We do children an enormous disservice when we assume that they cannot appreciate anything beyond drive through fare and nutritionally marginal, kid-targeted convenience foods. Our children are capable of consuming something that grew in a garden or on a tree and never saw a deep fryer. They are capable of making it through diner at a sit-down restaurant with tablecloths and no climbing equipment. Children deserve quality nourishment.

Compassion in action may be the glorious possibility that could protect our crowded, polluted planet.

Home is the place where you are most thoroughly yourself, with no pretenses.

"Make your plate look like a Christmas tree," I tell people, "mostly green with splashes of other bright colors."

To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they're blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too.

On the issue of abortion, I'm ever on the fence, or, at most, an inch or two to either side.

Growing into your future ... requires a dedication to caring for yourself as if you were rare and precious, which you are, and regarding all life around you as equally so, which it is.