To live them

No one imagines that symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it.
It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

-Alan Watts, philosopher, writer, and speaker (1915-1973)

Hitched to

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Quietly passionate

It’s the first Wednesday of April, and I feel mostly uninspired, even though it is spring and I see a few teeny blooms here in Minnesota. [I DO feel passionate about watching spring unfold: I hope you will observe the greening and budding and blooming with delight along with me.]

I am newly back from a trip away, and it takes a fair amount of energy for me to “get back in the swing of things.” So this month I merely share a few words that have spoken to me and are gently helping me settle into some calm.
My wish for you: to find calm, even as you embrace your passions. And certainly also to enjoy spring!

A perspective:

An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters

flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

A prayer:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does

in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this,

You will lead me by the right road, though

I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem lost in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton...New Seeds of Contemplation

A verse:

I'm praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.

– Jesus, John 17:20-21