wisdom distilled

ummm... so i haven't posted in almost three weeks. which is rather a long time. and i do apologize. i want to make a habit of posting once a week or so. so that you find something new when you happen to check every so often. instead of just the same ol' posts. thanks for looking again, though!

i've recently been reading a book called Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by joan chittister. and really enjoying it. i don't like writing in books (and this one i'm borrowing so have not choice!) but sometimes i just have to write down certain quotes or thoughts. and i have a small journal where i've done this with a few other books that had an impact on me. but i'm writing a lot of quotes down from this book, and wanted to share a couple.

the real monastic walks through life with a barefooted soul, alert, aware, grateful, and only partially at home. (p10)

to pray in the midst of the mundane is simply and strongly to assert that this dull and tiring day is holy and its simple labors are the stuff of God's saving presence for me now. (p31)

humble people walk comfortably in every group. no one is either too beneath them or too above them for their own sense of well-being. they are who they are, people with as much to give as to get, and they know it. (p64-5)

we need to learn that there are some things worth doing in life that are worth doing poorly, if doing them perfectly means we will have destroyed people for the sake of producing the product. (p91)

the problem is that either domination or dependence demands so much less of us than collaboration. (p115)