We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]

Sometimes I think that Jesus watches my neurotic struggles, and shakes his head and grips his forehead and starts tossing back mojitos.

Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts: When people listen to you cry and lament, and look at you with love, it's like they are holding the baby of you.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.

I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life's work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.

Human lives are hard, even those of health and privilege, and don't make much sense. This is the message of the Book of Job: Any snappy explanation of suffering you come up with will be horseshit.

Respect is like a bridge to reach your Love. If you do not respect, love is lost.

In some remote regions of Islam it is said a woman caught unveiled by a stranger will raise her skirt to cover her face.

So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and there it all happened.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

Everyone will hurt you if you let them in.

Compassionate action emerges from the sense of openness, connectedness, and discernment you have created.

For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.

It doesn't matter what you do because it's going to happen anyway.

I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old.

Franklin may . . . be considered one of the founding fathers of American democracy, since no democratic government can last long without conciliation and compromise.