Letter 4535

On a long march, I encountered a stranger. They had been walking for days. None might have predicted we would meet, for our paths only crossed at this juncture. I had been delayed the prior day; our chance meeting was thus unplanned.

❖

Somehow we each stopped our walking. They shared the details of their journey. I did the same. I learned what the days were like at their village. I shared the news from ours.

My lone march became a joint effort, just for that moment.

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Consider:

Can I be open to the unexpected today?

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Reading:

❖ “We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship,” Essays: First Series (1841)

❖ “Conversation is the way humans naturally think together.” — Margaret J. Wheatley, Turning to One Another (2002)

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

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

~B.R.

Letter 4534

The wind.

Rain.

My thoughts.

My effort.

My attitude.

❖

Dawn.

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Consider:

Can I will the right things?

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Reading:

❖ “Some things are in our control and others not.” — Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 1, trans. Elizabeth Carter

❖ “The future, of course, is under no obligation to comply.” — Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

❖ “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4533

Draw near. Draw near. Draw near.

Whom, to what?

Me to you, Lord.

Me to others.

Me to my chores.

Me to the land.

Me to my neighbor.

Me to the mountaintop.

Draw near.

❖

Me to you, Lord.

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Consider:

Can I seek to draw near to you today?

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Reading:

❖ “For near is where you’ll meet what you have wandered / far to find.” — Scott Cairns, “Draw Near,” Poetry, September 2011

❖ “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another.” — Thomas Merton, Love and Living

❖ “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.” — Psalm 145:18 (KJV)

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

~B.R.

Letter 4532

The animals need to be fed and the other morning chores await, too. These dark mornings I go without thinking from dwelling to outbuilding, task after task that will not wait.

Yesterday I walked glumly along this simple route. Today there is joy in my heart while I do the same things. Why?

Could it be that I accepted the necessity, and decided to embrace what will come anyway?

❖

If I came to love my chores, can I not also come to love anything? Calamity and woe?

Let me practice acceptance of all I see. Let me live as if I had chosen this life.

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Consider:

Can I accept?

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Reading:

❖ “The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.” — G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

❖ “The more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.” — Ross Gay, The Book of Delights

❖ “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.” — Ecclesiastes 3:13 (KJV)

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

~B.R.