This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us

How boring to spend the whole of my vocational energy trying to figure out if I am choosing the right work. It is of much greater interest to me to talk about how I’m going to do the work with integrity. How am I going to protect dignity as I work? And what truths are calling out to me as I work?

It is more remembrance than revelation, more maybes than certainty.

It took time for me to realize that it was not that my family wanted me happy; it was that they wanted me close. They didn’t want for me the kind of sadness that alienates you.

Even those of us who are not prone to forgetting need this. Sometimes, it is only in the hands of another that a memory can be fully encountered.

psychological wisdom explains, it is difficult to control the targets of our numbing.

we tend to assign a lesser social value to those whose “doing” cannot be enslaved into a given output. We should look to them as sacred guides out of the bondage of productivity. Instead, we withhold social status and capital, and we neglect to acknowledge that theirs is a liberation we can learn from.

Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness,

If you want to decipher who you are, it’s good to begin with the question of what stories have been told about you. Do this not because they are true but because they will help you locate the mirages and their origins. They will help you rend mask from flesh. They may also help you grab hold of something real.

Wonder includes the capacity to be in awe of humanity, even your own. It allows us to jettison the dangerous belief that things worthy of wonder can only be located on nature hikes and scenic overlooks. This can distract us from the beauty flowing through us daily. For every second that our organs and bones sustain us is a miracle. When those bones

When you spend most of your days demanding life from your mind, its movement can become a nuisance to any attempt to truly rest.