When you write a book, you are asking someone to make an investment in their time and money. A column can come and go as the weeks pass, but a book needs to be timeless.

Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

I once heard someone say that prayer is more than words. It's a stance you take, a position you claim. You throw your body against the door to keep the demons from advancing and stay put until they go away.

We need to be smarter than our smart phones and realize the people we are with are more important than the people we aren't with, and way more important than the strangers we hope will tweet and like and share and Instagram whatever we're sending out into the cybersphere.

Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written.