All my first [visiting] child wanted to do was swim, ride a bicycle, garden and play with the hose. Because if you live in a high-rise in Queens, you don't have a garden and a hose. It's the simple things.

Diversity is one of the pluses of the program. You have an opportunity to share your home and your life with someone from a completely different background, and you learn that we're very much the same. All children have the same joys and the same fears.

Listen,” whispers Dario. “How still it is.” They stand under a darkened archway, the only sound a whispered squeak where docked gondolas rub against each other. Negative ions from the lapping water release serotonin, and the brains of these two flood with the nourishment of each other’s breath, each other’s chi.

Take stock of your thoughts and behavior. Each night ask yourself, when were you negative when you could have been positive? When did you withhold love when you might have given it? When did you play a neurotic game instead of behaving in a powerful way? Use this process to self-correct.

I think you have to really, really want to be a film star.

As a cell contains a natural intelligence by which it fosters the healthy functioning of the body, I, too, have natural intelligence that fosters the perfect unfolding of my life.