I hold my face between my hands
no I am not crying

I hold my face between my hands
to keep my loneliness warm
two hands protecting
two hands nourishing
two hands to prevent

my soul from leaving me
in anger

The ultimate leave-taking is the leaving of God for God. – Meister Eckhart

“Until you have cried, you don’t know God.” St. Ephrem.

I do not have to react. It is useless. There are much better things to do. And to react is to become implicated – to become a prisoner of the same nonsense that I am compelled to condemn. Do not be compelled.

– Thomas Merton, journal entry, 05.18.59

“You are accepted!”… accepted by that which is greater than you and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask the name now, perhaps you will know it later. Do not try to do anything, perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything, do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact you are accepted.

– Paul Tillich

We sing a slow hymn at my church, St. Andrew, that goes, “God has smiled on me, He has set me free.” For us to acknowledge that we have been set free from toxic dependency, from crippling obsession or guilt, that we have been graced with the ability finally to forgive someone, is just plain astonishing. You can’t have gotten from where you were – gripped by anxiety, tiny with fear – to come through to freedom, for God’s sake. To have been so lost that you felt abducted, to feeling found, returned, and set back onto your feet: Oh my God, thankyouthankyouthankyou. Thank you. Thanks.

– Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow