This bit of wisdom really struck me:

"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.

More than that, it is cooperation in violence.

The frenzy of the activist…destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."

Thomas Merton

I am no good to anyone, I "destroy my own inner capacity for peace … destroy the fruitfulness of my own work" when I say yes to too many things.

It is a spiritual discipline of the deepest kind to know one's own limits.

It feels humbling - humiliating even - to say "This is all I can lovingly, wisely do.

But I am starting to wonder if this is just pure wisdom at work, rather than something to be ashamed of.

"What is mine to do?" This is the question for all of us.

What is mine?

What is yours?

Do that. Do it well. Do it with all the love you have.

And let the rest go.