Things I've Learned From Being Open

“All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire.”

More valuable than anything in the world is to restrain yourself from a bad deed when passion seizes you.

“love your dirty corners, your stalk-like legs and barrel hips, love all the no and the no and the no that brought you right here, to this moment and love the yes. The yes: the breath that found its way to you, built a home in your blood cells, changed itself to better suit you and for it, tonight, you say: I was made to breathe and move and give, which is to say love. Love. I was made to love.”

Perhaps the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.

“The more you need people to agree with you, the less open you are to what they think, feel, and believe. You cannot share with them because you are trying to change them, and they cannot share with you because you are not listening.”

“Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing. Empathy means acknowledging a horizon of context that extends perpetually beyond what you can see.”

“All relationships have one law: never make the one you love feel alone, especially when you are there.”