It takes such gasping several times in our life to eventually rest in a bright sadness: We are sad because we now hold the pain of the larger world, and we wish everyone enjoyed what we now enjoy; but there is brightness because life is somehow—on some levels—still “very good,” just as Genesis promised. Merton again stated this best, as he concluded my favorite of his books: “It does not matter much [now], because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. … We are [now] invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful
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