February 2012
30 posts
It is not from ourselves
Too much that we do is done at the expense of something else, or somebody else. There is some intransigent destructiveness in us. My days, though I think I know better, are filled with a thousand irritations, worries, regrets for what has happened and fears for what may, trivial duties, meaningless torments—as destructive of my life as if I wanted to be dead. Take today for what it is, I...
People who have come alive
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman; American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader
Worry about courage
As discovered by the ever lovely Leigh Patterson, a list, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his 11-year-old daughter Scottie:
Things to worry about:
Worry about courage Worry about cleanliness Worry about efficiency Worry about horsemanship
Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion Don’t worry about dolls Don’t worry about the past Don’t worry about the future Don’t worry about...
Choices
I’ve been thinking of that old thing Kierkegaard said, about creating ourselves through our choices. I look at that every day as I walk out the door, so I think on it a lot. And the truth of it becomes more clear to me every day.
It got me to thinking about how all the little things in our lives build upon one another to become the big things, and how each incremental choice makes a...
January 2012
22 posts
Words to Live By
But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them!
-Henri Nouwen, via my sweet parents
The Art of the Commonplace
Though more of us than ever before live a life of luxury and ease, fewer of us can claim that our lives are permeated with peace and joy. The frantic, stressful striving going on all around us indicates that we are profoundly lost. We seem unable to ask with any seriousness or depth the question of what all our striving is ultimately for.
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We can only become what we truly are by...
