The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.

We have a choice when we face difficult decisions: We can act with faith or we can act with fear. There are no guarantees except this one: If we dwell on our fears, we will definitely miss the joys of the unexpected.

There is a purpose to our lives, even if it is sometimes hidden from us, and even if the biggest turning points and heartbreaks only make sense as we look back, rather than as we are experiencing them. So we might as well live life as if—as the poet Rumi put it—everything is rigged in our favor.

The harder we press on a violin string, the less we can feel it. The louder we play, the less we hear.… If I "try" to play, I fail; if I race, I trip. The only road to strength is vulnerability. —STEPHEN NACHMANOVITCH

There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.'

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I was thinking very carefully about going into education, becoming a teacher, maybe becoming a rabbi.

We have this consolation, that it was the evident dispensation of God which brought us to this country; and still further, that if the world was all before us, where to choose our place of rest, we should not desire to leave Burmah.

A lot of people would like to see me in England. This is not necessarily the league that attracts me the most, though. It would allow me to develop further, though.

God's will for your life is God's will for today, and it doesn't get any more glamorous than that.

Very often, it's the director that I'm attracted to. If it's a really good director, I don't even have to read the script to say yes.

Our stories are all stories of searching. We search for a good self to be and for good work to do. We search to become human in a world that tempts us always to be less than human or looks to us to be more. We search to love and to be loved. And in a world where it is often hard to believe in much of anything, we search to believe in something holy and beautiful and life-transcending that will give meaning and purpose to the lives we live.