tears

It is impossible for one to live without tears
who considers things exactly as they are.

-St. Gregory of Nyssa

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7 thoughts on “tears”

I do not know this quote….I think I liked Gregory of Nyssa (writing that makes me think he’s on facebook! Forgive the ridiculous digression.) or the idea of him, from the time I was in high school and reading a lot of Thomas Merton who wrote often mentioning the Fathers of the Church. Perhaps I am thinking of The Sign of Jonas or The Seven Story Mountain.

How very long ago that was……I was in high school from 59-63 and so I get to say I went to high school in the 50s….The early 60s felt like an extension of that, very much.

This is a good quote, I think, but how difficult it is to consider things “exactly as they are”.

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Be well!

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A profound sentiment, to be sure, by St. Gregory (my son’s middle name by the way.) Individual perception being as subjective as it is, I also question just how objective one can be about the exact nature of things.

After a lifetime of riding the crests and contemplating innumerable dark nights of the soul, I find that I can no longer live peacefully with the sturm und drang of the material world. I seek that “peace that passes understanding” and find that the Orthodox Church’s emphasis on not engaging logismoi, the endless chatter of the monkey brain, very helpful in becoming more quiet. The thoughts that pop in and out of my head have very little eternal value and I try to keep that foremost.

Thanks, Gretchen, for your thought-provoking sharing.

Love, Prisca.

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