Everything in life opens and closes, sheds and renews. We are no different. Listening in its endless forms is the way we stay open, the way we stay in relationship, the way we refresh who we are and what we're doing here.

One of the most challenging ways is to slow down enough to relax our heart and feel what is nearest. It could be the sun reflecting off of broken glass in an alley. It could be the shine on a crow. It could be snow on a lamp post.

Living is the original art. As a young man I wanted to be a poet and I learned along the way that I already was a poet.

To listen also means to stay in relationship, the central challenge of our time, and this requires us to constantly minimize whatever stands between us and life.

Who's to say the effort to be real isn't the beginning of wings?

Tragedy stays alive by feeling what's been done to us, while peace comes alive by living with the results.

Let the miracles, even the ones we don't want or see, unfold.