I know and I speak from experience, that even in the midst of darkness, it is possible to create light and share warmth with one another. Even on the edge of the abyss, it is possible to dream exalted dreams of compassion; that it is possible to be free and strengthen...
Nobody is born Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Atheist, Republican, Democrat. People are born human and are conditioned by narratives and ideologies of race, religion, culture, politics, nationality, and society. This is not necessarily a...
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy...
We must normalize the awareness of the realities of mental illness, especially within the church. We must remove the negative stigmas surrounding therapy and counseling. One of the most common and most hurtful phrases I heard in my journey with mental illness was...
This is how you ascertain the truth of spiritual experience: it propels you back toward the world and other people, and not simply more deeply within yourself. from My Bright Abyss
Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we’re always following our children into...
The worst thing is not the sorrow or the loss or the heartbreak. Worse is to be encountered by death and not to be changed by the encounter. There are pills we take to get through the experience, but the danger is that we then do not go through the experience but...
Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity. Release me from the idea...
Music imprints itself in the brain deeper than any other human experience... ...Music brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.