Everybody is a story.

Is it possible to live so defensively that you never get to live at all?

If you carry someone else's fears and live by someone else's values, you may find that you have lived their lives.

Our listening creates a sanctuary for the homeless parts within another person.

Befriending life is less a matter of knowledge than a question of wisdom. It is not about mastering life, controlling it or exerting our will over it, no matter how well intentioned our will may be. Befriending life is more about harmlessness than it is about control.

In this culture the soul and the heart too often go homeless. Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people, they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the first time. And in the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually you may be able to hear, in everyone and beyond everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.

I think that people get experiences, and out of those experiences come meaning and ideas. It's like watching a rose bush grow.