I am going to notice the lights of the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, the lights of our candles as we march, the lights with which spring teases us, the light that is already present.

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.

Life wants you to know that feelings are more important than facts, and you should never hurt someone just to be right.

My malady was submission.The symptom: my compliance.The antidote was loud clear boundaries.

I Have Fought the Good Fight and Won

Self-preservation's a man's first duty. And natives don't mind dying, you know. They don't feel about it as Europeans do.

A lot of people have no access to beauty. When I was growing up, my mother had only a few pretty things to look at.

What smells so? Has somebody been burning a Rag, or is there a Dead Mule in the Back yard? No, the Man is Smoking a Five-Cent Cigar.

You mean the fact that Tom Arnold would spend more time with the hair and makeup people than I would?

I believe in storytelling, not story-selling. I want people to believe the characters are real. So I'm a realist.

The poetry of country music will survive.

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.