If one believed in angels one would feel that they must love us best when we are asleep and cannot hurt each other; and what a mercy it is that once in every twenty-four hours we are too utterly weary to go on being unkind.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that true kindness comes during moments of vulnerability, such as sleep, when we cannot inflict harm on each other.
Elizabeth Von Arnim reflects on the notion that if angels existed, they would appreciate humanity in its peaceful, unguarded state during sleep. This emphasizes the beauty of human nature when it is free from the conflict and unkindness that often occurs in waking hours. The quote highlights a mercy in our daily lives—a natural respite from hostility when we are too exhausted to continue our unkind behaviors.
In practice
During a meditation session, one might reflect on the importance of kindness illustrated by this quote.
[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.
On wet days I will go into the thickest parts of the forest, where the pine needles are everlastingly dry, and when the sun shines I'll lie on the heath and see how the broom flares against the clouds. I shall be perpetually happy, because there will be no one to worry me.
I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow.
Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless.
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,_x000D_ And out of the caverns of rain,_x000D_ Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,_x000D_ I arise and unbuild it again.
Behind the veil of each night, there is a smilling dawn.
I bow before the authority of special men because it is imposed upon me by my own reason.
In a Town like Twin Peaks noone is innocent
Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?
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