When Defeat Is Your Rescue

I have been reflecting on Thomas Merton's insight today: ‘And it was my defeat that was to be the occasion of my rescue'.’

Cistercian Monk, Thomas Merton

I think that any 'defeat' or profound disappointment, in time, opens up new opportunities for a fuller and more meaningful life.

Yes, it may be different to what we had hoped for, but sometimes it is life that asks us the questions, to which only we have the answers. Finding the answer, and living it, is the most difficult part.

That said, perhaps we all need to be rescued from ourselves from time-to-time; we exist in community and that is what communities do.

As Anna Quindlen wrote: 'get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work'.

She is right, and life is not leisure, it is work too!