Living in a culture that prefers to shut out the dark, avoid shadows, and anesthetize pain means that many people are isolated. ... Family, friends, and co-workers, fearful of the dark, are reluctant to participate in our shadow experience and may urge us to be done with the dark before it is done with us.

Living in a culture that prefers to shut out the dark, avoid shadows, and anesthetize pain means that many people are isolated. ... Family, friends, and co-workers, fearful of the dark, are reluctant to participate in our shadow experience and may urge us to be done with the dark before it is done with us.

Gratitude is the richest, most joyful feeling humans are privileged to experience.

Our stories arise from our hearts and our souls. In this sense, telling our stories becomes a sacred gesture, opening a clear way to that deep, ecstatic center where we are most uniquely our selves, individual and unique, and yet are ourselves, joined together at the heart.

We are the only ones who can tell our stories because we are the only ones who have lived them.

The healing that can grow out of the simple act of telling our stories is often quite remarkable.

The worst thing about talk ... is that there's no way to lay it to rest. Every fresh breeze brings a new speculation.