The art of contemplation teaches us to covet this precious but vital gift of lightness. Sometimes when the clouds gather and press in on us, or when our brows curl into furrows, the one thing we need above all is this sense of greater perspective.

What if all you had to do to avoid all of this was to let go in the beginning? If you had, you would have gone up instead of down. That’s how it works.

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.

Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.

Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.

Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.

Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.

When it com