If we allow silence to open up within, we shall see the gate and be free to open it. The gate that silence opens up within us leads to light. Light exposes us with an almost merciless radiance and, in the exposure, reveals the beauty of the real.
If we add up all the time we have spent in our life getting things over with, it may turn out to be half our lives. The monastic attitude is to begin deliberately and to do anything we do with an even, stately pace and with wholehearted attention. This is how master artisans, weavers, experienced farmers, and other sage laborers work. That way even difficult tasks can be done leisurely ande with joy, for their own sake. And then they become life-giving.... We pray that God may guide our actions. When we do our work in this way, then everything becomes a prayer