Who?

Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live.
He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions
about who God is and who God loves.

        Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?

 

 

 

 

Poem: The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

            Wendell Berry

 

 

 

 

 

Success and Failure

We are too much in awe of those who succeed
and far too dismissive of those who fail.
And, most of all, we become much too passive.
We overlook just how large a role we all play—
and by “we” I mean society—
in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.

        Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success 

 

 

 

 

It matters

If nothing matters,
it should not matter that nothing matters,
and yet it does matter.

        Irvin D. Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy

 

 

 

 

Remember this

A memory is a complicated thing,
    a relative to truth, but not its twin.

            Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

 

 

 

 

 

Words

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are.
They deserve respect.
If you get the right ones in the right order,
you might nudge the world a little or make a poem
that children will speak for you when you are dead.

        Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

 

 

 

 

What's happening?

You live your life at the time you live it —
you don't have much of an overview
when what's happening to you is still happening.

        John Irving, In One Person: A Novel