Seeing

Again, sense of the importance, the urgency of seeing, fully aware, experiencing what is here: not what is given by men, by society, but is given by God and hidden by society. Clear realization that I must begin with these first elements. That it is absurd to inquire after my function in the world, or whether I have one, as long as I am not first of all alive and awake. And if that, and no more, is my job (for it is certainly every man's job), then I am grateful for it.

~ Thomas Merton, Turning Toward the World