On the Challenge of Living

Dying is easy. It's living that scares me to death. —Annie Lennox, from the song Cold, on the album Diva

Two from Graham Greene

We are told to forgive our brother seventy times seven and we needn't fear God will be any less forgiving than we are, but nobody can begin to forgive the uncontrite. It is better to sin seventy times and repent each time than sin once and never repent.  

Beauty is like success: we can never love it for long. —from The Heart of the Matter

Prayer of a Man Resting

 The twilight closes round me
  My head is bowed before the Universe
  I thank thee, O Lord, for a child I knew seven years ago
  And whom I have never seen since.

  Praised be God for all sides of life, for friends, lovers, art,
  literature, knowledge, humour, politics,
and for the little red cloud
  away there in the west—
                                                             —G. K. Chesterton

The Prayer of a Man Walking

I thank thee, O Lord, for the stones in the street
I thank thee for the hay-carts yonder and for the
Houses built and half-built
That fly past me as I stride.
But most of all for the great wind in my nostrils
As if thine own nostrils were close.
                     —G. K. Chesterton

On giving thanks

You say grace before meals. All right. 

But I say grace before the concert and the opera, 

And grace before the play and pantomime, 

And grace before I open a book, 

And grace before sketching, painting, 

Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing 

And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.  

--G. K. Chesterton

On Days

The difficult thing about days is that they must be repeated. --Kathleen Norris, Acedia and Me

When life takes a turn

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. --Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)