Journey

Letter 4498

I arrived home last night after a long journey. The place I had been was familiar, yet the way there and back was more difficult than that to which I was accustomed.

So weary, when I finally slept.

❖

Today it all feels a dream. Where was I? Did it happen? Why does my body ache?

Let me treat myself as gently today as I ever have.

Consider:

Can I give myself time to recover?

Reading:

❖ “Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak? / Of labour you shall find the sum.” — Christina Rossetti, Up-Hill

❖ “You too must learn to await this fullness before pouring out your gifts.” — Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs

❖ “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Discoveries

Letter 4497

I startled a family of deer in a forgotten hollow. It is a place I rarely go. They ran off as I approached.

I found a spider web at the back of the shed, covering long-disused garden tools.

❖

These discoveries — I make them only because I go places I used to go, and now do not.

Perhaps I can generate new discoveries.

Consider:

Can I surprise myself today?

Reading:

❖ “Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them.” — Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

❖ “Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu

❖ “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” — Genesis 28:16 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Orders of the Day

Letter 4496

What are the orders of the day?

Do good. Speak truth. Seek humility.

Seek to do your will.

Such a simple call — such a difficult task at times.

❖

Do you reward the trying or the doing?

Let me seek your face, that I may better do your will.

Consider:

Can I seek your face today?

Reading:

❖ “It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

❖ “The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things.” — Evelyn Underhill, Practical Mysticism

❖ “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” — Micah 6:8 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

The Rules

Letter 4495

What are the rules, O Lord?

Try my best.

Help others.

Order my thoughts.

❖

Lean towards you.

Consider:

Can I follow the rules today?

Reading:

❖ “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” — Confucius, Analects 15:23

❖ “Love, and do what thou wilt.” — Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John

❖ “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” — Ecclesiastes 12:13 (KJV)

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

~B.R.