Now there is something in everybody that waits for the sound of the genuine in other people … I must wait and listen for the sound of the genuine in you. I must wait. For if I cannot hear it, then in my scheme of things, you are not even present. And everybody wants to feel that everybody else knows that she is there.*
Howard Thurman

In a surprisingly short time this doctor succeeded in explaining to the man that freedom is not ‘freedom from’ but a ‘freedom to’ – a freedom to accept responsibility.**
Viktor Frankl

If we are not taking up our
responsibility, if we are not
free to do this, then can we say that
we are fully present, genuine, whether
here or there –
And if not, then
where are we?

What must we do before
we have to give back this
borrowed life?;
There is no easy, pain-free way, only
choice and practise –
Which is what life is all about
in the end.

I will not die an unlived life,
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise…^

*Brian McLaren’s Faith After Doubt;
**Viktor Frankl’s The Doctor and the Soul;
^Dawna Markova, from The Northumbria Community‘s Morning Prayer.