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
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
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
The river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future.
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
photo: vincent, la rivière Rouvre.
At every moment we have the choice of either feeling gratitude for what has been given to us or indulging in grievance about what is missing. Grievance and gratitude are polar opposites. Grievance focuses on what is not there – the imperfections of relational love – and looks for someone to blame. Gratitude recognises what is here – the simple beauty of human presence and contact – and responds to it with appreciation
John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships.
photo from Saint Roch Cemetery, New Orleans
Each thing — each stone, blossom, child— is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused.
So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.
This is what the things can teach us:
to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.
Rilke, The Book of Hours
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