A friend reminded me this morning of the courageous voice of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew who was died in Auschwitz, and whose writing continues to be an inspiration and a call to action. Here is one of her quotes:
We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies…The things that have to be done must be done, and for the rest we must not allow ourselves to become infested with thousands of petty fears and worries, so many motions of no confidence in God. Ultimately we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.
The inner life and the outer life are in constant relationship with one another. Every day is an invitation to claim and reclaim our moral duty to be a peacemaker within and outside ourselves.
