We must begin by frankly admitting that the first place in which to go looking for the world is not outside us but in ourselves. We are the world. In the deepest ground of our being we remain in metaphysical contact with the whole of that creation in which we are only small parts. Through our senses and our minds, our loves, needs, and desires, we are implicated, without possibility of evasion, in this world of matter and of men, of things and of persons, which not only affect us and change our lives but are also affected and changed by us…The question, then, is not to speculate about how we are to contact the world – as if we were somehow in outer space – but how to validate our relationship, give it a fully honest and human significance, and make it truly productive and worthwhile for our world.
Thomas Merton
from Love and Living
A wonderful thing is happening to me that I would like to share. I’ve noticed recently that I get much less ruffled by events in life that would have upset, angered, frustrated or frightened me before. Through prayer, meditation and lectio divina, I am getting ever so slightly in touch with that ground of being that Thomas Merton talks about. I am happy most of the time, whatever my external circumstances. Even in the midst of unpleasant events, I tend to notice the flowers, the beauty of my surroundings that I did not see before. It’s just a taste, I know, and I also know that as soon as I think I have arrived at something new and beautiful, I will be tested by being thrown off, the floodgates of past emotional turmoil overtakeing me, my neuroses grabbing my attention… and I must work to restore this peaceful feeling. But it sure is wonderful to get up in a morning and walk outside to feed my goldfish and get the paper and feel my heart rejoice at just how great it is to be alive.