Always we hope
Someone else has the answer
Some other place will be better,
Some other time it will all turn out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer
No other place will be better,
And it has already turned out.
At the center of your being
You have the answer,
You know who you are
And you know what you want.
There is no need
To run outside
For better seeing.
Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being;
For the more you leave it, the less you learn.
Search your heart
And see
The way to do
Is to be.

- Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

When life becomes complicated pause and look for what keeps your inner light burning. Take a walk in the woods or a park or sit by the window and contemplate. Clarity and inspiration abound in Nature. The plants would tell you that by sitting still, you can follow your inner guidance and flower. The river would tell you to go with the flow. Animals might tell you not to make the hunt for nourishment so complicated, follow your instinct, use your senses, and honor the blessing of your meal. Wherever you look, you will see life’s poetry reflected to you. Nature works, Life works, and so do you.

We are faced with humanity at many levels, some good, some bad, some intolerable. As humanity, mankind is graded, falling into varying states of consciousness. Living merely as human beings, with their inner resources untapped, unaware of their true identity, life for some becomes a hopeless struggle against insuperable odds-- ill health, small earnings, and high taxes. To cloak their failure and sense of inadequacy, some people assume a bravado or affect an exuberance of outer joy to conceal their disappointment and frustration. Yet these people, as do all people, hunger for love. And how do they want to be loved? As we do, first by being understood.

- Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Meditation

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer and philologist.

We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.

Growth occurs when individuals confront problems, struggle to master them, and through that struggle develop new aspects of their skills, capacities, views about life.

When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance… provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another.

As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves.

People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.

- Carl Rogers, an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy.

Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.

- Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed Dec. 15, 1890 by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Reservation during an attempt to arrest him.

The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots. I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

- Willa Cather, American writer