”I live my life in widening rings”
Ranier Maria Rilke
… it may be that the soul finds it’s way by not going anywhere. The circling of nature, inner and outer, may be the best way to find our substance.
We might know ourselves better and be closer to our nature by honoring these cycles, rather than running away…

pp. 63-64, Thomas Moore, Original Self

The problem is that in shopping, buying, and possessing we are never fully satisfied, and that the feeling of emptiness after such an effort to possess indicates that for all our buying we never fully possess or fully own.

p. 22, Thomas Moore, Meditations.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have the endurance and patience you need.

We can carry the depression of life in our hearts thinking that the weight must be personal, unaware that it is the world around us that is suffering.
Not seeing the nature of our world’s sadness we feel it’s anonymity as a symptom of its presence.

p. 34, Thomas Moore, Original Self.

The future is not in the hands of Fate, but in ours.
Jean-Jules Jusserand (1855-1932)

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few.
George Washington (1732-99)

The better part of one’s life consists of friendships.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)

The status quo is a treasured thing and calls for protection. But an established habit of defensiveness is not the same as defending oneself in the presence of danger… the later is a way of keeping sane.

p. 26, Thomas Moore, Original Self

St Augustine:
See how widely I have ranged, Lord, searching for you in my memory. I have not found you outside of it.

…Confessions, St. Augustine says that we understand everything in relation to what we have remembered.

Photography has profoundly affected modern memory. … Memory is potent. It gives us depth. It ties our past from our present.

pp. 20-21, Thomas Moore, Original Self

Naïveté and cynicism mark the failure to achieve innocence.
We are born naive, but we can grow into innocence, which is something to be achieved.
With courage we may gain enough acquaintance with real life to make choices that foster our innocence while avoiding naïveté or cynicism.
Innocence, won only after years of struggle toward a deeply ethical life in a culture torn between naive ideals and cynical behavior, allows one to accept one’s self absolutely for past ignorance and stupidity and to breathe…

pp. 17-19, Thomas Moore, Original Self