A twist on Tennyson

"I am sick of half-shadows," said the lady.
"I would banish the halfhearted,
the halfway,
the half-effort
for the wholesome,
the whole cloth,
the whole self.
Wholeheartedly, all the way, everything--
it must be wholly real,
or I want no part of it."

Dimidium animae meae

I am myself once again.
The girl of long ago and far away
is here and now.
But is there more to this story?
I must read on.
These fairy tales always have
a happy ending,
after the test.
How strange to feel whole
if I am really half.

Worth the effort

Father Gerald Vann in The High Green Hill: "Do you remember Our Lord's words to Simon: Launch out into the deep? ...religion... is not something added on to life, but an entirely new dimension into which life is plunged as you plunge into the sea. ... It means not just knowing more things than you otherwise would, but knowing something underneath all things, knowing the secret heart of things, because you know the Presence, the Love, that is in and about all things... If you plunge into this element you escape from the narrow confines of the selfish and the shallow, and move in immensity... This is the greatest adventure of all, since it is what, through God's mercy, reveals to us life in its fullness; it is worth the effort."