Only Now

I've walked the paths laid out for me.

I've worn the letters pinned to me.

I've smiled and nodded pleasantly.

I've borne the cruelties dutifully,

While trying to live honorably.

And only now I start to see

How beautifully it all has worked

To lead me to myself,

Beyond myself

To where I need to be--

To the One who fashioned me.

To live life freely, truly,

To live as humbly as a child:

Only now do I begin to see.
 
(Originally posted on January 14, 2009)

God's gifts

“God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.”

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Relationships

"Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied. Only those relationships matter."

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Hero

“And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can.”

--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Motto

Purificatus non consumptus (Purified, not consumed)

--crest of the Washbourne family, and of Washburn University where I am currently a student in Legal Studies

In Caritate Non Ficta: Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette

In Caritate Non Ficta: Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette

The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Candlemas Day)

"An old man was carrying a Child;  but the Child was the old man's Lord."

-Saint Augustine, from the Mass of February 2