“When the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness”

It becomes more and more difficult to avoid the idea of black men as subjects of not just racial profiling but of an insidious form of racial obliteration sanctioned by silence.

Others would say it was the triumphant meaningful way he lived that allowed him to rise heroically above absurdity.

Love, Mercy, and Grace, sisters all, attend your wounds of silence and hope.

Within the universe of the extraordinary, those qualities we designate to human concepts of gender are often shared, exchanged, or even completely obliterated.

War poisons the land Like diseased minds downloaded/ into bowls of tears.

When reading about what may be described as the lesser celebrated heroic figures of the Harlem Renaissance,

History dressed up in the glow of love’s kiss turned grief into beauty.

The act of writing itself is much like the construction of a mirror made of words.

Hope drowned in shadows emerges fiercely splendid–– boldly angelic.

They may have for their lives, or, exercising sufficient strength of will to make those dreams a reality.

Groping their way through suffocating shadows of political turmoil, economic oppression, military mayhem, starvation, and disease.

Writing for me is a form of spiritual discipline and creative vision, a means of being in the world and giving one’s love to it without compromise or dilution.

First gave in to the urge to pray to their sense of something greater than themselves and interpreted certain signs or events or silences as responses to those prayers.

Know yourself fearlessly (even quietly) for all the things you are.

A horn of plenty spills from your hands into the starved lives of millions.

Unless you are here: this garden refuses to exist. Pink dragonflies fall from the air and become scorpions scratching blood out of rocks.

Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.

Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does.

When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.

You taught me how to be kind, generous, honest, truthful, trustworthy, authentic, by simply being yourself.

The key in telling stories that people relate to is, not surprisingly, vulnerability and authenticity. That means that letting people know the struggle behind your brand – the failures and mistakes – and how you got through them is really important.

Passion will always move you in the direction of your authentic self.

True success – financial, personal, and professional – lies above all in loving your family, working hard, and living your passion. In telling your story. In authenticity, hustle, and patience. In caring fiercely about the big and the small stuff. In valuing legacy over currency.

People around the world, they want the authentic Starbucks experience.