LOGOS

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
And the felt ferocity of that love
And the felt necessity of that love
The fish explode into many.
Imagine him speaking,
And don’t worry about what is reality,
Or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
Spoken with love.

Mary Oliver

4 HOURS

4 hours.
An introduction,
a conversation,
a shared moment,
a shared meal.

40 hours.
An opportunity in my mind,
a possibly in my heart,
an future in my life.

That does
not come.
I am again, 
learning.

Receive 4.
Reel not for 40.
Live in reality.
Do not long in reverie.

Let 4 hours be,
what 4 hours is.
4 hours.

HOLY BEST

But when it comes to putting broken lives back together— when it comes, in religious terms, to the saving of souls— the human best tends to be at odds with the holy best. To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do — to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst — is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.

Frederick Buechner

CLEARING

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.

Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.

Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worth of rescue.

Martha Postlewaite

GOD WANTS TO BE KNOWN

God has no more stopped being Revelation than he has stopped being Love.

Louis Evely

WHAT’S LOST IS NOTHING

The secret that we share I cannot tell in full. But this much I will tell. What's lost is nothing to what's found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.

Frederick Buechner
Godric

LIFE ITSELF IS GRACE

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner
Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation

LASSO WIT & WISDOM

“Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong."

“If that’s a joke, I love it. If not, can’t wait to unpack that with you later.”

“You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It's a goldfish. Y'know why? It's got a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish."

“What I can tell you is that with the exception of the wit and wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes, not much lasts forever."

“Our goal is to go out like Willie Nelson, on a high."

“Ice cream's the best. It's kinda like seeing Billy Joel live. Never disappoints."

“There's two buttons I never like to hit, alright? And that's 'panic' and 'snooze.'"

“I shouldn't bring an umbrella to a brainstorm."

“Boy, I love meeting people's moms. It's like reading an instruction manual as to why they're nuts."

“Limbo. Great party game, horrible relationship status."

"I believe in Communism. Rom-communism, that is. If Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan can go through some heartfelt struggles and still end up happy, then so can we."

“That's a real roller coaster there. Glad I was tall enough to join you on that ride.”

I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING, BUT I CAN DO SOMETHING.

I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.

Edward Everett Hale

PROBLEMS OF A LEADER

As a leader you will have two problems:
1. People think you should be solving a different problem.
2. People think you should be solving the problem differently.

LAW OF NATURE OF RIGHT & WRONG

I know that some people say the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behavior known to all men is unsound, because different civilisations and different ages have had quite different moralities.

But this is not true. There have been difference between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching, of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own … for our present purpose, I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to – whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.

But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him, he will be complaining ‘It’s not fair’ before you can say Jack Robinson. A nation may say treaties don’t matter; but, then, next minute, they spoil their case by saying that the particular treaty they want to break was an unfair one. But if treaties do not matter, and if there is no such thing as Right and Wrong – in other words, if there is no Law of Nature – what is the difference between a fair treaty and an unfair one? Have they not let the cat out of the bag and shown that, whatever they say, they really know the Law of Nature just like anyone else?

C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity