The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see – and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!
Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.
Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty – beneath its covering – that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.
Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.
And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.
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This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to his friend, Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513.
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Tis a Gift to Receive 
I am proud to hear you’re rereading Life of Pi (due at least partly, I think, to my influence). That book is fantastic. Within a 24 hour period I did nothing but read, contemplate, and absorb that book. It moved me more than an orchestra could. And it’s one of those rare books that keeps narrating through your mind for days after you read it. I’ll quit now. I’m just trying to sound like an art critic and, deep down, everyone hates art critics. All the best, my friend. I like your new layout here.
I just put in a request to the library for the book. I’ll try to let you know how I like it.