The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from Him. . . . We fail to believe that we are always with God and that He is part of every reality. The present moment, every object we see, our innermost nature are all rooted in Him. But we hesitate to believe this until personal experience gives us the confidence to believe in it. This involves the gradual development of intimacy with God. God constantly speaks to us through each other as well as from within. The interior experience of God's presence activates our capacity to perceive Him in everything else — in people, in events, in nature.
— Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living by Thomas Keating, S. Stephanie Iachetta, editor