Day 44 Community

"après la guerre," Brian Kershisnik

“We may not Choose our Lives. Instead of accepting the relations, friends, and neighbours that God sends us in the course of our lives, the devotee of Beauty chooses for himself and cares to know only those people whose views of life are the same as his own.  So, with regard to places, he cannot tolerate for a moment things which are unsightly and unlovely, so he does not go where working people and poor people have to live. In the end, he misses the happiness to which the Beauty Sense was meant to minister. For happiness comes of effort, service, wide interests, and last and least, of enjoyment….”
 
                                                   *

                             “We all want company…”
 
                                                   *
 
                    “…no one is ever happy by himself.”
 
                                                   *
 
       “The circle of love widens until it embraces all men.”
 
                                                   *
 
           “…it is so much easier to be good in company;”
 
                                                   *

“…it is no dream that we are all brethren, and must therefore suffer from any seclusion from the common life.”  

                                                  *

“We are sure that people go on existing; and how they do so, we must trust to our Father, because He is our Father and theirs.”
 
                                                  *
 
“‘The teacher wanted us to write what we thought the meaning of life was once.’

            ‘What did you write?’

‘Company.’

Grandpa closed his eyes.

             ‘That’s the best answer I’ve heard.’”
 
                                                  ~ Fredrik Bachman
 
 
Examen: Have I ever felt unwelcome or other?  What small thing can I do to strengthen belonging today?

~~~~~~~
We may not Choose:  Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:54–55 Bk.I.
We all want company....: Mason, 4:73 Bk.I.
...no one is ever: 4:81 Bk.II.
The circle of love: 4:82 Bk.I.
...it is so much:  Charlotte M. Mason, Formation, 5:108.
...it is no dream: 5:108.
We are sure: 5:317.
The teacher wanted: Fredrik Backman, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella, Translation edition (New York: Atria Books, 2016).

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​Day 44 Community meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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