Memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary. The great omission in American life is solitude. . . that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incinerator of the spirit. Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world. It is not a question of how well each process works, the question is how well they all work together. When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of Creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open, and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those that come from within, and one of the strongest of those is the joy and pride that grow from knowing that you've just done something as well as you can do it. I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. It is the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to skin it. Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. | 
