We need experience to release what matters.

I was raised Jewish by atheistic-agnostic parents. During this journey, I had people from all walks and all faiths try to help. A Jewish priest who I was friends with wanted to lay hands on me - I didn't ask questions about how - I just said when and where and how often do you want to do it? I didn't argue.

Wakefulness is not a destination but a song the human heart keeps singing, the way birds keep singing at the first sign of light.

I looked a hundred times and all I saw was dust. The sun broke through and flecks of gold filled the air.

I started out wanting to write great poems, then wanting to discover true poems. Now, I want to be the poem.

I don't personally believe in an arrived state of enlightenment. I feel that being human is a constant practice of return. We have moments of clarity, and then we're confused. We have incredibly sensitive periods of being awake, and then we're numb. Being human is a very universal and a very personal practice of learning how to return when we can't get access to what we know.

The glassblower knows: while in the heat of beginning, any shape is possible. Once hardened, the only way to change is to break.