It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody’s out there.
Giving to other people makes me feel alive. Not my car or my house. Not what I look like in the mirror. When I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad...
She loved me coming and going, at my worst and at my best. She had a bottomless well of love for me.
Heaven can be found in the most unlikely corners.
Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.
Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine?
When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.
But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.
Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father.
When you are measuring life, you are not living it.
You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue.
This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.
Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.
Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.
Silence is worse when you know it won’t be broken.
When you’re rotten about yourself, you become rotten to everyone else, even those you love.
I asked myself, ‘Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?’ I decided I am going to live – or at least try to live – the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure.
Much of what we called “depression” was really dissatisfaction, a result of setting a bar impossibly high or expecting treasures we weren’t willing to work for.
When we are most alone is when we embrace another’s loneliness.
People are only mean when they are threatened.