Developing compassion for Congress and politicians is a good way to begin practicing the new social activism if you want to make effective changes in the world. Perhaps the most startling new insight of all is that there is no other way to effectively change the world.

A new understanding of power is replacing our old understanding of power as the ability to manipulate and control. The old understanding of power has become counterproductive to our evolution. What used to be good medicine has become poisonous. Pursuit of the ability to manipulate and control now produces only violence and destruction.

The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.

Authentic power is the real deal. You can't inherit it, buy it, or win it. You also can't lose it. You don't need to build your body, reputation, wealth, or charisma to get it.

For me the goddess is the female of God, She is powerful if different.

Oh my God, I used to get heartburn and all sorts of indigestion and stuff because I didn't feel well. And you know, I sit a lot because I write, and I gained a whole bunch of weight. My vanity just got to me, and I was like, 'I've got to do something!'

If there was no faith there would be no living in this world. We could not even eat hash with any safety.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.