one moral duty

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty:

 to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, 

more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. 

And the more peace there is in us, 

the more peace there will also be in our troubled world. 

~ Etty Hillesum

from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries

 with thanks to louie, louie

Hillesum suffers great inner turmoil during her young adulthood, but increasingly transforms into a woman of maturity and wisdom. She writes: "Everywhere things are both very good and very bad at the same time. The two are in balance, everywhere and always. I never have the feeling that I have got to make the best of things; everything is fine just as it is. Every situation, however miserable, is complete in itself and contains the good as well as the bad." In touch with the equilibrium of a bigger picture she is aware of, she continuously draws from this place to find meaning in her current reality.

Her diaries record the increasing anti-Jewish measures imposed by the occupying German army, and the growing uncertainty about the fate of fellow Jews who had been deported by them. As well as forming a record of oppression her diaries describe her spiritual development and deepening faith in God.

On 7 September 1943, the family were deported to Auschwitz. Etty died there on 30 November 1943.

 ~ Wikipedia