Day Marks

Yes to God; yes to Fate; yes to yourself. This reality can wound the soul, but has the power to heal her . . . (Hammarskjöld, p.155)

I don’t know Who – or what – put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. From that moment I have known what it means “not to look back,” and “to take no thought for the morrow.” Led by Ariadne’s thread of my answer through the labyrinth of Life, I came to a time and place where I realized that the way leads to a triumph which is a catastrophe, and to a catastrophe which is a triumph, that the price for committing one’s life would be reproach, and that the only elevation possible to man lies in the depths of humiliation. After that, the word “courage” lost its meaning, since nothing could be taken from me. As I continued along the Way, I learned, step by step, that behind every saying in the Gospels stands one man and

To say Yes is never more difficult than when circumstances prevent you from rushing to the defense of someone whose purity of heart makes him defenseless before an attack. (Hammarskjöld, p. 99)

You dare your Yes – and experience a meaning. You repeat your Yes – and all things acquire a meaning. When everything has a meaning, how can you live anything but a Yes. (Hammarskjöld, p. 120)

To be free, to be able to stand up and leave everything behind – without looking back. To say Yes – (Hammarskjöld, p. 86)

To say Yes to life is at one and the same time to say Yes to oneself. Yes – even to that element in one which is most unwilling to let itself be transformed from a temptation into a strength. (Hammarskjöld, p.86)

Now. When I have overcome my fears – of others, of myself, of the underlying darkness: at the frontier of the unheard-of. Here ends the known. But, from a source beyond it, something fills my being with its possibilities. Here desire is purified and made lucid: each action is a preparation for, each choice an assent to the unknown. Prevented by duties of life on the surface from looking down into the depths, yet all the while being slowly trained and molded by them to take the plunge into the deep whence rises the fragrance of a forest star, bearing the promise of a new affection. At the frontier – (Hammarskjöld, p. 69)

“ – Night is drawing nigh – ” For all that has been – Thanks! To all that shall be – Yes! (Hammarskjöld, p. 83)