People aren't wired to be alone. Even in the stressful population of prison, solitary confinement is still considered a cruel punishment.

We spend our life building higher fences and stronger locks, when the gravest dangers are already inside

...even the most horribl e of nightmares is laced with the promise of dawn.

As a boy I heard this story in church. A man was patching a pitched roof of a tall building when he began sliding off. As he neared the edge of the roof he prayed, "Save me, Lord, and I'll go to church every Sunday, I'll give up drinking, I'll be the best man this city has ever known." As he finished his prayer, a nail snagged onto his overalls and saved him. The man looked up to the sky and shouted, "Never mind, God. I took care of it myself." How true of us.

It is often during the worst of times that we see the best of humanity–awakening within the most ordinary of us that which is most sublime. I do not believe that it is circumstance that produces such greatness any more than it is the canvas that makes the artist. Adversity merely presents the surface on which we render our souls’ most exacting likeness. It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.

We love those whom we serve (p. 26)

The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain.