You can't please everyone. When you're too focused on living up to other people's standards, you aren't spending enough time raising your own. Some people may whisper, complain and judge. But for the most part, it's all in your head. People care less about your actions than you think. Why? They have their own problems!

The gaunt, unhealthy vegan is the muffin vegan. Bread and fries and processed veggie dogs. It's like, 'Hello? Did you eat your vegetables?'

When you're the conscious captain in your kitchen, you'll feel better mentally and physically.

There's nothing sexy about cancer.

I was kind of a scaredy-cat as a kid, and I made a very deliberate decision at some point that I was not going to let fear rule my life or determine my experience. That wasn't so easily accomplished.

In a global world, nationalism is a fantasy, and it's poison. It used to be appropriate, but it's not anymore, and we haven't learned that lesson yet.

Most of my job life has had to do with welfare, first helping people find work and then as an administrator. The earlier experience was more direct and satisfying, and I enjoy thinking that a bunch of people somewhere are doing better today than they might have done if not for me.

Mekhi' means, sort of, one who loves water, and the relationship with water and how water is important to life... It's a sense of being needed and purpose - you know, we have a purpose on this earth, and we're here to fill that.