*The apostle of our time does not have the social prestige of earlier times; he is incapable of glorying in his role or crying victory, thereby arousing envy or hostility.  Living more deeply, he experiences his own unbelief so well that he is the brother of atheists and unbelievers, not just in intention and words-that is, in illusion.  The Word of the Gospel and of the Church has become so much his own that he is like a humble innkeeper who rejects no one, whom one feels the need to visit, whether to be quiet or to talk, just as one visits a healer or a guru-although he has nothing in common with a guru.  Lucid, cured of many hopes and fears, no more virtuous than any one else, capable of solitude and silence, without need of recognition, skilled in reading on someone's lips words other than those that were spoken, in gently uncovering the lie within sincerity, he's not afraid of enjoying himself, without which one can't give to anyone else.

The way of the master is inscribed in the Gospel and in the very nature of the "inner" Christianity revealed "to the apostles and the little ones"; this makes it possible for them to avoid the illusion of general ideas proper to that external Christianity that only reaches the mind, when it reaches anything.  The master reveals God and eternal life in sympathy, in the every instant, not through an abstract morality that leaves us foreign and indifferent when it doesn't produce guilt.
-Jean Sulivan

the eve of departure

ready

bristling to leave

like swans for the nesting grounds

settle in

 build a nest 

lay eggs

hatch a brood

ready to fly

bags packed

engine warm

lunch prepared 

gas in the tank

ready to move

let's go

not looking back

few regrets

energy for the next

i'm ready

let's roll

i'm off

catch me if you can

a swan heading for the nesting grounds