When we search for something larger than our own selves to hook into, we can come through whatever life throws at us.

When we agree to being part of something bigger than our own wired, fixated minds, we are saved.

The solution is always spiritual, and it almost never has anything to do with the problem ... laughter is carbonated holiness.

To love yourself as you are is a miracle, and to seek yourself is to have found yourself for now. And now is all we have, and love is who we are.

We write to expose the unexposed. If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. The writer's job is to turn the unspeakable into words - not just into any words, but if we can, into rhythm and blues.

If you always dreamed of writing a novel or a memoir, and you used to love to write, and were pretty good at it, will it break your heart if it turns out you never got around to it? If you wake up one day at eighty, will you feel nonchalant that something always took precedence over a daily commitment to discovering your creative spirit? If not--if this very thought fills you with regret--then what are you waiting for?

When faced with a crisis, do three things: breathe, pray and be kind.