My own time on earth has led me to believe in two powerful instruments that turn experience into love: holding and listening. For every time I have held or been held, every time I have listened or been listened to, experience burns like wood in that eternal fire, and I find myself in the presence of love. This has always been so.

The simplest and bravest way to counter the plight of disheartenment is to move toward what is precious.

In life as in water, when we curl up or flail we sink. When we spread and go still, we are carried by the largest sea of all: the sea of grace that flows steadily beneath the turmoil of events. And just as fish can't see the ocean they live in, we can't quite see the spirit that sustains us.

When the sweet ache of being alive, lodged between who you are and who you will be, is awakened, befriend this moment. It will guide you. Its sweetness is what holds you. Its ache is what moves you on.

The resource of life is everywhere, even in the smallest of things and we're never very far from it.

The journey is made easier when we can accept that the process of living is designed for what matters to come through us tenderly.

To be broken is no reason to see all things as broken.