Courage

«"Never lose courage! When troubles pile up most appallingly about you, you will see a helping hand in the clouds" - so said His Reverence Jesper Morten at vespers recently. Well, I am accustomed to walking a great deal under the open sky, but I have never noticed such a thing. A few days ago while on a walking tour, I became aware of such a phenomenon. It was really not a hand, but more like an arm, that reached out of the cloud. I fell into contemplation, and the thought came to me: If only Jesper Morten were here so he could decide whether this was the phenomenon he referred to. As I stood there lost in these thoughts, a passerby addressed me and said as he pointed up to the clouds, "Do you see that funnel-shaped cloud? One seldom sees such a thing in these parts. Sometimes it carries whole houses long with it." Good heavens, I thought, is that a funnel-shaped cloud-and took to my heels as fast as I could. What would His Reverence Jesper Morten have done, I wonder, in my place?»

Soren Kierkegaard, Diapsalmata