heights & depths

"And so, a curse settled down around all Eve's children.

The harmony was gone & thorns began to grow,

for part of the curse was the prick of the thorn.

But God didn't take away the rose.

Since then, beauty and pain have grown in our world

side by side.

Suffering and joy exist on the same vine,

and tears can taste either bitter or sweet."

-Steven James-

Joy comes to those who in a sense forget themselves and become totally aware of the other.

-Mother Teresa-

"Maybe girls, with their tears and laughter, were getting more out of life. Shattering! He checked himself: showing one's emotions was not the thing; having them was.

What is beauty but something that is responded to with emotion? If the best of life is, in fact, emotional, then one wanted the highest, purest emotions. And that meant joy.

So, if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have, if he could find it, a great love. But in the books, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain.

Still...

still, the joy would be worth the pain-- if indeed they went together.

If there were a choice- and he suspected there was- a choice between the heights and depths, and on the other hand some sort of safe cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths.

He had had, was having, all the sorrow there was. And yet, the joy was worth the pain. Even now he reaffirmed that long past choice."

-A Severe Mercy-

"We have loved the stars too fondly

to be fearful of the night."

"Joy must be one of the pivots of our life. It is the token of a generous personality. Sometimes it is also a mantle that clothes a life of sacrifice and self-giving. A person who has this gift often reaches high summits. He or she is like a sun in a community."

-Mother Teresa-

"As the fire scorches the wood, it burns away all the natural saps and juices proper to the wood. At first the wood is charred and ugly. Each time it is thrust into the fire, the purging process continues. Finally, when all the natural juices that have been resisting the action of the fire are burnt away, the wood takes on the qualities of the fire itself. And glows.

God does not leave us until He has broken our hearts and our bones."

-Brennan Manning-

But the path of least resistance wasn't meant for me to take,

I'm learning who I am

On the way.