Dad, once an aspiring architect, drove his own catering truck to feed factory workers in downtown Los Angeles, and mom, with a Mensa IQ and mathematical gifts, served as a bookkeeper and worked in a grocery store while pursuing her calling in music: playing piano and composing songs. Perhaps in a way, part of my drive was to complete their unfulfilled ambitions and dreams, but in my own way.

Ultimately, fear of failure generates a vicious circle that creates what is most feared. To break this cycle, you need to make peace with failure. It isn't enough to merely tolerate it; you need to appreciate the failure and use it.

Surrender means accepting this moment, this body, and this life with open arms. Surrender involves getting out of your own way and living in accord with a higher will, expressed as the wisdom of the heart. Far more than passive acceptance, surrender uses every challenge as a means of spiritual growth and expanded awareness.

Life is the only real teacher. It offers many experiences....But the lessons of experience are hidden.

Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.

No amount of knowledge will nourish or sustain your spirit, it can never bring you ulimate happiness or peace. Life requires more that knowledge; it requires intense feeling and constant energy. Life demands right action if knowledge is to come alive.

Before you can see the Light, you have to deal with the darkness.