Doug

“Brilliant, windy day—cold. It is fall. It is the kind of day in October that Pop used to talk about. I thought about my grandfather as I came up through the hollow, with the sun on the bare persimmon trees, and a song in my mouth. All songs are, as it were, one’s last. I have been grateful for life.”
― Thomas Merton, Year with Thomas Merton, A: Daily Meditations from His Journals - A Spiritual Guide for Reflection, Gratitude, and Self-Care in the Pursuit of a Mindful Christian Life

“Travel by water was often faster, smoother, more efficient, and in many circumstances safer and more convenient than overland travel, which presents obstacles and threats from animals, people, terrain, and even the conventions and institutions of shoreside society.”
― Lincoln Paine, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

“the mystery we have met in life overcomes us in death. The mystery that awaits us beyond death is but the antiphonal response to the mystery that anticipated our birth.”
― Wallace M. Alston Jr., The Power to Comprehend with All the Saints: The Formation and Practice of a Pastor-Theologian

“when we say the Apostles’ Creed we are reminded that life itself is founded on trust. Christians in the ancient church went naked to the waters of baptism. The second birth is like the first. We are totally dependent. We bring nothing with us except life. The birth cry of baptism is the threefold “I believe” of the creed, a cry of total trust in the Triune God.”
― Benjamin Myers, The Apostles' Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism