Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.

Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.

Respond to every call that excites your spirit.

This is how it always is when I finish a poem. A great silence overcomes me and I wonder why I ever thought to use language.

Even though you're not equipped, keep searching: equipment isn't necessary on the way to the Lord.

Do thou smile like the rose at loss and gain; For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder, Still smiles on, and it is never cast down.

Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.