The way I want to live ...

I went though Raggamuffin's Gospel and looked at some of the things I underlined when I read it. I didn't realize this, but it's kind of weird that I was drawn to this book at this point, I read it last October. I read it a few months after I read Blue Like Jazz. Here are a few things I underlined:

“A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul. Preoccupations, fears, doubts, and despair are the enemies which slowly bow us toward earth and turn us into dust before death.” (pg.186)

“The ragamuffin who sees his life as a voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness that the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all.” Raggamuffin Gospel (pg.187)

"Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of Your universe. Delight me to see how Your Christ plays in ten thousand palces, lovely in limbs, and love ly in eyes not His, to the Father thought the features of men's faces. Each day enrapture me with Your marvelous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all." (Pg.103)

It's very encouraging to read these again. It makes me feel like I'm learning how to stay true to myself. Even now I'm not sure what that means, but I know this; it feels good to live from the heart even if that means risking failure. I think I'm taking hold of what got me excited last May.