Five Things on My Mind

I don't, really, spend a lot of time on the way past.  But I do find myself, as October 5 approaches, musing about who that little girl of fifty years ago was, and who she was about to be turned into.  

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I'm going on retreat in a couple of weeks.  Off to the silence at Wernersville.   I had to conclude earlier this summer that I couldn't do what I had planned in the way of a retreat in June, but a confluence of factors has made this new time and place irresistible.  

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Abraham Joshua Heschel quotes have been popping up all over the place lately.  HT to Inward/Outward for this one:

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live.

Sort of a personal challenge for me this October. 

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As are the words and art entitled Flare Up Like a Flame, from the Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe.  The whole post is too long to steal, but it's incredible.  I'll try to entice you with this bit:

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

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I've had some correspondence lately ~ some of it answered, some not yet ~  which caused me to look up the definition of the word "courage" today.  Many of the definitions contain two parts: "doing something difficult" and "fearlessly." I don't know anyone who manages both, but I am finding that the opportunities for the former are as varied as there are human circumstances.  They usually being with "getting out of bed at some point during the day" as opposed to "fearlessness."

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I suppose that these are all fodder for individual posts.

Maybe later in October.