that they can be interested in or admire, there they are, pouring out their hearts to him. Oh, I can write with authority. I have my own little grandchildren with me right now, and they see only the beauty and the joy of other people. There is no criticism in their minds and hearts of those around them.
Source: Dorothy Day, "Selected Writings
One thing children certainly accomplish, and that is that they love and wonder at the people and the universe around them. They live in the midst of squalor and confusion and see it now. They see people at the moment and love them and admire them. They forgive and they go on loving. They may look at the most vicious person, and if he is at that moment good and kind and doing something that they can be interested in or admire, there they are, pouring out their hearts to him. Oh, I can write with authority. I have my own little grandchildren with me right now, and they see only the beauty and the joy of other people. There is no criticism in their minds and hearts of those around them.
Source: Dorothy Day, "Selected Writings
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
If This Grace Were Ours
Samuel Howard Miller
It is the rare person who, looking back over his life and seeing what he has done to it, hasn't sighed for a chance to redeem what he has cheaply used or carelessly ruined. If only somehow, somewhere, there was a way to live again the days we have darkened with our blind haste - the innumerable occasions when our indifference trod on all the pearls of God’s graciousness; the times when our pride, or our fear, or our meanness poured the acid of contempt over the fair countenance of another’s soul! If this grace were ours, how we would leap to the chance!
Source: Samuel Howard Miller, "The Life of the Soul" (Harper, 1951)
It is the rare person who, looking back over his life and seeing what he has done to it, hasn't sighed for a chance to redeem what he has cheaply used or carelessly ruined. If only somehow, somewhere, there was a way to live again the days we have darkened with our blind haste - the innumerable occasions when our indifference trod on all the pearls of God’s graciousness; the times when our pride, or our fear, or our meanness poured the acid of contempt over the fair countenance of another’s soul! If this grace were ours, how we would leap to the chance!
Source: Samuel Howard Miller, "The Life of the Soul" (Harper, 1951)
Friday, June 22, 2007
Too Big To Put Behind
Rachel Naomi Remen
Disappointment and loss are a part of every life. Many times we can put them behind us and get on with the rest of our lives. But not everything is amenable to this approach. Some things are too big or too deep to do this, and we will have to leave important parts of ourselves behind if we treat them in this way. These are the places where wisdom begins to grow in us. It begins with suffering that we do not avoid or rationalize or put behind us. It starts with the realization that our loss, whatever it is, has become a part of us and has altered our lives so profoundly that we cannot go back to the way it was before.
The thing about the many strategies we use to shelter ourselves from feeling loss is that none of them leads to healing. Although denial, rationalization, substitution, avoidance, and the like may numb the pain of loss, every one of them hurts us in some far more fundamental ways. None is respectful toward life or toward process. None acknowledges our capacity for finding meaning or wisdom.
Source: Rachel Naomi Remen, MD. "My Grandfather’s Blessings"
Disappointment and loss are a part of every life. Many times we can put them behind us and get on with the rest of our lives. But not everything is amenable to this approach. Some things are too big or too deep to do this, and we will have to leave important parts of ourselves behind if we treat them in this way. These are the places where wisdom begins to grow in us. It begins with suffering that we do not avoid or rationalize or put behind us. It starts with the realization that our loss, whatever it is, has become a part of us and has altered our lives so profoundly that we cannot go back to the way it was before.
The thing about the many strategies we use to shelter ourselves from feeling loss is that none of them leads to healing. Although denial, rationalization, substitution, avoidance, and the like may numb the pain of loss, every one of them hurts us in some far more fundamental ways. None is respectful toward life or toward process. None acknowledges our capacity for finding meaning or wisdom.
Source: Rachel Naomi Remen, MD. "My Grandfather’s Blessings"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
What Really Happened on Father's Day...
OK pics of the fair will be up soon but here is how I spent part of my Father's Day...
Co-experiencer's were my sis and bro-in-law, Beth and Kevin, plus kids, my sis-in-law, Misty, up to practice Phlebotomy on our sheep...yeah...and David our recently returned from China friend.
Beth and I were shopping in town when I get a call from my neighbor that there was a fire near our homes, but the fire crews were on it and were hopeful to have it contained soon.
After calling Christy to verify what was going on and being reassured that everything was fine we finished shopping and headed home. As we were driving home we noticed faint smoke in the direction of our home but nothing significant...I could see the helicopter with it's bucket making rounds and the air TAC flying high, calling the shots, but it looked like the fire was all but out. By the time we reached our dirt road we could see black smoke....not good.
Got home just in time for the helicopter to fly over our house dip its bucket into the neighbor's pond and start dropping.
My neighbor drives over with a CDF crew chief who was telling us to get ready to evacuate...which translated to getting 5 children, 30 sheep, some dogs(plus puppies), a horse and a donkey, 11 chickens and two cats in various vehicles and a trailer...luckily the fire was stopped at my neighbor's driveway...it was close
Co-experiencer's were my sis and bro-in-law, Beth and Kevin, plus kids, my sis-in-law, Misty, up to practice Phlebotomy on our sheep...yeah...and David our recently returned from China friend.
Beth and I were shopping in town when I get a call from my neighbor that there was a fire near our homes, but the fire crews were on it and were hopeful to have it contained soon.
After calling Christy to verify what was going on and being reassured that everything was fine we finished shopping and headed home. As we were driving home we noticed faint smoke in the direction of our home but nothing significant...I could see the helicopter with it's bucket making rounds and the air TAC flying high, calling the shots, but it looked like the fire was all but out. By the time we reached our dirt road we could see black smoke....not good.
Got home just in time for the helicopter to fly over our house dip its bucket into the neighbor's pond and start dropping.
My neighbor drives over with a CDF crew chief who was telling us to get ready to evacuate...which translated to getting 5 children, 30 sheep, some dogs(plus puppies), a horse and a donkey, 11 chickens and two cats in various vehicles and a trailer...luckily the fire was stopped at my neighbor's driveway...it was close
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Father's Day and the Picture
My ultimate presents for Father's Day are my kids.
They give me immense joy and sense of purpose, they are a present daily.
The banner picture is of my Pop and my uncle...I think it is a great picture of a couple of cool guys.
Happy Father's Day!
They give me immense joy and sense of purpose, they are a present daily.
The banner picture is of my Pop and my uncle...I think it is a great picture of a couple of cool guys.
Happy Father's Day!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Get Out
Henry David Thoreau
Staying inside the house breeds a sort of insanity always. Every house is in this sense a hospital. A night and a forenoon is as much confinement to those wards as I can stand - and then I must go outdoors.
Source: Journal, 1856
Staying inside the house breeds a sort of insanity always. Every house is in this sense a hospital. A night and a forenoon is as much confinement to those wards as I can stand - and then I must go outdoors.
Source: Journal, 1856
Thursday, June 14, 2007
As We Love Ourselves
Alvin Alexsi Currier
Jesus took the command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and pushed the definition of who is our neighbor, out, out, and still further out, until it reached to the ends of the earth and included all of humanity—all of God’s children.
Because Jesus' teachings are so challenging and radical, it is much more comfortable to focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with him than it is to follow his teachings that call for a public prophetic witness.
Jesus took the command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and pushed the definition of who is our neighbor, out, out, and still further out, until it reached to the ends of the earth and included all of humanity—all of God’s children.
Because Jesus' teachings are so challenging and radical, it is much more comfortable to focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with him than it is to follow his teachings that call for a public prophetic witness.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Love
Ivan Turgenev
Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death.
Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.
Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death.
Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
