Letter 4438

I walked this path a week ago, grumbling over some aspect of the day. I do not remember what troubled me.

Today, walking the same path, I see beauty and joy.

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What vexes me today will pass and be forgotten. Let me act only on what is permanent, Lord.

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Consider:

Can I remember that all my worries will pass?

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Reading:

❖ “Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (IV.43)

❖ “Let nothing disturb thee, / Nothing affright thee; / All things are passing; / God never changeth.” — Teresa of Ávila, lines written in her breviary (tr. Longfellow)

❖ “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” — Isaiah 40:8 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4437

When I arrived in this place, there was nothing but an open field under the mountain’s shadow. Living in a tent, I built a small dwelling. Then, one by one, the outbuildings. I added rooms to my home.

I come back to the beginning each morning, sitting in the first room I made, looking out over an empty field.

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Now I look at a new challenge of which this is the first day. Let me make a start. Let the work unfold, let creation flow through me.

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Consider:

Can I make a start today?

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Reading:

❖ “He who has begun is half done: dare to be wise; begin!” — Horace, Epistles (I.2.40)

❖ “Each day we should renew our resolution, and bestir ourselves to fervour, as though it were the first day of our conversion.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

❖ “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4436

The events of the morning drove me to rush out my door and into the world, acting and speaking and doing. Before I knew it, a storm surrounded me that I had created.

Had I held back, and spoken less, there would have been more light and space.

❖

Let me hold my peace, Lord, and go slowly where I would rush. Guide me.

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Consider:

Can I wait?

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Reading:

❖ “Teach us to care and not to care / Teach us to sit still.” — T.S. Eliot, Ash-Wednesday

❖ “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever.” — St. Francis de Sales

❖ “Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” — Zechariah 2:13 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4435

I imagine you have prepared the dawn just for me, eagerly awaiting my discovering of it. Could it be you made the world for your own amusement and I but inhabit it?

Zoom out, see me walking alone across an open and empty field. I am simply part of the picture. Here, in the shadow of the mountain, we tend our gardens and dwellings unaware of the greater plan.

❖

Grant me a glimpse, Lord, that I may sustain this journey.

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Consider:

Can I see the plan I am a part of?

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Reading:

❖ “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.” — Blaise Pascal, Pensées

❖ “He showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand… I thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered: ‘It is all that is made.'” — Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

❖ “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” — 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.