Pain is a difficult companion. There's no getting around that. But, if pain is to be a companion, searching and discovering your own best ways to travel with that pain will lead you to the joy that you long to have. They are your paths, your ways and while my experience and the experiences of others may inspire you, ultimately it will be the choices you discover and make for yourself that lead you to certain joy in the midst of your challenges.

Go ahead. Weep for the rare, the never seen this way again, the excruciating, ineffable, unmitigated beauty of love.

My biggest dream is that my words will inspire heart, hope and personal responsibility in people around the globe long after my feet in these shoes aren't walking the planet.

Pick up a stone that feels good to you and is small enough to hold in one hand. Consider how long that stone has been around and what enormous pressure it has experienced. Draw strength from its long history.

A life rooted deeply lives and grows in memory.

It takes discipline and compassion to awaken the divine in ourselves long enough to recognize the divine in another.

As you awaken, may your dreams greet you by name, and may you answer, "Yes!"