Fear is a sneaky thief, stealing away precious moments of your life.

First we love within, then we love the world.

But grief is also a tonic. It is a healing elixir, made of tears that lubricate the heart.

I would say to women, always question what you're empowering yourself for and what are you claiming power for.

I'm deeply disturbed by the ways in which all of our cultures are demonizing the other. This is why I'm launching a new initiative, and it's to help all of us, myself included, to counteract the tendency to otherize.

One of the reasons I love prayer is that it is an antidote to guilt and blame. If we are unhappy with the way we have acted or been treated, instead of stewing in self-recrimination on the one hand, or harboring ill will toward someone else on the other, prayer gives us a way out of the circle of guilt and blame. We bring our painful feelings into the open and say, "I have done wrong," or "I have been wronged." And then we ask for a vaster view--one that contains within it all the forgiveness we need in order to move forward.

We don't need any more teachers. We don't. We need friends.