IMAGINED GREATNESS
We all seek to imitate one another’s imagined greatness.
Thomas Merton, No Man is An Island
CONTENT TO LIVE WITHOUT WATCHING OURSELVES LIVE
We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to work without expecting an immediate reward, to love without an instantaneous satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition.
Thomas Merton
No Man is An Island
TIME & MEMORY
Back there at the beginning, as I see now, my life was all time and no memory.
And now, nearing the end, I see that my life is almost entirely memory and very little time.
Wendell Berry
Jayber Crow
WHOLEHEARTEDNESS
The antidote to exhaustion is not rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.
David Steindl-Rast
ENVY
Envy wants to make something alive into something dead.
Envy looks hard for evil in another person and takes great satisfaction in finding it.
Ann and Barry Ulanov, Cinderella and Her Sisters: The Envied and the Envying
IT'S THE CHAINS WE CHOOSE THAT SET US FREE
The people who live best tie themselves down.
They don’t ask: What cool thing can I do next? They ask: What is my responsibility here?
They respond to some problem or get called out of themselves by a deep love.
By planting themselves in one neighborhood, one organization or one mission, they earn trust.
They have the freedom to make a lasting difference.
It’s the chains we choose that set us free.
David Brooks
IDOLATRY HAS TWO FAULTS
Idolatry has two faults. It is not only a slur on the true God; it is also an insult to true things.
The heaviest weight on the shoulders of the earth is still the age-old idolatry by which man has cheated himself of both Creator and creation.
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
MAN'S REAL WORK IS TO SEE AND LOVE THINGS
Man’s real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God’s image for nothing.
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
LOCATION IS ACCIDENTAL
Location is accidental to its deepest meaning. What really matters is not where we are, but who - what real beings - are with us.
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
PROCESS
Interest in results never conquers boredom with process.
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
THE GRACES OF THE WORLD ARE THE LOOKS OF A WOMAN IN LOVE
The graces of the world are the looks of a woman in love; without the woman they could not be there at all; but without her lover they would not quicken into loveliness.
Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb