To Conquer or to Celebrate
Howard Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was also a deeply spiritual mystic who was able to live life to its fullest. Inward/Outward had this post the other day from Thurman. A great way to end the week!

Life is seen as being something to conquer, to struggle with and against. Life is the enemy. It is not be embraced, to be lived. Hence we creep through our days, reacting to our world as if our faith were in magic, rather than in life. Man must experience life; he must feel it run through his whole being that life belongs to him and he to life…. He discovers that the test of life in him is to be found in the amount of pain, of frustration, he can absorb without spoiling his joy in living. To keep alive an original sense of aliveness is to know that life is its own restraint and a man is able to stand anything that life can do to him.

Source: The Inward Journey