Barb Cherem

“This is the secret of accompaniment. I will hold a mirror to you and show you your value, bear witness to your suffering, and to your light. And over time, you will do the same for me, for within the relationship lies the promise of our shared dignity and the mutual encouragement needed to do the hard things.
Whatever you aim to do, whatever problem you hope to address, remember to accompany those who are struggling, those who are left out, who lack the capabilities needed to solve their own problems. We are each other’s destiny. Beneath the hard skills and firm strategic priorities needed to resolve our greatest challenges lies the soft, fertile ground of our shared humanity. In that place of hard and soft is sustenance enough to nourish the entire human family.”
― Jacqueline Novogratz, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World

“Your silence will not protect you.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.”
― Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses

“Some dogs bite. So you keep them away from people. You can't just get rid of them, for being the way they are. And now and then you can be glad to have them around, to snarl the way a good dog never does.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Lila