Several people have asked for the quotation which appears on the paper taped to the top of my desk in the scene of “Raw Faith,” where I am packing up to leave the church.  I saved that piece of paper when I moved to our new home, and so will take the opportunity now to quote those words, which sustained me each day in my work and in my life:

“Markings in dry clay disappear

Only when the clay is soft again.

Scars upon the self disappear

Only when one becomes soft within.”

                                   –Deng Ming-Dao

I find that I must guard against hardness, which comes of course from not acknowledging the more tender feelings of sadness, grief, and fear.  I think we feel vulnerable when we permit this inner softening, but in this world we need to bend, to be pliable, and we begin to see that rigidity of person is not helpful, either in affairs of the world or in affairs of the heart.