Another Page in the Book of Life

“Perhaps the book of life, in the end, is the book of what one has lived, and if one has lived nothing, one is not in the book of life.” –Thomas Merton

 

Wow.  I mean really that is all I can say about this quote from the quiet monastic voice of Merton.  Short and sweet his phrasing is nothing short of an exhortation to live fully and to live engaged in all that surrounds you. 

 

This may seem to be a contradiction these words coming from a hermit but the exhortation to live, really live is no paradox.  Merton was engaged in the natural world that surrounded him, every single day.  With unyielding constancy Merton was engaged fully in the deepest pursuit of the holy. His was a mind never at rest.  From his hermitage he lived so far beyond the limitations of most of our minds.

 

What is my book about?  What pages have I written?  Is my book something that anyone else would want to read?  Good questions all.