““In Western culture, we are also profoundly shaped by the ethics of individualism. We learn early on to follow our own stories wherever they may lead us. We hear a lot these days about capital-S Story, about the power of story, about crafting more exciting and more meaningful life stories, and so on. The metaphor of story is a resonant one, but there are some pitfalls to be aware of too. The first potential pitfall is that we can judge ourselves too harshly when things don’t go as planned. There is so much we can’t anticipate about the arc of our lives that we necessarily spend a lot of time and energy responding to fate rather than mastering it, being shaped by life rather than shaping it. Instead, we need to learn to hold loosely to our scripts because we’re not the sole authors of our stories.””
![“We are impatient, anxious to see the whole picture, but God lets us see things slowly, quietly. The Church [has] to learn how to wait. Pope Francis” quote by C. Christopher Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/db1/c-christopher-smith-40090_pope-francis_we-are-impatient-anxious-to-see-the-whol_707394.jpg)
![“[Our minds] were given to us for another purpose: to raise to awareness the communal reality of nature, to overcome separateness and alienation by a knowing that is loving, to reach out with intelligence to acknowledge and renew the bonds of life.” quote by C. Christopher Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2d4/c-christopher-smith-40090_life_our-minds-were-given-to-us-for-another-p_2778852.jpg)
