Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
As I read about Joseph's unwavering faith in all his trials this book came to mind. I had to read Man's Search For Meaning in a AP Psychology class my Senior year of high-school. The existentialism found in this book had already had a profound impact on me. You do not need to be a Holocaust survior, as Frankl is, to identify with man's desperate search for meaning. Man's Search For Meaning is on my list of top 25 books. A must read!
Be Here Now was my first religious book (long before the Bible). I just happened to come across it in my sister's collection of books. A few months later I meet my best friend, Kayla, who had also just stumbled upon this book in her mother's collection of books. Odd coincidence or divine fate I do not know, but the theories and teachings of Be Here Now brought the two of us closer than I had ever been to another person. It is full of metaphysical teachings and religious aphorisms complete with illustrations. Many Christians might find the teachings a bit scary because they are so full of Eastern thought and practice. However Be Here Now is more of a hippy-dippy way of illustrating Jesus awesomeness. Here is one of my favorite passages:
There's a Sikh story about a holy man who gave two men each a chicken and said:
"Go kill them where no one can see."
One guy went behind the fence and killed the chicken. The other guy walked around for two days and came back with the chicken. The holy man said:
"You did not kill the chicken."
The guy said:
"Well, everywhere I go, the chicken sees."
This passage reminds me of the sermon on the mount given by Jesus. Sin is in our heart and can not be concealed by holy actions. The foundation of our salvation must be in the heart. An unrighteous heart can not be hidden from God because everywhere he or she sees.
There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way. I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world. Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals, who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water, and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them, and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love, so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don’t want to any more,
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.
~ David Whyte ~
(House of Belonging)
for H.T.
