THOUGHT FROM THE CLOISTER

Ralph & Frances Partridge

Ham Spray House Wiltshire

"...at others, that it has thrown out couch-grass roots to undermine our peace of mind, invisibly creeping and choking the sources of vitality and enjoyment. We live in the present, as if each day might be our last, and to some degree in the past. The future is so nebulous that one barely thinks about it, and those who die...seem to have forfeited nothing we have ourselves. Late tonight I thought again about invasion, not in the abstract but as a solid possibility."

Frances Partridge - War Diary - 1941

Her reflection here on here feelings about WWII and the possibility of invasion is also applicable to how we reflect on La Peste in our time now.

FRUITS FROM THE CLOISTER II

IF YOU FAIL TO SEEE WHO TRULY LOVES YOU THEN IT IS YOUR HEART THAT IS BLIND NOT YOUR EYES


WHAT WE HAVE LOVED BEST IS OFTEN WHAT WE HAVE LOST


LIFE AND LOVE ARE THE SUM OF MANY MOMENTS


PERFECTION IS SELDOM A VIRTUE BUT OFTEN A CURSE

FRUITS FROM THE CLOISTER

Silence and stillness are the parents of reflection.


Only in silence can you hear yourself think.


The purpose of life is to lay up memories - in the end they are all we have.


The past is a closed door  - a sealed room which only memory might open.


Cambridge was not just a place but a state of mind and a way to live.