Sublime

“Imagine yourself fifteen years from now. What do you think will be most important to you then?” and “Can you think of someone whose life inspires you to be a better person? Who? Why?” When I carried out Bill’s exercise,46 I realized that the person in my life who, more than anyone, has shown me the beauty of other-centered purpose is my mom.

an important person in this world. She’d always felt like she was just like everyone else — simply another face in the crowd — and assumed that one day she’d die and “go out quietly, unnoticed.” After doing Homework for Life for six months, her life had changed. She said that searching for stories and recording them every day had made her feel like

Patients were no longer body-minds that needed “fixing” but were vibrant expressions of bliss that were inseparable from me.

Through her years of recovery she began to move beyond her identity as that little girl who was unreal and undeserving of attention. She learned that belonging didn’t depend on her efforts to please others. Now her work and way of relating to others arise from a deep and genuine well of caring. But to awaken from her trance, my mother had to stop

But let me tell you something: You are capable of so many amazing things. I hope, as you grow older, that this gives you a sense of peace. I, for so much of my life, have had something to prove. But I think you have a real chance of knowing you don’t have to prove a single thing to anyone. If it should come to pass that you feel the need to go do

And as I see it, true health has nothing to do with diagnosing a disease or prolonging life just for the sake of it; it’s about finding out who we are, paying attention to how we’re called to grow and change, and listening to what makes our heart sing.

A teacher of students with special needs, Sara had observed that the children she worked with seemed better able to navigate their lives the more they knew about their family’s history.