Whisper

"Some people will believe anything if you whisper it to them," says Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno.

A whisper is intimate.

It requires that your mouth be next to the ear of the other. Close enough to smell the other, to see the beautiful imperfections that make her human. A whisper requires one person to be still, to allow the other's muted words to float in the silence.

A whisper requires trust.

Trust to allow the other to penetrate sacred space. To chance an embrace.

Walk with me, weary traveler, to stand next to Elijah on that holy mountain, and listen to the whisper of God.

Unsatisfied

"Love seeks with fury, through the medium of the
beloved, something beyond, and since it finds it not, it
despairs."

Miguel de Unamuno

Sing your song

" We were all born to sing - let not the contrary be said. But it is not a question of being born for the purpose. The fact is that whoever was really born in spirit, and not only in the flesh, sings, and sings because he was born in the spirit; if he does not sing, it is because he was born only in the flesh."
Miguel de Unamuno

How are you going to sing your song, in flesh and in spirit, today?

Contradiction

I've been reading Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno between diaper changes and making up very cheesy songs for my daughter. He frustrated many of his readers because he usually refused to reach final conclusions. He defied labels. He saw himself as someone full of contradiction, as one who said one thing with his heart and the contrary with his head. For him, this internal conflict was the very stuff of life.

I'm still trying to figure out what God meant when he said to come to him, that he would give us rest. I believe that it is possible to live in the tension of contradiction and be at rest at the same time, but because of our nature, we swing from one extreme to the other. This conflict, says de Unamuno, unifies our lives and gives it its practical purpose.