People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
The Biggest Temptation
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.
Thomas Merton
Do everything calmly and peacefully. Do as much as you can as well as you can. Strive to see God in all things without exception, and consent to His will joyously. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to him in word and deed. Walk very simply with the Cross of the Lord and be at peace with yourself.
St. Francis de Sales
Finding the Way
A swallow sat atop a gate and the winds blew in every direction. A woman with curls lost her balance and tipped the brown paper bag she was carrying, and a pile of bread rolls tumbled out. In all her hurry, she did not see the face of the young man who crossed the street and stooped to help. Flustered, she only murmured her thank-yous and walked away. That she might have just looked upon the face of the man she would someday marry, if only she’d not rushed off—never crossed her mind. Chirp! The winds continued to blow.
Haiku (II)
Knob on an oak tree –
I am counting the summers
until I am old.
Moon face
I saw once on this street:
I’m forgetting the name.
One afternoon,
kneeling in the dirt –
ground as hard as lion’s tooth!
No map,
I tell my way by the stars –
who can say I’m fast asleep?
Chrysanthemum
dropping its petals,
a chill setting in!
Haiku (I)
The old fisherman
casting out his line,
holding his hat.
White linen bedclothes –
a little whiter, I think,
and they would be gone!
Winter afternoon –
the tea is pouring out
faster than the rain.
A carpenter ant
is toiling in the stable:
he, too, is my friend.
Lady Gray –
what a weathered cheek,
what a sorrowful mouth.
Revelation
A swallow landed at the landlord’s golden gate:
Svelte-seeming swallow, small begotten king,
A thing to glory in so many miniatures of spring
Sprung all to blooming in bedappling beds,
Heads of the hyacinth, so much overfed, looked longing
On high to the highriding Sun of whom they were sons;
They were blushing the flush of a mother,
They were hushing to hear the swallow their Brother!
Their Brother winged wide to the goldenwrought gate
Forespeaking the sounds of a highmountain place:
The trees were bowing their leaves to the song!
The swallow was sweeping the stone hearts along!
The swallow, oh swallow! – inviolable grace! –
Stood steady straight, straight steady stood, standing at the gate.