Memo Book

As a true, nerdy, slightly dis-organized, slightly frustrated writer, I'm never without a little spiral notebook in my pocket, where I can jot down phone numbers, Emails, and ideas and quotes I want to save. One lasts me two or three months. Now, before I toss my latest one into a drawer, I want to save a few items:

What age is the person you once were that you wish you could reach across time and hug? How about slap and give a good talking to?

"A prophet is one who cuts through great tangled knots of lies." (Merton)


When i grow up I want to be a window.
(Everybody says I make a better door than a window!)

Yahweh = God-for-us
Jesus = God-with-us
Holy Spirit = God-within-us

To live in the mornings, to appreciate them and extend them
as far as possible into the day; to drink your morning tea in the afternoon.


Nouwen: "The word "passion" is derived from the Latin verb PATIOR, which means "to undergo." It is related to the word "passive."
So your passion can be something that overwhelms you,overtakes you, makes you feel out of control--- a wonderful thing in ecstatic love-making. But if anger or hatred or bias is your passion you can see why Greek and Roman philosophers wanted to put reason above emotion, a dualism which has hung heavy on all of us.

"Resentment and gratitude cannot co-exist, since resentment blocks the perception and experience of life as a gift." (more Nouwen)

I'm past the age where mirrors and photographs do me any favors.