Category: Words of Wisdom

The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still. – Exodus 14, WEBBE

Sometimes, we don’t need great explanations, profound truths or deep insights. What we need are just simple things to hold on to and to help us make it through another day.

Sometimes the aroma of a freshly brewed coffee will do. Sometimes a song that soothes the soul. At other times, it’s a book that calls to be read again, the innocent smile of a child, or a cozy blanket to snuggle into.

There will be a time for big things and big thoughts. But for now, I guess that it’s enough to breathe.

“May your love for me be
like
the scent of the evening sea

drifting in
through a quiet window

so i do not have to run
or chase or fall
… to feel you

all i have to do
is
breathe.”
-Sanober Khan

To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization. – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Some days are neither happy nor sad. In those days, our eyes are not filled with tears nor our hearts filled with too much happiness. We are not fighting a battle. We are not facing a storm.

In those days, it seems all we could do is wait and let time pass us by. We do our chores, we show up, we carry on even though we feel whatever it is that we do won’t make a big difference at all.

But even in a song, we must remember that beyond the low and the high notes, there are spaces of silence in between. Spaces to take a deep breath until we can raise our voice again, until it is time to sing.

Many times, what truly makes a difference in our lives are the many spaces in between, spaces of waiting and of being faithful to the work at hand. Days such as these when we silently go about our lives, holding on to memories of joy, to hopes of dreams yet to come, and to the love that gives us strength to carry on.

…a time to tear,
and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence,
and a time to speak;
a time to love,
and a time to hate;
a time for war,
and a time for peace.
-Ecclesiastes 3, WEBBE

This Is The Great Pause In Between

This is the great pause in between work and play
the great silence between a song, and another song

This is Selah, this is s p a c e
This is the point at which the earth neither slumbers nor wakes up

This is the great pause in between crying and laughing
between getting sick and getting well again

This is the time of waiting
without expecting for something soon to come

This is the space between heartbeats
between a heartbreak and a new-found love

This moment is silence
but this is not worth nothing

Everything is stored in this very moment
where everything else proceeds,
and where every great dream is born.

“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come.” – Song of Songs 2:10, New American Bible

Love on earth will always be a struggle. Even with a perfect Spouse, one does not get away with tears, for the imperfect one will often misunderstand the other. How does one ever begin to understand the Lover who gives and gives no matter the failings of the other?

Oftentimes, all we need to do is to accept everything with love and we cannot even do it! We feel ashamed, we back out, we focus on our woes instead of focusing on the One who loves us. Do we think that love is always counting the cost and demanding of us something for everything we are given?

Far from it! Love does not count its gifts. Love is happy in giving, and it is grieved whenever we block its course, thinking it is always an exchange, something we should deserve.

If I really want to deserve love, I need only to recognize its generosity, its kindness, its desire to satisfy the beloved. I must not lift myself high, but allow myself to bow down low. I am loved. My Lover desires to bestow light upon my darkness, joy upon all my misery, beauty upon all the unloveliness I see in me. Is it not enough to lean with trust and to receive with gladness all that is given me?

Be comforted, for He Whom you have chosen as your Spouse has every imaginable perfection; but— dare I say it?— He has one great infirmity too—He is blind! And there is a science about which He knows nothing— addition! These two great defects, much to be deplored in an earthly bridegroom, do but make ours infinitely more lovable. Were it necessary that He should be clear-sighted, and familiar with the science of figures, do you not think that , confronted with our many sins, He would send us back to our nothingness? But His Love for us makes him actually blind. – St. Therese of Lisieux

“My daughter…why do you not tell me about everything that concerns you, even the smallest details? Tell Me about everything, and know that this will give Me great joy.” I answered, “But You know about everything, Lord.” And Jesus replied to me, “Yes I do know; but you should not excuse yourself with the fact that I know, but with childlike simplicity talk to Me about everything, for my ears and heart are inclined towards you, and your words are dear to Me.” – Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in my Soul

Someone is listening to your prayer. Someone who knows you. Someone who cares for you and watches over you.

You may not know it yet, you may not even believe, for in His silence you may think He isn’t there.

But He hears. He catches your every tear.

And He weeps with you. With His whole heart He goes with you where all is painful and dark.

And when everything seems too heavy and impossible to bear, just when you feel you cannot make it through, He carries you. Silently but powerfully, He bears the burden you cannot bear. Your wounds become His, and by His wounds, you are healed.

You number my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book? – Psalm 56:8, WEB

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What is beautiful? It is something which words rarely could explain, but which tears so often reveal so easily. Tears that come from the heart, and the heart, which alone can see.

Beauty moves us, changes us, redeems us. It allows us to have a glimpse of Him from whom all goodness could ever come.

We can’t help but be still when beauty comes to us. We have to be still. Beauty moves us, but beauty also captures our soul in a moment where everything is sacred, and where we want everything to remain as they are. They are perfect as they are!

It is beauty alone that gives us true humility, because before it, all other lights fade away and we remain in awe and in gratitude for Him who has allowed us to see His face.

Bless the LORD, my soul…
He covers himself with light as with a garment.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot.
He walks on the wings of the wind.
He makes his messengers winds,
and his servants flames of fire.
-Psalm 104, WEB