Quotes from Elizabeth Lesser

The greatest stories ever told trace a path through the charred and exalted landscape of romantic love.

every catastrophe can hand us exactly what we need to awaken into who we really are.

Full-hearted fatherhood might save the world.

If all we do is immerse ourselves in the stories of bad people doing bad things to each other and the planet, we will sink under the weight of a lopsided story.

Prayer is allowing ourselves to be thirsty; it is a longing for something we just cannot seem to find. The Sufis say that our longing for God is God's longing for us. In this way, prayer is like a conversation between friends separated across time and space.

Fear is a sneaky thief, stealing away precious moments of your life.

When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing.

Every day we have the opportunity to make our relationships be on the outside what they really are on a spiritual level.

To be spiritual is to be genuine in everything you say and do, come what may.

I think that life is a friggin' magic carpet ride - it's amazing. Everything about life is mysterious and beautiful and touching and tragic and lovely and mystical.

Life is like a school; one can learn, one can graduate, one can skip a grade or stay behind.

First we forgive ourselves, then we forgive others and life itself.

Life's always changing. We always are being called to adapt.

It is the acceptance of death that has finally allowed me to choose life.

Rumi called his teacher "the friend." And that's what we need. We need friends.

To me the purpose of life is to enjoy it! It's to enjoy the gift, and to make sure that other people have an opportunity to enjoy the gift.

Life is about change, it never stops, it's moving and it's moving this human body inexorably towards its demise.

Even if your difficult time comes at you out of the blue - like cancer - even those times, opens your heart to the magic and power of life, and gives you this inner commitment to live every moment.

Don't persuade, defend or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real. And listen.

That is what happens when you put your soul in charge of your life. You dare to claim the sky. That sky is different for everyone. For one person, maybe the sky is having a baby, being a parent, growing a family. But for another it's never having kids; it's traveling the globe; it's saving the world... You know your sky. And if you don't, it's because you haven't listened closely enough.

Rumi says: Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing There is a field. I'll meet you there.

Don't keep searching for the truth; Just let go of your opinions.

Ego is more interested in proclaiming its existence than in basking in the limitless energy of real spirituality. I entreat you to not cheat yourself on the spiritual path. There is no one to impress, nothing to "get", nowhere to rush to, nothing to miss on. The truth is always there, plain and simple, hiding somewhere near you.

Only people who claim their own voice can hear the true song of another.