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The week’s question
When did you last choose to rest while others urged you forward?
I ask this because I have seen heavy birds soar in graceful circles “only for pleasure,” and I wonder if you too can find such stillness without fear of falling behind.
“But that side of our existence whose direction is towards the infinite seeks not wealth, but freedom and joy.”
Friend, before the sun goes down, let us put down the cup we hold so tightly and ask ourselves if we are drinking from it or merely guarding its weight. Do not fill your hands with more than you can carry, for the earth is wide enough for what you truly need to live. Turn your face from the endless chase of things that never satisfy, and look instead at…
“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”
I sat alone with a bowl of rice and saw the truth in this hunger. We rush to serve others while our own bellies remain empty, forgetting that kindness cannot flow from a distracted spirit. One must pause to eat, to feel the warmth of life within, before one can truly offer love to the world.
“Grieve not for them, for they are nothing worth: And though a world in thy possession be, Joy not, for worthless are the things of earth.”
You carry burdens you do not own and chase shadows that flee your grasp. Stop pretending that external success will bring peace or that loss demands your tears. Look inward instead and find what remains when the stage is empty. Do this now before another hour wastes itself on a lie.
“Wilt not thou run to do that, which thy nature doth require?”
I have watched men neglect their duty while chasing fleeting pleasure, forgetting the work for which they were born. You too must ask yourself if you are living as a rational being or merely following your lowest urges. Run now to the task before you and let it be done without complaint.
“Things seen are not apprehended by the sense of hearing.”
“He kneads you until you are pliant; And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.”
I sat alone in my kitchen while the dough rose and fell under my hands, feeling the quiet struggle of the grain becoming soft enough to yield. The oven was hot with a holy hunger, waiting not to destroy but to transform this humble mass into something worthy of offering. We eat only to remember that we were once wild earth, now made ready for the table of the divine.
“We call ours a utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any single thing.”
They value only what they can measure, forgetting that water cleanses and fire purifies while earth is our mother. I saw this truth when my own hands were bound in iron yet still touched the soil. Before nightfall, look at a stone and feel its warmth rather than counting its weight.
“Rejoicing in that tumult of the senses wherein the world forgetteth Thee its Creator, and becometh enamoured of Thy creature, instead of Thyself.”
“I am like any other body.”
“I estimate three leading sources and formative stamps to my own character, now solidified for good or bad.”
“Would have given anything.”
I sat at my table that evening with my wife and our little girl, hoping to restore her health with simple food and quiet care. Yet when she fell worse, my heart turned heavy, and I found myself willing to spend any sum of money to secure a nurse. The cost of keeping a child alive is not merely in coin, but in the anxiety that gnaws at the stomach…
“I observed that the pond was remarkably smooth, so that it was difficult to distinguish its surface; though it no longer reflected the bright tints of October, but the sombre November colors of the surrounding hills.”
I sat in my boat on a quiet afternoon when the wind had ceased and the air hung heavy with mist after days of rain. The sky above was a uniform gray, matching the…
“The violences we put upon ourselves to escape love are often more cruel than the cruelty of those we love.”
In answer to Nietzsche’s question
Funny how this still applies perfectly today vis a vis to 19th century Europe.
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”
Commander, do not charge where your enemy holds his ground like a mountain; turn your flank instead and let your strength flow where it will cut deepest. Ask yourself if your current path seeks a clash of force or a quiet opening for victory without bloodshed.
“If you embrace your child or your wife, that you embrace a mortal—and thus, if either of them dies, you can bear it.”
“When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships, filial sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.”
I saw that love for family grows only when the bond is broken. I saw that duty to lord arises only when the land fails. Do not seek these virtues as your goal. Instead, tend the quiet ground where they may naturally rise without your name upon them.
“You have looked askance at somebody because he has spoken slightingly of your talents; will you apply this rule to yourself?”
Yesterday a young man in the forum mocked my silence during the debate, calling me old and slow. I felt the heat rise in my chest, a sharp sting that demanded an answer. I opened my mouth to correct him, to show him how wrong he was about my mind. My face grew red, my voice trembled with the need to defend myself. I spoke for a long time, louder…
“They feel that they have no strength in themselves; that they are incapable of coming to God; and that if God does not come to them, they can have no communion with Him.”
I once tried to climb the mountain alone, believing my own will could reach the summit without aid. My legs trembled until I fell into the dust, realizing my effort was merely a pretense of strength. The…