Thankful

"The memory of an absent person shines in the deepest recesses of the heart, shining the more brightly the more wholly its object has vanished: a light on the horizon of the despairing, darkened spirit; a star gleaming in our inward night."
— Victor Hugo

Bonfire

“One shining, incalculable asset remained;;the tight, warm friendship of men together in misfortune.   While we remained together hope could not be quenched.  The whole, in terms of spirit and resolution, was greater than the sum of its parts.”  –Slavomir Rawicz

Family

"To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life."
— Victor Hugo

A Walk

“All human beings have their otherness and it is that which cries out to the heart.”
― Elizabeth Goudge

Extension

“He had discovered that the choice between self-love or love of something other than self offers no escape from suffering either way, it is merely a choice between two woundings, of the pride or of the heart.”
― Elizabeth Goudge

Tracks

“Because of course she had known she must go. She always did the thing because in obedience lay the integrity that God asked of her. If anyone had asked her what she meant by integrity she would not have been able to tell them but she had seen it once like a picture in her mind, a root going down into the earth and drinking deeply there. No one was really alive without that root.”
― Elizabeth Goudge

Antique

“Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
― Alfred Tennyson

Our Friend

“Jesus.. says, ‘Let go of your complaints, forgive those who loved you poorly, step over your feelings of being rejected, and have the courage to trust that you won’t fall into an abyss of nothingness but into the safe embrace of a God whose love will heal all your wounds.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

Jordan and Carolyn

“This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the
garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated”

–T.S. Eliot

Woodsman

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.   Not going all the way, and not starting.”   –Siddhrtha Gautama