Jonathan Sacks ...

... wrote an article in the Times about Dr Ludwig Guttmann, a Jewish neurologist who set up the National Spinal Injuries Centre in the UK. He was a pioneer in using sports for rehabilitation and it accumulated into the first Paralympics in Rome in 1960. I don't think I agreed with all of the points made in this piece but its sentiments is staggering. The power of beliefs, whatever its source, from others or ourselves or God, can create an imperative in us that allows us to face another day, even if the journey is tortuous and full of thorns ... at least we can try to listen, admire the wonders or just breath in the cold crisp air.

He [God] sees that, in our souls if not our bodies, we are injured. Our spiritual muscles are atrophied through lack of use. We bear the scars of bruising experience of the world. Yet year after year we and those around us accept our condition, spiritually bed-ridden yet so sedated by a relentlessly secular society that we do not even feel the pain.

God does not let us lie there. He tells us to sit up, get out of bed and exercise our soul even though it hurts. He coaxes us out of our comfort zone. And though, we fail time and again, like Dr Guttmann, God never gives up on us until, through prayer and ritual and services to others, we come alive. In this game, there are no medals and no losers, but by taking part we learn to live and breath more deeply until, in the end, we find ourselves lifted to a greatness we never know we could achieve.

The Magus ...

... is a novel by John Fowles set in a magical remote Greek Island, with Nicolas being slowly caught up in a never-ending psychological games of changing identity and reality ... It is a minefield for quotes, but here are a few which spoke to me ... 

You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. One day you will know what that means, perhaps. And you will smile. Not against me. But with me.

Wild strawberries ...

... is a haunting film by Ingmar Bergman about a old medical professor's redemptive journey. It has several meditative stops on death, life, regrets, pains, choices and relationships, with meandering dreams and this Swedish hymn by Johan Olaf Wallin in the middle ...

Where is the friend I seek at break of day?
When night falls I still have not found Him.
My burning heart shows me His traces
I see His traces wherever flowers bloom
His love is mingled with every air.