Christchurch Cathedral, Fredericton. February, 2007"Know yourself" is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn't mean to analyze ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will. At certain critical times in our lives it might be helpful to explore in some detail the events that led to our crises, but we make a mistake when we think we can ever completely undertand ourselves and explain the full meaning of our lives to others.
Solitude, silence and prayer are often the best ways to self-knowledge. Not because they offer solutions for the complexity of our lives but because they bring us in tough with our sacred centre, where God dwells. That sacred centre may not be analyzed. It is the place of adoration, thanksgiving and praise."
Henri Nouwen.
Bread for the Journey
Perhaps, there are few solutions, few answers to understanding the events that happen in our lives. Perhaps as Nouwen so eloquently writes, we need to find time to dwell in a place of thanksgiving with an openness to grace and commitment, accepting the idea that there may not be a clear reason behind the events, and learn to be fine with that.
I like this quote very much. Not that it gets me off the hook to figuring it all out, but that it opens a door to a place in my understanding of where I can take a look at my faulty expectations of what it is I'm searching for. Answers.......
There may not be any answers........I may have to surrender to that concept and move forward knowing there is rest in the journey in a place that is sacred.
Solitude, silence and prayer are often the best ways to self-knowledge. Not because they offer solutions for the complexity of our lives but because they bring us in tough with our sacred centre, where God dwells. That sacred centre may not be analyzed. It is the place of adoration, thanksgiving and praise."
Henri Nouwen.
Bread for the Journey
Perhaps, there are few solutions, few answers to understanding the events that happen in our lives. Perhaps as Nouwen so eloquently writes, we need to find time to dwell in a place of thanksgiving with an openness to grace and commitment, accepting the idea that there may not be a clear reason behind the events, and learn to be fine with that.
I like this quote very much. Not that it gets me off the hook to figuring it all out, but that it opens a door to a place in my understanding of where I can take a look at my faulty expectations of what it is I'm searching for. Answers.......
There may not be any answers........I may have to surrender to that concept and move forward knowing there is rest in the journey in a place that is sacred.
7 comments:
This is so true and resonates with me on so many levels.
I love your posts and appreciate your advice and your comments. Thankyou my talented bloggie friend. xx
Come on over and see "As you think..." :)
Excellent thoughts today. I really appreciate them, as I am often an individual who wants answers to everything :)
Thank you for this one...with everything that has been going on this past year it is helpful to know that there may not be any answers.
I love that picture!
I think that it is human nature to discover and to know. I think the evidence is pretty clear - we are the only species that we know of (in the entire universe!) that is capable of learning and recording what we have discovered for future generations.
However, when it comes to the personal pondering of why, on a personal or societal level, some things happen or don't, it doesn't do to analyze the minutia. Indeed, it is rarely possible in a given window of time to figure it out with any confidence. We don't have the retrospective component - we cannot accurately see history from now.
In those moments of frustration and powerlessness, I have found through trial and error - a lot of error - that it is best to accept the situation as presented, right or wrong, and take steps from a place of acceptance. Some things just happen and it is not as important to know why as it is to get through it. Reflection, by definition, happens after resolution.
Mike
Hey Shaz.......I read it this morning and thought it was very much in line with my thinking these days....glad it resonated with you too!!
Tara!! Thank you for the link on "think" I will post my 5 blog list later tonight.
Dustin......ME TOO!!
Sunny.......big questions you have been searching for answers to this year.......dealing with grief is like trying to hold water in our hands......what I appreciate about what Nouwen states is that our sacred centre is a sanctuary of sorts to just be.....maybe a place where we can visit when the energy of looking for answers needs recharging.
Mike......thanks, re: photo. I loved it too.........it makes the cathedral seem a bit daunting...it is the most predominant building on the Fredericton landscape, and only half a block from my office.
I totally agree with your reflections on reflections.....it appears that you have taken some time to reflect on it :)
You are so right.........we would NEVER have enough time to analyze things as intensely as is needed sometimes......if we did, we wouldn't have any time for LIVING!!
take care.
The choices we make in life are like analysis though; too. Each choice we make says something about us...so in a way we are being analysed without being analytical.
Uhm
Yeah
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