The Thoughts, They Are Provoked

While reading Thomas Merton this morning, a passage took hold of me:

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. … My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God’s will and God’s love — outside of reality and outside of life. And such a life cannot help but be an illusion. … The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God. … Therefore I cannot hope to find myself anywhere except in him. … Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him, I will find myself, and if I find my true self I will find him.

Much to ponder, and very timely, given my interior state these days.

I am still awaiting the arrival of the first hummingbird.  An enormous rabbit was outside my door this morning, but he didn’t give any estimated time of arrival of my winged friends.

~ S. K. Orr