Lost, Home

Letter 4492

I got lost yesterday, wandering along trails with which I was unfamiliar. I had gotten turned around, and was going in circles. I saw the same pair of trees with distinctive limbs three, four, five times. At one point, the panic was excruciating. Would I ever make it?

I found my way home.

❖

Today I set out on the same path, carrying paint. I am going to mark the trail for others. Let none experience what I did.

Lord, let me turn my experience to help others.

Consider:

Can I use what I learn for others?

Reading:

❖ “Traveler, there is no path. You make the path as you walk.” — Antonio Machado, Proverbios y cantares XXIX

❖ “I wanted to make you dependent on one another.” — Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue

❖ “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” — 2 Corinthians 1:4 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Try

Letter 4491

Lord, you do not ask that I succeed.

That I succeed in righting what is wrong.

That I succeed in ordering my surroundings.

That I succeed in ascending this mountain I now climb.

That I succeed in finding you.

❖

I need only to seek you.

I need only try.

Consider:

Can I try today, without thought of success?

Reading:

❖ “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” — T.S. Eliot, East Coker

❖ “It is not what you are… but what you desire to be.” — The Cloud of Unknowing

❖ “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” — Galatians 6:9 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Travel Light

Letter 4490

I am a fragile creature, yet strong too.

Setting out on a long journey, unsure of how many days and the places I will see. With no way to plan, I could try to take everything I might need.

Yet I will travel light, as disciples did in earlier days, with no coat. Let the hospitality of others, the aid of community, sustain me.

❖

When travelers come to my door, let me sustain them. They too are fragile.

It is in our care for one another that we are strong.

Consider:

Can I welcome and aid all who come today?

Reading:

❖ “The community… is the smallest unit of health.” — Wendell Berry, Health Is Membership

❖ “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.” — The Rule of St. Benedict, ch. 53

❖ “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” — Hebrews 13:2 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Revolutions

Letter 4489

What has changed in me?

Where before I was afraid, I have learned to act even when frightened.

Where before I thought only of my own aims, I try now to think of others.

Where before I held resentments, I seek to bring harmony.

❖

These gentle changes, wrought solely in my thinking, do they constitute anything more than normal growth? I am older now than I was, ought I not expect to gain in wisdom?

Yet these changes make great impacts in my actions and in the world’s response. When I bring peace, the world offers it back.

Revolutions in thought.

Thank you, Lord.

Consider:

Can I recognize my changed thinking?

Reading:

❖ “Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, History

❖ “If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly.” — Meister Eckhart, Talks of Instruction

❖ “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” — Ephesians 4:23 (KJV)

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

~B.R.