Notre-Dame de Paris (Charles Desvergues)
Notre-Dame de Paris (Charles Desvergues)
“Si je n’y suis [en la grâce de Dieu], Dieu m’y mette; et, si j’y suis, Dieu m’y tienne! Je serais le plus dolente de monde si je savais ne pas être en la grâce de Dieu”
— Jeanne d’Arc

Today’s Feast Days

11 January

Eithne
(c. 433)
Virgin
Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick
(1497–1546)
Confessor
Fidelma
(c. 433)
Virgin
Franciszek Rogaczewski
(1892–1940)
Confessor, Martyr, Priest
Hyginus
(c. 78–140)
Martyr, Pope
Léonie Françoise De Sales Aviat
(1844–1914)
Founder, Nun, Virgin
Mary Mitchell Slessor
(1848–1915)
Educator, Feminist, Missionary, Social Reformer
Theodosius the Cenobiarch
(423–529)
Abbot / ἡγούμενος, Hermit, Monk

You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people. The belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.

Anne Lamott (1954– )

American writer

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1995)