“Knowing who you are begins in the mind.”

People of color, particularly African Americans, feel the stigma more keenly. In a race-conscious society, some don’t want to be perceived as having yet another deficit.

The music was as much a gift as sunshine, as rain, as any blessing ever prayed for.

Once my loved one accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years.

My color is my joy and not my burden.

Can’t we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans.

Discipline is the servant of inspiration.

You live your life between your ears.

As I grow older part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me.

Race, redemption and healing – thats my thing.

The message must go on billboards and in radio and TV public service announcements. It must be preached from pulpits and discussed in community forums. It’s not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.

Forgiveness is the key to the recovery of the soul.

African Americans know about racism, but I don’t think we really know the causes. I decided it’s first of all a family problem.

When we finally stop asking America to love us and begin to love ourselves, we will prosper as a people.

I understand Being in all and over all, as there is nothing without participation in Being, and there is no being without Essence. Thus nothing can be free of the Divine Presence.

A mind that has come to the stillness of wisdom shall know being, shall know what it is to love. Love is neither personal nor impersonal. Love is love, not to be defined or described by the mind as exclusive or inclusive. Love is its own eternity; it is the real, the supreme, the immeasurable.

If you can’t be yourself, what’s the point of being anyone else?

I remember being about six years old, for the first day of school, and sitting in the back of a Chrysler, pretending to cry while listening to Tracy Chapman.

I like the nucleus that we have. I’m excited. I want to be here as long as possible. It’s like family. I love being here.

Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.

I have this thing about being acknowledged and accepted by institutions.

And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being loved is intolerable to many.