No bond unites congenial hearts more firmly than that of a common great aim. It is more useful to go through life with common sense than with all the taste in the World. If you meet each development of every question in the most natural and reasonable manner—presupposing that you possess that highest attribute of civilization, common sense—no question will ever resolve itself into a problem. And difficulties usually disappear as the range of vision contracts. We require a spiritual vision that values and includes the central playing-field where our humanity expresses itself—relationship.  #RyanPhillippe 1 of 8

The heart is the organ of imagination. Let us always have men ready to give the loving pains of a life to the faithful in representing of commonplace things—men who see beauty in these commonplace things, and delight in showing how kindly the light of Heaven falls on them. Know that what appears to be love for an ‘other’ is really love of Self [unconditioned, impersonal being] because ‘other’ does not exist. All love is love of Self. We are one. Love does indeed come from beyond us, from pure being, from the absolute source that shines through us and those we love.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 8

Valuing the human domain per se, with its possibilities for creative expression, relational intimacy, and passionate aliveness, has been a major emphasis in America. To fully inhabit the human realm is to live in dialogue. Dialogue is something much more profound than mere verbal exchange. Its essential characteristic is meeting and honoring the otherness of the other—as sanctified (blessed) other—which allows a mutual alchemy to take place. There are times when we must act as though life were equally sweet in any company. Keeping witty company sharpeneth the apprehension.  #RyanPhillippe 3 of 8

The basic movement of the life of dialogue is the turning toward the other…accepting with one’s essential being another person in his particularity. Dialogue also means our communication with God. Every person born into this World represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. It is the duty of every person…to know and consider…that there has never been anyone like him in the World, for if there had been someone like him, there would have been no requirement for him to be in the World.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 8

Every single person is a new thing in the World, and is called upon to fulfill their particularity in this World. Every person’s foremost task is the actualization of their unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, be it even the greatest, has already achieved. I am me, this is my personality that has this set of traits, these preferences, this history. To be yourself means to find the deepest laws of your being, to let your life find and carve out its true path, and to bring forth your innate gifts and qualities in time, through your interchange with life in all aspects.  #RyanPhillippe 5 of 8

I have to appreciate myself as a being-in-process, continually uncovering my true gifts and embodying them in the flowing current of time, relatedness, and action. This is how we discover our true person. Only when I am my true self can I be intimate, and relate in an intimate way to other people and to life itself. So to be fully engaged in relationship, we have to step into and inhabit our human form—the person. To handle the fear of loss, we have to look at what purpose the external person or object serves in our life.  What emotional requirement is being fulfilled? What emotions would arise were we to lose the object or the person?  #RyanPhillippe 6 of 8

Love, companionship, devotion, amusement, and diversion can be acknowledged in our relationships with the people or objects in our lives. We feel that what has become important or comforting to us is permanent attachment. Loving and living go together. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in them.  When one is not lovable and loving, them one experiences a living death. So the pain of lonely unlovableness haunts us as the most excruciating pain of all and the warmth of a caring love heals most human pain. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 8

My son was bedridden, and felt like he was dying, after hurting his back. A demanding person, he always complained about never getting enough of anything. Consequently, I confess, I used to want to spank him during our visits. One particular day, after we had read some Scripture and prayed together, I rose to go to work. Only this time he seemed to me a different person. His face looked serene and handsome. On impulse, I bent over and kissed him on the cheek. He startled—and humbled—me with his response. He said: Why um (I am) not ugly after all. Um (I am) not ugly after all. And I thought to myself, perhaps that is what human pain is all about. Are we ugly or lovely? Can we give and receive love even to our life’s end? Words are wind; but deeds are mind.  #RyanPhillippe 8 of 8