Monday, July 27, 2009

As I read and reread my trip's journal, I seldom see any day that was simply easy. And sometimes more than one day felt like the hardest so far! Some stretches of the path were so intense, demanding and challenging that I needed all my concentration just to put one foot in front of the other., and I dearly hoped no one would try to strike up a conversation. But every day also had unforeseen blessings and compensations.

Arthur Paul Boers. THE WAY IS MADE BY WALKING: A PILGRIMAGE ALONG THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

When scarce resources become abundant, smart people treat them differently, exploiting them rather than conserving them. It feels wrong, but done right it can change the world.

The problem is that abundant resources...are too often treated as scarce....the funny thing about waste is that it's all relative to your sense of scarcity.

...If you're controlling a scarce resource...you have to be discriminating....But if you're tapping into an abundant resource, you can afford to take chances, since the cost of failure is so low.

...We're good at scarcity thinking--it's the 20th century organizational model. Now we have to get good at abundance thinking too.

Chris Anderson. "WASTE IS GOOD" in WIRED. excerpted from FREE:THE FUTURE OF A RADICAL PRICE.
"Where did your husband get all this?"..."Where can we buy the books he has read to prepare this stuff?"....We prayed for the ones of God's choice to be sent to us....I am certain He brought people for their own sakes but also brought a variety of people as a training-ground and as a means of developing, in the area of life conversation, that which Fran is giving in his apologetic today. Rather than studying volumes in an ivory tower separated from life, and developing a theory separated from the thinking and struggling of men, Fran has been talking for thirteen years now to men and women in the very midst of their struggles....In it all God has been giving him an education which is not possible for many people to have.

Edith Schaeffer. L'ABRI.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Haste has worry, fear and anger as close associates; it is a deadly enemy of kindness, and hence love. If this is our problem, we may be greatly helped by a day's retreat into solitude and silence, where we will discover that the world survives even though we are inactive... for the most part our hurry is really based upon pride, self-importance, fear and lack of faith, and rarely upon the production of anything of true value for anyone.
Dallas Willard. THE GREAT OMISSION.