Well, I have had enough of rationalizing. You do not know what is going to happen, so you cannot justify your actions based on speculation. For instance, “I know you are going to destroy this, so let me take you to court and sue you for ten million before you do.” Yet all of this stuff that has happened and been proven goes unpunished and overlooked? Whenever a person says to you that they are as innocent as lambs in all concerning money, look well after your own money, for they are dead certain to collar it, if they can. Whenever a person proclaims to you, “In Worldly matters I am a child,” you consider that that person is only crying off from being held accountable, and that you have got that person’s number, and it is Number One. In the cold courts of justice, the honorable heads demand oaths, and holy writ proofs; but in the warm halls of the heart one single, untestified memory’s spark shall suffice to enkindle such a blaze of evidence, that all the corners of conviction are as suddenly lighted up as a midnight city burning building, which on every side whirls its reddened brands.

 To know your own happiness, and that it is now, nor to leave it to after-reflection to look back upon the preferable past with a heavy and self-accusing heart, that you did not choose it when you might have chosen it, is all that is necessary to complete your felicity. God deadens all other sensations, or rather absorbs them all in the love of Him. The gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is remembered. The growth of the mind is the widening of consciousness…each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. Love comes when you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable, you may open your heart to love. When a little girl performs for the benefit of a paternal audience, hoping to gain the father’s attention, his interest, his good humor, his affection, she may dance, sing, or dress herself in pretty clothes, and the father will no doubt be pleased and will admire this slightly seductive feminine display with warm benevolence. However, what will a little boy do to match this performance? Shall he give a corresponding display of manly strength and athletic prowess? Will it produce the same affectionate reaction?

 Clearly it might make the father happy; but even more clearly, it is less likely to, human vanity being what it is. For just as the daughter’s performance contains an element of flattery, so the son’s admiring emulation, on balance it requires more emotional maturity as he does that of the daughter. If the father lacks this maturity, or if for any reason the son feels uncertain of his tolerance and love, the only role left open to him if he wishes somehow to complement his sister’s performance, is to play the role of buffoon and make his father laugh. If his sister does a graceful dance, he will do a comic one. Thus, he will give the father pleasure without challenging him in anyway.  The only art of living is to confine our wishes within the limits of our circumstances. It is not hard to make a decision when you know what your values are. Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. When men or women are about to commit, or to sanction the commission of some injustice, it is not uncommon for them to express pity for the object either of that or some parallel proceeding, and to feel themselves, at the time, quite virtuous and moral, and immensely superior to those who express no pity at all. Who shall put his finger on the work of justice, and say, “It is there”? Justice is like the Kingdom of God—it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning.

The Winchester Mystery House

 After the death of her newborn daughter and husband, Mrs. Winchester attends a séance which leads to tragic consequences and a tragic legacy. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/