fall

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

We live in a time when the greatest form of courage is to act as if our lives made a difference.

Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.

A Japanese friend explained to me... "the plum [is] for courage because the plum puts forth blossoms while the snow is still on the ground."

Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace that God gives us to control our fears, not to oust them.

A blessing of fear in these years is that it invites us to become the fullness of ourselves. It comes to us in the nighttime of the soul to tell us to rise to new selves in fresh and exciting ways—for our sake, of course, but for the sake of the rest of the world, as well.

At the bottom the only courage that is demanded of us is to have courage for the most strange, the most singular, and the most inexplicable that we may encounter. That humankind has in this sense been cowardly, has done life endless harm; the whole so-called "spirit-world," death, all those things that are so akin to us, have by daily parrying been so crowded out of life that the senses with which we could have grasped them are atrophied. To say nothing of God.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

It is as if God planted a great big kiss in the middle of our spirit and all the wounds, doubts, and guilt feelings were healed at the same moment. The experience of being loved by the Ultimate Mystery banishes every fear.

Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing make you afraid;
All things pass;
Yet God is unchanging.
Patience
Is enough for everything.
You who have God
Lack nothing.
God alone is sufficient.