In small ways and big, we will hurt each other in community.

So let’s give some appreciation to those who do nothing less than speak truth and insight into our lives when we need it most.

Sometimes someone making choices their way for their reasons still affects you and the choices you get to make.

Life, and especially life lived with other people, is either a difficulty or an adventure.

Once I’ve affirmed that my values are reasonable, they’re important to me, and I chose them carefully, I can extend that same understanding to someone else.

Maybe we still won’t get it. But maybe they’ll show us a new way of looking at things and we can appreciate that perspective, even as we make our own decisions.

As I let myself admit my inability to do everything and be everything, I realized that my judgments weren’t made from malice, they were done from pain and fear.

I was all too happy to fill my bone dry bucket with smug superiority in the face of her seeming perfection.

When we’re in community, the more people there, the more chance for irritation there is. But there’s also a pretty good chance that we need what the other person has to give.

How can we ever truly connect with people, especially since the more we get to know them, the more incomprehensible they may seem?

I can’t fathom how he can stay focused and in control when there’s a kid puking all over him. To me, he might as well be an alien.

Sometimes a big storm comes in and we have no choice but to show parts of ourselves that have been in trouble for a long time.

Vulnerability, however brief and fleeting, shows me that they, too, are fighting battles and that we can maybe band together to beat the big baddies we’re going to face.

There’s no point in wearing a mask and then connecting with someone else wearing a mask.  Wow, those two masks must have a really good relationship with each other.

If we choose to live slowly and never get to where we wanted to be in life, it’s all our fault.

We have to admit the dirty secret: there will be a moment I look around at my unkempt life and think, “This is as good as I am able to be.” 

How often can we say we are in spaces where no one wants or needs anything from us, other than that we be ourselves?

Sometimes offering generosity is more about letting someone know that they’re not alone.

I’ve realized that holding these boundaries, respecting them, and even loving them lets my generosity flow.

Don’t deny others their chance at generosity, and don’t deny yourself the chance to learn to accept generosity from them.