Embracing the Mystery
    When every word has been written, and every phrase has been spoken, the great mystery of life will still remain. We may map the terrains of our lives, measure the farthest reaches of the universe,  but no amount of searching will ever reveal for certain  whether we are all children of chance or part of a great design.
    And who among us would have it otherwise? Who would wish to take the mystery ，out of the experience of looking into a newborn infant's eyes?  Who would not feel in violation of something great if we had knowledge of what has departed when we stare into the face of one who has died?  These are the events that make us human,  that define the distance between the stars and us.
    Still, life is not easy. Much of its mystery is darkness.  Tragedjes occur, injustices exist.  Bad things happen to good people and suffering is visited upon the innocent. In order to live we must take the lives of other species.  In order to survive we may leave some of our brothers and sisters by the side of the road.  We are prisoners of time, victims of biology, and hostages of our own capacity.
    At times the mystery of life seems too much and impossible to accept.
    We must stand against this.  The world is a great mysterious place, and its possibilities are infinite, governed only by what our hearts can conceive. lf we incline our hearts toward the darkness, we will see darkness.  lf we incline them toward the light, we will see the light.
    Those of great heart have always known this.  They have understood that, honorable though it is to see the wrong and try to correct it,  a life well lived must somehow celebrate the promise that life provides.  The darkness at the limits of our knowledge,  the darkness that sometimes seem to surround us is merely a way to make us reach beyond certainty,  to make our lives a  witness to hope, a testimony to possibility,  an urge toward the best and the most honorable impulses that our hearts can conceive.
    lt is not hard. There is in each of us, no matter how humble, a capacity for love.  Even if our lives have not taken the course we had envisioned,  even if we are less than the shape of our dreams,  we are part of the human family.  Somewhere, in the most inconsequential corners of our lives, is the opportunity for love.
    lf I am blind, I can run my hand across the back of a shell and celebrate beauty. lf l have no legs, I can sit in quiet wonder before the restless murmurs of the sea.  lf I am wounded in spirit, I can reach out my hand to those who are hurting. lf I am lonely, I can go among those who are desperate for love.  There is no tragedy or injustice so great, no life so small and inconsequential,  that we cannot bear witness to the light in the quiet acts and hidden moments of our days.
    And who can say which of these acts and moments will make a difference?  The universt is vast and is a magical membrane of meaning, stretching across time and space, and it is not given to us to know her secrets and her ways.  Perhaps we were placed here to meet the challenge of a single moment;  perhaps we will touch something or someone that will change the world.