“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”  Jack Kornfield

“Nothing new that is really interesting comes without collaboration.”  James D. Watson (discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA with Francis Crick)

"Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders." — Henry David Thoreau

“Wearing a mask wears you out. Faking it is fatiguing.” – Rick Warren

“We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fails to recognize that both are necessary for sustained high performance.”   Jim Loehr, PhD - The Power of Full Engagement

“Friendship is always an act of recognition …. If you realize how vital to your whole spirit friendship actually is, you will take time for it.”  John O’Donohue

“One of the gifts of 'Star Trek' is my professional work colleagues have become my lifelong friends.”  George Takei (Hikaru Sulu)

“Why is it important to swim with a buddy?”  Our local YMCA swim instructor

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  Attributed to many persons

“If you were to make one investment in your well-being … the best one you could make long-term is to take care of your relationships.”  Robert Waldinger, MD

“What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Music can heal the wounds which medicine cannot touch.” - Debasish Mridha, MD, Neurologist and Author

“  … upping your love game is anything but boring.  It’s countercultural because it cuts against the never-enoughness and always-behindness that society seems to want us to feel.”  Dan Harris, Author and Journalist

“Words create worlds.”  – Attributed to many

“Everybody is a story …. The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.” Rachel Naomi Remem, MD

"Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve."  Rabbi Earl Grollman, author and an internationally recognized bereavement counselor

“When you compare losses, someone else’s may seem greater or lesser than your own, but all losses are painful.” ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD, Psychiatrist, author and pioneer in our understanding of dying and grieving

“Your loss is not a test, a lesson, something to handle, a gift, or a blessing. Loss is simply what happens to you in life. Meaning is what you make happen.” David Kessler

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.  Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”   Albert Schweitzer, MD, Humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient

“Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.” James Clear, Atomic Habits