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.

Plant the seeds of your dreams and weed all the objections out.

See beauty in those unexpected places. (she asked herself how people could let Bach be background noise.) See the opportunity in what looks like inconvenience. (she steered clear of the traffic jam and went to the bakery she's been meaning to stop at.) She embraces the undeclared possibility in what seems like just another ordinary day. (her friend is scheduled for cancer surgery and suddenly everything around her seems so very precious.)

Do not allow obligation or immediacy to bind you to physical things or specific actions.

Begin as if you will finish. Let the story be told that you had the courage to begin.

Life is defined more by its contrasts than its samenesses; Life is defined more by its risks than the many securities.

In all my ways of seeing - may I use new glasses, a telescope and a microscope. And may I always allow myself to see a circumstance through the tender hearts of my friends.