Permit your ideas to ripen for a long time; gather, gather constantly as one cultivates flowers . . . what matter if for an extra drop [of perfume] it is necessary to use hundreds of flowers.
~Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) to Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

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What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as "play" is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. . .

For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.
~Thomas Merton
New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 297

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A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.
~Thomas Merton
Thoughts in Solitude, p. 87

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It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
~J. K. Rowling
Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, p. 333

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Author of the world's joy
Bearer of the world's pain
At the heart of all our distress
Let unconquerable gladness dwell.
~Anonymous

Illustration by Bill Russell, ©2005, San Francisco Chronicle