“What I mean is that most of us are always worried about what others are thinking, the concern finds its way into our words and actions and dreams and feelings… How does a person stop caring about the opinion of others enough to enjoy them without manipulating them? How does a person stop caring about money to pay rent, about where his food will come from, or whether or not he has a good retirement package? ..Nobody stops to question whether they actually need the house and the car and the better job. And because of this there doesn’t seem to be any peace; there isn’t any serenity. …We can only panic about the clothes we wear, panic about the car we drive, sit stuck in traffic and panic about whether or not the guy who cuts us off respects us.
…
And maybe when a person doesn’t buy the lies anymore, when a human stops long enough to realize the stuff people say to get us part with our money often isn’t true, we can finally see the sunrise, smell the wetness in a Gulf breeze, stand in awe at waterfall, ten square miles wide, wonder at the physics of a duck paddling itself across the surface of a pond, enjoy the reflection of the sun on the face of the moon, and know, This is what I was made to do. This is who I was made to be, that life is being given to me as a gift, that light is a metaphor, and God is doing these things to dazzle us”
- Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller
