by Juanita Mazzarella

I never gave much importance to my father's death and its effect on my life. I tucked it away under the category something unfortunate that happened when you were a kid. It felt as though I put all those unexpressed feelings, words and emotions into a little invisible jar and screwed the cap on tightly. My mind must have known that this was a very important jar, because it found a safe place deep inside of me to keep it. As long as no one came along to bother the jar, it stayed tucked away and my life seemed at ease. However, the problem was that I couldn't keep it unbothered and tucked away forever. People did come along to disturb it. ?(INNERSELF MAGAZINE - Creating new attitudes for the new millennium)

by Bruce D. Schneider, Ph.D.

Each soul incarnated into a specific form on earth for a unique purpose. Your journey is now and exists at this moment, whether you realize it or not. It will be more enjoyable if you consciously pursue your spiritual purpose to bring the world to Love. Consciously following your spiritual purpose brings you ultimate joy, balance, peace, freedom, and happiness.

by Elizabeth Levang, Ph.D.

Grieving is not something done to us, but rather something we do. Thus, grief demands a response from us, one other than resignation. An active process specifies choices and presumes change. More than anything, the process of grief is about transformation.

by Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King.

I walk with the Great Spirit, with God. I talk to Him. The Great Spirit guides me in my life. Wakan-Tanka, that's what we call him in Lakota. You can call Wakan-Tanka by any name you like. In English I call Him God or the Great Spirit. So call Wakan-Tanka whatever you like. Just be sure to call Him. He wants to talk to you.

by Tami Coyne.

I was born in 1960 and my formative years were spent worrying about the Vietnam War, race riots, and the nuclear threat. My earliest memory is John F. Kennedy's assassination. Sadly, my daughter was about the same age on September 11, 2001 as I was on the day JFK died. Will she be haunted by the continuous Technicolor loop of doom and destruction that appeared on our television screens for what seemed like months after the event of September 11th?

by Ron Leifer, M.D.

Everyone in the world wants to be happy. The desire for happiness is the universal wish of humankind. On this, everyone would agree. Yet everyone suffers and dies. The basic fact and the basic tragedy of life is that every human being longs for peace and happiness, yet everyone is haunted by the specter of suffering, unhappiness, and death.

by Dona Witten with Akong Tulku Rinpoche.

Everyone works with people they like -- and with people they dislike. We dislike some of them intensely. Seldom is there the luxury of working only with people who are friends or who are in total agreement with us. Since conflict cannot be totally eliminated, it is important to learn how to deal with conflicting wants and needs.

by Rodney Smith.

We want the connection without the pain, but the two coexist. We are willing to put up with the pain if we can still have the remnants, at least, of a loved one who now exists only in memory.

by Shakti Gawain.

It has been tremendously helpful for me to understand the difference between consciousness and spirituality. Spirituality is one type of energy — the energy that links us to our deepest essential nature and to the universal source. Consciousness is the awareness of all of the energies within us..

by P.M.H. Atwater.

Each of us is a soul currently resident in human form for the purpose of evolving back to the Source which created us. Each soul cycle has a central theme and a "game plan" of what the soul wants to accomplish during that cycle.

by Lawrence Kushner.

In the sixteen-century, people suffered from hunger, disease, hatred, and war. "How could God allow such terrible things to happen? Perhaps," Luria suggested, "it is because God needs our help."

by Alan Cohen.

Real spirituality is beyond hope. Hope means there is a chance things may turn out as we wish, and if we are lucky we may get what we want. Inner knowing, on the other hand, proceeds from the awareness that...