Happy The Man Who Lives Long Enough

The Whole Universe Was Stilled As If Listening For A Voice. For The Space Of One Heartbeat There Was Peace On Earth. For One Fraction Of A Moment There Was No Deed Of Violence Wrought On Earth, No Hatred, No Fire, No Whirlwind, No Pain, No Fear. Existence Rested Against The Heart Of God, Then Sighed And Journeyed Again.

Could You Understand The Meaning Of Light If There Were No Darkness To Point The Contrast? Day And Night, Life And Death, Love And Hatred, Since None Of These Things Can Have Any Being At All Apart From The Existence Of The Other, You Can No More Separate Them Than You Can Separate The Two Sides Of A Coin.

There Was A Good Deal To Be Said, Hilary Decided, For Middle Age And Infirmity. The Years In Which One Demanded Much Of Life Were Left Behind, Together With The Bitterness Of Not Getting What One Wanted. One's Values, Too, Were Altered. Gifts That Once One Took For Granted, Sunshine And Birdsong, Freedom From Pain, Sleep And One's Daily Bread, Seemed Now So Extraordinarily Precious.

All We Are Asked To Bear We Can Bear.

To Be Sorry And Glad Together Is To Be Perceptive To The Richness Of Life.