Distance
What is most close, most intimate, most present, often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance…. Only in retrospect do I realize that something very important has taken place. Isn’t this true of all really important events in life? When I am together with someone I love very much we seldom talk about our relationship. The relationship, in fact, is too central to be a subject of talk. But later, after we have separated and write letters, we realize how much it means to us, and we even write about it.
- Henri Nouwen, The Genesse Diary
Common to Man
Anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal, the most hidden is the most public, and the most solitary is the most communal.
- Henri Nouwen
