You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that, and cling to it through thick and thin.

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.

We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.

Spring seems far off, impossible, but it is coming. Already there is dusk instead of darkness at five in the afternoon; already hope is stirring at the edges of the day.

Poets and monks... We're both sort of peripheral to the world.

When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?