“We all long for someone with whom we are able to share our peculiar burdens of being alive.”

“We are participatory beings who inhabit a participatory reality, seeking relationships that enhance our sense of what it means to be alive. In terms of dharma practice, a true friend is more than just someone with whom we share common values and who accepts us for what we are. Such a friend is someone with whom we share common values and who accepts us for what we are. Such a friend is someone whom we can trust to refine our understanding of what it means to live, who can guide us when we’re lost and help us find the way along a path, who can assuage our anguish through the reassurance of his or her presence.”

“that as long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.”

“So long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.”

“It is his absence that is part of me and has been for years. This is who I am, perhaps who we all are, keepers of the absent and the dead. It is the blessing and burden of being alive.”

“If we write our dreams and goals down, we dramatically increase our odds of realization. If we share them with others, they become potent and alive.”