Letter 81: You are distressed by your travels, and think yourself unsteady, like a stick carried along by a stream. But, my dear friend, you must not let yourself feel so at all. For the travels of the stick are involuntary, but your course is ordained by God, and your stability is in doing good to others, even though you are not fixed to a place; unless i...

Gregory to a friend. You are distressed by your constant travels and think yourself as unsteady as a stick carried along by a stream. But you must not feel that way, my dear friend. The stick's travels are involuntary, but your journey is ordained by God. Your stability consists not in being fixed to one place but in doing good wherever you go. The tree that is rooted in one spot may bear fruit for its neighbors, but the river that flows through many lands brings life to all of them. You are that river. Do not grieve at your wandering. Embrace it as God's purpose for you.

Ep. LXXXI. You are distressed by your travels, and think yourself unsteady, like a stick carried along by a stream. But, my dear friend, you must not let yourself feel so at all. For the travels of the stick are involuntary, but your course is ordained by God, and your stability is in doing good to others, even though you are not fixed to a place; unless indeed one ought to find fault with the sun, for going about the world scattering his rays, and giving life to all things on which he shines; or, while praising the fixed stars, one should revile the planets, whose very wandering is harmonious.