Wrestling angel

Myst'ry angel of Jacob

brown angel of mine

both angel and Jacob

tussling in myself

on the rocky desert floor

minus comfort, minus rest

for my sore, naked soul

Kneed to my side

my nerves ache for balm

that God soothes o'er wounds

had in the struggling feud

Tis God who is the balm

masseuse, physician, friend

wrestling angel of Jacob

wrestling angel of mine 

*It is not we who choose to awaken ourselves, but God Who chooses to awaken us.

-Thomas Merton

*Contemplation is not trance or ecstasy, not the hearing of sudden unutterable words, nor the imagination of lights.  It is not the emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltation. It is not enthusiasm, the sense of being "seized" by an elemental force and swept into liberation by mystical frenzy.  These things may seem to be in some way like a contemplative awakening and control exercised by our empirical self.  But they are not the work of the "deep self", only of the emotions, of the somatic unconscious.  They are a flooding up of the dionysian forces of the "id". Such manifestations can of course accompany a deep and genuine religious experience, but they are not what I am talking about here as contemplation.

-Thomas Merton

What of Fame?

everyone knows ure Face

The world screams ure name

Never again R u alone

-Tupac Shakur