is not to be a failure. All the great Saints, even Jesus Himself, were tempted. Too many times people think the presence of temptations is a sign they are failing but temptations are just that, pieces of thought that flow in and around us and mean nothing, in one sense, except that we are human beings who share the common mortality of our kind on this Earth. What matters is what we do with those random pieces of thought. Do we cultivate them, nurture them, and act on them? Then, and only then, do they have the potential to become sin and do us, and others, harm.
That being said I still wish temptations would go away. I find them annoying in the least and paralyzing, sometimes, at worst. Any moments of peace from their assault is a gift and those slender moments when all of who I am is in some state of holiness are treasures. I wither, sometimes, under the assault of temptation, and sometimes, too often, I fall. I desperately wish that life would be free of such things yet even those who live as hermits are not immune. So this seems to be part of what it is to be a human and I will have these things buzzing around my head like gnats until my last breath.
Still truth remains and I will try not to despair. To follow this beautiful path is to be challenged on all sides every day by everything that is less beautiful, less good, and less real. In time the peace will come. Its not what flies around me that matters so much as that which I embrace. In the end there is some comfort in that and some hope, as well.
The Beautiful Path 