When the famously distracted Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős met a colleague at a conference, Erdos asked the other man where he was from. “Vancouver,” he replied, “Oh, then you must know my good friend Elliot Mendelson,” Erdős remarked. His colleague gave him a funny look. “I am your good friend Elliot Mendelson!”
– Tom Friedman, 1,000 unforgettable Senior Moments
How to Recognize Grace
by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
It takes you by surprise
It comes in odd packages
It sometimes looks like loss
Or mistakes
It acts like rain
Or like a seed
It’s both reliable and unpredictable
It’s not what you were aiming at
Or what you thought you deserved
It supplies what you need
Not necessarily what you want
It grows you up
And lets you be a child
It reminds you you’re not in control
And that not being in control
is a form of freedom
It is this simple
Thomas Merton
Life is this simple.
We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent
and God is shining through it all the time.
This is not just a fable or a nice story
It is true.
If we abandon ourselves to God
and forget ourselves,
we see it sometimes
and we see it maybe frequently.
God shows Godself everywhere,
In everything,
In people and in things and in nature and in events.
It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and
in everything and we cannot be without God.
It is impossible.
The only thing is that we don't see it.
aimless - 2011 - with purpose