"One of the sources of futile struggle in the spiritual life is the assumption that one has to become a person without problems, which is, of course, impossible."
Thomas Merton - A Vow of Conversation
How nice to encounter clear thinkers along the way. Those rare few who help me crawl out of my self-made muddle. Merton is one of those "this is the way, walk ye in it" figures for me.
That little snippet of his points to a freedom of spirit we crave and typically grub along without. I have problems. I'm frequently wrong and expend a ton of energy hiding my unconfessed and all too frequent goofs. I'm that big piece of doggie doo-doo my little world revolves around and will always be a loser in the spirituality department because I'm almost always wrong.
But I may be on the verge of something.
Abandoning the need to always be right is liberating . Ditching that itch liberates because the illusion of perfection and being always correct is just that - an illusion, a phantom.
When I choke down the truth serum that my sometimes colossal error is a large part of my make-up, the blinders recede a bit and I inch toward the truth. Though not fully arrived, I begin to see reality from where I actually am, causing me to simply keep my head down and "press toward the mark." Truth, even truth about self, is at once light and airy, winsome, disinfecting and liberating.
"The truth shall set you free." No joke.
Thomas Merton - A Vow of Conversation
How nice to encounter clear thinkers along the way. Those rare few who help me crawl out of my self-made muddle. Merton is one of those "this is the way, walk ye in it" figures for me.
That little snippet of his points to a freedom of spirit we crave and typically grub along without. I have problems. I'm frequently wrong and expend a ton of energy hiding my unconfessed and all too frequent goofs. I'm that big piece of doggie doo-doo my little world revolves around and will always be a loser in the spirituality department because I'm almost always wrong.
But I may be on the verge of something.
Abandoning the need to always be right is liberating . Ditching that itch liberates because the illusion of perfection and being always correct is just that - an illusion, a phantom.
When I choke down the truth serum that my sometimes colossal error is a large part of my make-up, the blinders recede a bit and I inch toward the truth. Though not fully arrived, I begin to see reality from where I actually am, causing me to simply keep my head down and "press toward the mark." Truth, even truth about self, is at once light and airy, winsome, disinfecting and liberating.
"The truth shall set you free." No joke.
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