If Your Goal Is To Avoid Pain

There Can Be No Vulnerability Without Risk; There Can Be No Community Without Vulnerability; There Can Be No Peace, And Ultimately No Life, Without Community.

All My Life I Used To Wonder What I Would Become When I Grew Up. Then, About Seven Years Ago, I Realized That I Was Never Going To Grow Up--that Growing Is An Ever Ongoing Process.

When We Cling, Often Forever, To Our Old Patterns Of Thinking And Behaving, We Fall To Negotiate Any Crisis, To Truly Grow Up, And To Experience The Joyful Sense Of Rebirth That Accompanies The Successful Transition Into Greater Maturity.

There Is No Virtue Inherent In Un-constructive Suffering.

The Time And The Quality Of The Time That Their Parents Devote To Them Indicate To Children The Degree To Which They Are Valued By Their Parents. . . . When Children Know That They Are Valued, When They Truly Feel Valued In The Deepest Parts Of Themselves, Then They Feel Valuable. This Knowledge Is Worth More Than Any Gold.