Happy New Year

"How much easier if our resolutions were a little more fun.

I will eat more bacon!
I will try that $79 bottle of single malt!"

- Brigid the blogger.....

Depression

"In traditional Christianity, the difficulties of life, the hardships are assumed as part of our fallen existence. Our bodies and our minds suffer the torments, but this is nothing but a temporary stage. The ascetic Fathers considered them as tests on par with the athletic exercises, very useful in practicing and improving the powers of the soul like patience, kindness, hope, faith and so forth. We keep our mind in hell when we consciously assume the pain of living in a fallen world, when we learn from this passing agony to avoid the even greater torture of an eternity without Christ. But there is hope in this suffering because Christ himself has suffered them first and has opened for us a way out of despair, a way out of pain, a way out of death. Christ is the well of life, the bread of eternity, and the only Man we need."

A Cure for Depression from St. Silouan the Athonite

Hurray For Our Side

"Everyone always sees themselves on the side of the angels, no one wants to believe they're the problem instead of the solution. Democrats think they're saving us from evil Republicans, Republicans think they're saving us from idiot Democrats. The truth, unfortunately, is that there is no one to save us from ourselves."
- gearbox123, blog commenter at www.the-american-interest.com

Truth In Love

Truth in love is difficult.

Truth in anger, truth in bitterness, truth in cynicism; all much easier, and lazier.

It is part of a bigger challenge:  being honest, brave, and diligent without being an annoying toxic asshole.

Love hurts.