When you come to a place where you have to left or right, go straight ahead.

The demon of acedia -- also called the noonday demon -- is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. . . . He makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and . . . he instills in the heart of the monk a hatred for the place, a hatred for his very life itself.

Wariness about change is a kind of prairie wisdom.

If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.

Traversing a slow page, to come upon a lode of the pure shining metal is to exult inwardly for greedy hours.

Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.

I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers.