Recently I Learned

Recently I learned
That I know nothing at all.
What was sure is not.
All my thoughts are upside-down,
And yet – ¡ǝǝɹɟ ǝɯ sʇǝs ʇɐɥʍ s,ʇɐɥʇ

"All good things."
“All good things are wild and free.” – Thoreau.

Brief Thoughts (No. 3)

Will there ever be a time when I can stop trying? Or is that just the human condition, to ceaselessly strive?

The desire to rebel, to break loose, to act uninhibitedly – is just a reflection of the desire to be really and truly human. It’s evidence of the yearning to experience life fully and freely – not fearfully, fractionally, or in a cage.

How do you reach into the human heart and fix what is wounded? It is not a matter of making some sutures or replacing a valve. The mechanics of the operation are often unclear and ill-defined. Sometimes the patient lies on the operating table for months, or for years. If only such pains had a quick and pre-formulated repair. There would be far fewer hurting hearts. But, things being what they are, we have to make do – and if this means anything at all, know that, somewhere, someone is praying for you.

We were not created to lead drab, narrow, or constricted lives, but to live in the wide-open spaces. We find confinement unbearable, simply because we were created in the image of God, and we have within us an unquenchable need for the absolute and the infinite. That is our greatness and sometimes our misfortune.

Rev. Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom

Fragments: Freedom

I found a reason to escape the prison I was in.

The reason was simple and good: I saw a ray of light and it transformed the darkness. It was the light I wanted and the light I sought – and it was the light that made me free. 

Freedom. What does it mean?

It is not merely the ability to choose according to our wildest whim and do whatsoever we please. People think this is true, but they have not realized that choosing according to what drives us to do unhealthy or lesser things is really not an act of freedom at all.

No – rather, freedom is (to put it simply) the ability to choose what is really and truly good, even when the choice is hard. It means choosing to honor our souls with the decisions that bring the most health, beauty, goodness, and life.

Sad, the things we’ve allowed ourselves to get accustomed to. Sad, the things we keep ourselves from doing because we’re too afraid to be set free.

Once upon a time, you found yourself lost in a hallway of fright. You couldn’t move your feet either left or right, because your mind was so troubled by fears of what might lie on either side. So you stood there, waiting, unable to move, and to pass the time, you sang a song – the song of your youth. You forgot the words, but knew the rhythm, so you made up words of your own; and the verses were calm, and the verses were cool, and after a while, your feet grew a little less stiff, and soon enough, you were walking whichever way you chose – and if the gremlins passed by, you didn’t know, because they were terrified of your song and kept far away in their fear of beautiful things.

You must write if you are called to write – otherwise, a part of your soul becomes sick. This is the path toward going insane: repressing the thing you’re meant to become and denying the love you’re meant to experience.

When we stop trying to control the direction of our lives, we will find that there is more to discover than we ever dreamed.

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