Soothing touch, whether it be applied to a ruffled cat, a crying infant, or a frightened child, has a universally recognized power to ameliorate the signs of distress. How can it be that we overlook its usefulness on the jangled adult as well? What is it that leads us to assume that the stressed child merely needs “comforting,” while the stressed adult needs “medicine”?

The skin is no more separated from the brain than the surface of a lake is separate from its depths; the two are different locations in a continuous medium...The brain is a single functional unit, from cortex to fingertips to toes. To touch the surface is to stir the depths.

Movement is the unifying bond between the mind and the body, and sensations are the substance of that bond.

By rubbing up against the world, I define myself to myself.

The principals in elegantly simple. We learn to love by being loved, we learn gentleness by being gentled, we learn to be graceful by experiencing the feeling of grace.

Touching hands are not like pharmaceuticals or scalpels. They are like flashlights in a darkened room. The medicine they administer is self-awareness. And for many of our painful conditions, this is the aid that is most urgently needed.

Enduring faith is not blind or obedient, it is keenly attentive and responsible; it is not fed by awe, but by quickening interest; prosperity is not the disappearance of problems, but the continual engagement with the process of finding solutions. Wisdom is not given from on high, but must be painstakingly unraveled from the knots in his own guts.