We need to give up what no longer works and find new ways of being that keeps us close to what matters.

Perhaps the noblest private act is the unheralded effort to ... open our hearts once they've closed, to open our souls once they've shied away.

All the buried seeds crack open in the dark the instant they surrender to a process they can't see.

Rather than finding heaven on earth, we are asked to release heaven by living on earth.

Whether you find it through mediation or sighing over tea or just turning all your devices off for five minutes, listening is an ancient lifeline by which we are awakened time and again. Once reawakened, we more easily find our way to each other, and so help each other live.

Keeping a commitment to listening has led me to my own growth, beyond any imagined dreams I may have had throughout the years.

The real challenge is to remember to see clearly when everything's flying around us and we're wrapped up in our [emotional] wounds and traumas.