Diversity ~

"The beginning of love is

 to let those we love

 be perfectly themselves, and

 not to twist them to fit our own image.
Otherwise we love only

 the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
Thomas Merton

* * *

the thorns

don't prevent us

from delighting in the roses

 

Shadowed ~

"I beg you to keep me in this silence

 so that I may learn from it
the word of your peace
and the word of your mercy
and the word of your gentleness

 to the world: and that through me

 perhaps your word of peace

 may make itself heard
where it has not been possible

 for anyone to hear it for a long time."

Thomas Merton

*  *  *

the woods are silent

in January's deepest cold

only the shadows

 foretell

*  *  *

God is within her, she will not fall;

 God will help her at break of day.

from

 Psalm 46

  

 

Departure ~

I thought to

wave farewell but 

their intent was on the leaving

 so quietly I murmured a 

note of gratitude for

 their beauty and

was still

*  *  *

“Be still:
there is no longer

 any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind

that blew away his halo

 with his cares, a lucky sea that

drowned his reputation."

Thomas Merton

Reflecting ~

April 19, 2011

*  *  *

"Our thoughts are quieter than rivers,

 Our loves are simpler than the trees,

 Our prayers deeper than the sea."

 Thomas Merton

*  *  *

the ice hasn't gone

 off of the lakes

 yet this year

*  *  *

for everything a season

Ecclesiastes 3:1