Our knowledge, if we allow it to be transformed within us, turns into capacity for life-serving human deeds.*
M. C. Richards

The experience of ego, and of ego-identity, is based on the concept of having. I have “me” as I have all other things which this “me” owns.  Identity of “I” or self refers to the category of being and not of having.  I am “I” only to the extent to which I am alive, interested, related, active, and to which I have achieved an integration between my appearance – to others and/or to myself – and the core of my personality.**
Erich Fromm

Life is hard,^ but
it can also be
beautiful –
This is the bittersweetness of which
Susan Cain writes in her latest book:
And there it is again:
the oldest problem, the deepest dream –
the pain of separation,
the desire for reunion.^^
Whilst humans are able to point to many fine achievements,
The greatest of all may be how we make available
who we are and
what we have –
For each is more than enough – for healing
the brokenhearted, for gathering
the outcasts, and for binding
one another’s wounds.*^

*M. C. Richards’ Centering;
**Erich Fromm’s The Revolution of Hope;
^The first of Richard Rohr‘s five elemental truths;
^^Susan Cain’s Bittersweet;
*^Psalm 147:2-3.