Even the saddest things can become, once we have made peace with them, a source of wisdom and strength.

Maybe it's all utterly meaningless. Maybe it's all unutterably meaningful. If you want to know which, pay attention to what it means to be truly human in a world that half the time we're in love with and half the time scares the hell out of us. Any fiction that helps us pay attention to that is religious fiction. The unexpected sound of your name on somebody's lips. The good dream. The strange coincidence. The moment that brings tears to your eyes. The person who brings life to your life. Even the smallest events hold the greatest clues.

To be wise is to be eternally curious.

Listen. Your life is happening. You are happening. Think back on your journey. The music of your life.

For some people, going to church is going home. In a very profound sense, I would say the same thing. Home is where Christ is.

The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.

I've written a lot of autobiography, which also involved listening.