Quotes About Contemplation

Genuine self-knowledge begins by looking at God and noticing how God is looking at us.

Paradoxically, we come to know God best not by looking at God exclusively, but by looking at God and then looking at ourselves—then looking at God, and then again looking at ourselves. This is also the way we best come to know our selves. Both God and self are mostly fully known in relationship to each other.

We do not pray so that we can get God's attention. We pray so that God will get our attention.

I accept Augustine's maxim of solvitor ambulando - things are solved by walking.' Sometimes when I walk, I think of God, and sometimes I explicitly direct worded thoughts to God. But my walking prayer is in no way limited to these times when I specifically speak to God. The whole experience is prayer when I walk with openness before God.

Teresa of Avila says that the important thing in prayer is not to think much but to love much. The head is not a bad place to start our prayer journey. But if prayer stays there too long and does not begin to sink to the heart, it will inevitably become arid and frustrating.

I caught a pebble in the moonlight.

Sometimes, when you run through all of the questions, you have an answer while other times you end up with nothing to show for your effort but the ticklish amusement of flexing your brain.

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.

There is no activity so conducive to the health and happiness of a civilized man as angling with an artificial fly. As for the uncivilized, who would care to contemplate what writhing creatures their inchoate consciences allow them to skewer upon a hook?

REFLECTING ON THE MEANING

If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.

We are so used to releasing words. We don't know what to do with them if they stay.

lying awake beside you, these thoughts run through my head.

How did my world get so small?

After tiny has tried ballerina pose, swing-batter-batter pose, pump-up-the-jam pose, and top-of-the-mountain-sound-of-music pose in the reflection of the bean, he walks us to a bench overlooking lake shore drive.

I get lost in ifs. They are always there if if if if and I should only be able to tune in to them if I'm on the right frequency. But that's the thing about me: The frequencies don't divide.

Going through the motions gives you plenty of time to examine the motions. I used to find this interesting. Now it has taken on the taint of meaninglessness.

You're quiet." "Not in my head. Never in my head.

I resent that the hours seem boring now, emptier. Going through the motions gives you plenty of time to examine the motions. I used to find this interesting. Now it has taken on the taint of meaninglessness. [...] This is the trap of having something to live for: Everything else seems lifeless.

he laughs but it's a laugh he has to think about first.

I recounted. I rechecked. Are you going to cock?

In my mind, there are two kinds of looking. There's the kind of looking that is respectful, almost magical, where you observe something without daring to touch it. And then there's the kind of looking that's like slurping a Coke.

The quiet times are the ones to hold on to.

The only elixir to pass my lips was solitude." "Be careful you don't drink too much of that. It needs to be balanced by a rich diet of fine company.