“It is true that the heart has its seasons, just as a flower opens to the sunlight and closes to the night. We need to be respectful of those rhythms. But we can’t close down for long. It is our true nature to have an open heart.”

Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?

To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring them to the transformative power of our heart.

Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings.

When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.

A second quality of mature spirituality is kindness. It is based on a fundamental notion of self-acceptance.

You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.

There are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of wisdom.

In deep self acceptance, grows a compassionate understanding.

In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived How well we have loved How well we have learned to let go.

Wherever you are is the perfect place to awaken. This moment is the exact place to practice compassion and loving awareness. You have all the ingredients to breathe and find freedom just where you are.

The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?

Life without forgiveness is unbearable.

We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another – and ourselves.

Try to believe that still within you are flowers left to bloom.

Maybe we are supposed to break, so that through our cracks our flowers can grow.

A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the most joyous day of the week.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.

The lotus grows out of the mud. Love the lotus; do not love the mud.

You bloom one day, you do not on another. This is life and every flower doesn’t require the same amount of sunshine.

Isn’t it a lovely thing watching flowers greet the wind as if a gentle kiss is all they need to dance.

Nothing in the whole world is of interest to me but my painting and my flowers.