{"id":892,"date":"2012-08-04T11:45:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-04T17:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?p=892"},"modified":"2012-08-04T11:47:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T17:47:29","slug":"meditating-on-words-from-merton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2012\/08\/meditating-on-words-from-merton\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditating on Words from Merton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>My friend Paul McKay<\/a> posted these words from Thomas Merton and I\u2019ve been meditating on them ever since:<\/p>\n

In our age everything has to be a \u2018problem.\u2019 Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impose it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The word meditate comes from the Latin, meditatio, <\/em>which \u2014 among other things \u2014 means \u201cto ponder.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as I like the word \u201cponder,\u201d it is helpful think of meditation as the act of \u00a0befriending a thought, wandering around in it, getting familiar with it.\u00a0 In a world that runs through words and images at a breakneck pace, that\u2019s a very different exercise.\u00a0 Our cultural long suit is the emotional flashpoint \u2014 the momentary impression made by words that are quickly replaced by others.\u00a0 By contrast, meditation involves letting an idea or insight grow in us.<\/p>\n

In sitting with Merton\u2019s handful of words this week, those words kept giving.\u00a0 Some of that gift included these thoughts:<\/p>\n