We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of the earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children of the apple-tree.

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always -

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

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separation, encounter, return...Lord, the endpoint to all our journeys. Grant us faith to believe that you will meet us in the heart of all our suffering. there is little we can do about it because we hold so very little in the hands of our doing. all shall cease. you will calm the wind, and the shoreline we'll see... Lord, we want you to be near us this evening.

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