There is no sense of absence where there has been no sense of presence. What makes absence hurt, what makes it ache, is the memory of what used to be there but is no longer. Absence is the arm flung across the bed in the middle of the night, the empty space where a...
Life is so ironic. It takes sadness to know happiness, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence.
Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence....
Privilege isn't the presence of perks and benefits. It's the absence of obstacles and barriers. That's a lot harder to notice. If you have a hard time recognizing your privileges, focus on what you don't have to go through. Let that fuel your empathy and action.
Staying home to "watch church" is like staying home from a friend's wedding to watch the ceremony virtually. And keeping your wedding gift with you. Your presence and solidarity and love and hugs and eye contact and singing are needed. It's not just about passively...
Every year, Holy Saturday hits me hard with the memory that the silence of God isn’t the absence of God.
We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.
Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that you don't recover. Instead, you learn to incorporate their absence and memories into your life and channel your emotional energy toward others, and eventually, your grief will walk beside you instead of consuming you.
Not only Christians but all Americans subscribe to the notion that "all people are created equal." But how many feel the monstrosity of inequality? I'm thinking not only of racial inequality, but also of today's excess of wealth and poverty, the absence of affordable...
Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.