The Episcopal Church has just elected a new Presiding Bishop, and everyone's sharing words from Thomas Merton he shared. I will too!
In a time of drastic change one can be too preoccupied with what is ending or too obsessed with what seems to be beginning.
In either case one loses touch with the present and with its obscure but dynamic possibilities. What really matters is openness, readiness, attention, courage to face risk.
You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going.
What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.
In such an event, courage is the authentic form taken by love.
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966)
