Tag: Joy

Sunday Quote: Taking time

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

thanks slowing down

Life is so short,

we should all move slowly

Thich Nhat Hanh

A change in climate

Karl Duffy2 Comments

rain-puddle

Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By “they” I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness.

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.

As long as it talks I am going to listen.

Thomas Merton, Rain and the Rhinoceros

Being comes before doing

Karl Duffy3 Comments

friendship-thumb-350x262

My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. 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

False friends

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Lobster trap.jpg

The greatest trap in life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection, doubting who we truly are. Success, popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions.

Henri Nouwen

A work of art

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Monet - Seerosen 1906.jpg

I would say to young people a number of things. Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we can do — every one — our share to redeem the world despite of all absurdities and all the frustration and all disappointments. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as it if were a work of art. You’re not a machine. When you are young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

In whatever circumstances

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Annecy-vieilles-prison-ancient-jails-2.jpg

La joie réside au plus intime de l’âme; on peut aussi bien la posséder dans une obscure prison que dans un palais.

(Joy dwells in the deepest part of the soul; one can have it in an obscure prison just as much as in a palace)

St Therese of Lisieux

photo of the former prison in Annecy by Emmanuel Boutet