your life has become a trash compactor, then you are allowed to try to escape that trash compactor, whatever it takes.

Opening up space for ourselves is a life-affirming act, a sacred act.

Flexibility is just as essential for divinity as is discipline.

You may return here once you have fully come to understand that you are always here.

That’s the joy of a mortal body. And that’s why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands.

And I was sure of this, too—that the rules of transcendence insist that you will not advance even one inch closer to divinity as long as you cling to even one last seductive thread of blame. As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff of it is bad for you.

“Guilt’s just your ego’s way of tricking you into thinking that you’re making moral progress. Don’t fall for it, my dear.”

There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and

In making an effort to stay alert, I am assuming custodial responsibility for the maintenance of my own soul.