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

Every day we're given a choice: We can relax and float in the direction that the water flows, or we can swim hard against it. If we go with the river, the energy of a thousand mountain streams will be with us . . . if we resist the river, we will feel rankled and tired as we tread water, stuck in the same place.

Spirituality is a brave search for the truth about existence, fearlessly peering into the mysterious nature of life.

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

One does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.

Forgiveness doesn't mean being a wimp. It doesn't mean being weak. It doesn't mean having no principles and no values. Sometimes we have to stand firm for what we believe and make really hard decisions.

When the fire is over, always, in the ashes, our opportunities to repair, to move forward without vengeance being required - that's kind of the way us humans seem to live. We make massive mistakes. We do stupid things. We do things to survive. And then there's an opportunity to learn from them and move forward with grace. And forgiveness and that gracefulness are very connected.