As I age I am grateful to find that a silence has begun to gather in me, coexisting with my tempers and my fears, unchanged by my joys or my pain. Sanctuary. Connected to the Silence everywhere.

In the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.

I think ideas only lead to change for intellectual people; and not even them. What really leads to change is experience. Life itself is the teacher.

Grieving allows us to heal, to remember with love rather than pain. It is a sorting process. One by one you let go of the things that are gone and you mourn for them. One by one you take hold of the things that have become a part of who you are and build again.

Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing. It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in the people around us. When we listen, we offer with our attention an opportunity for wholeness. Our listening creates sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person. That which has been denied, unloved, devalued by themselves and others. That which is hidden.

Of course love is never earned. It is a grace we give one another. Anything we need to earn is only approval.

Big messages come in small packages. All it may take to restore someone's trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.