The spiritual journey is one that we must take "alone together," in the same way that a good marriage involves a dance between solitude and communion. The life of the spirit entails a continuous alternation between retreating into oneself and going out into the world: it's an inward-outward journey. There is a solitary part to it, but that solitude helps us to develop richer and more in-depth relationships with our friends, our children, our community, and the political world.

If we come from good families where we have been supported well, there is a disillusionment we have to undergo in terms of the culture's values. We have to get beyond our cultural mythology to find out who we are.

If we had a better understanding of the ways we think about enemies, we might be able to think of more rational ways of settling conflict.

Soul grows in communion. Word by word, story by story, for better or worse, we build our world. From true conversation - speaking and listening - communication deepens into compassion and creates community.

We learn to fly not by being fearless, but by the daily practice of courage.

When you genuinely lose your illusions, you begin to marvel at things, because you don't have the answers any more.

You don't go through a deep personal transformation without some kind of dark night of the soul.