"I understand above all that charity must not remain hidden in the bottom of the heart."  --St. Therese of Lisieux

The Sacred and the Holy

"Something very deep and mysterious, very holy and sacred, is taking place in our lives right where we are, and the more attentive we become the more we will begin to see and hear it. The more our spiritual sensitivities come to the surface of our daily lives, the more we will discover—uncover—a new presence in our lives."  --Henri Nouwen

"You must give birth to your images.

They are the future waiting to be born.

Fear not the strangeness you feel.

The future must enter you

long before it happens.

Just wait for the birth,

for the hour of new clarity."

--Rainer Maria Rilke

"Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and the deepest reach in his or her search for self-fulfillment."  --Arthur Jersild

"Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim, or diminish your light."  John Lewis

The Rowing Endeth

The Rowing Endeth

I’m mooring my rowboat

at the dock of the island called God.

This dock is made in the shape of a fish

and there are many boats moored

at  many different docks.

“It’s okay.” I say to myself,

with blisters that broke and healed

and broke and healed –

saving themselves over and over.

And salt sticking to my face and arms like

a glue-skin pocked with grains of tapioca.

I empty myself from my wooden boat

and onto the flesh of The Island.

“On with it!” He says and thus

we squat on the rocks by the sea

and play – can it be true –

a game of poker.

He calls me.

I win because I hold a royal straight flush.

He wins because He holds five aces,

wild card had been announced

but I had not heard it

being in such a state of awe

when He took out the cards and dealt.

As he plunks down His five aces

and I am still grinning at my royal flush,

He starts to laugh,

and laughter rolling like a hoop out of His mouth

and into mine,

and such laughter that He doubles right over me

laughing a Rejoice-Chorus at our two triumphs.

Then I laugh, the fishy dock laughs

the sea laughs. The Island laughs.

The Absurd laughs.

Dearest dealer,

I with my royal straight flush,

love you so for your wild card,

that untamable, eternal, gut-driven ha-ha

and lucky love.

--Anne Sexton, An Awful Rowing toward God