The beauty standards had nothing to do with me in Mexico. It was such a bizarre, dire time for my hair. I was living in a small town where there was not any semblance of an African community. I'd have to take the bus to Mexico City to find a woman who could braid my hair. That was two and a half hours away.

The beauty comes with the balance. Everyone should find his own balance in his personal as well as his professional life. Once you do so, you will feel and look beautiful.

Beauty is only skin deep. I think what's really important is finding a balance of mind, body and spirit.

When you are balanced and when you listen and attend to the needs of your body, mind, and spirit, your natural beauty comes out.

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

Life is all about balance, and there are certain times of the year - birthday, anniversary, holidays - that are meant to be enjoyed without guilt. That being said, Thanksgiving is a meal - it's not a Thanksgiving day, and it's not a Thanksgiving week.

Anger, if used properly, might be for a cause, like helping feed children or stopping abuse somewhere. When we understand that every quality has importance and value, then we open up to this. Shining a light on these shadow qualities gives it balance.

To talk about balance, it's easier to talk about what's out of balance. And I think anytime that you have any disease, and disease meaning lack of ease, lack of flow... dis-ease. So any time there's disease, you're out of balance, whether it's jealousy, anger, greed, anxiety, fear.

I have had a simple life. I have amazing support from family, a great set of friends; financially and emotionally, I have been quite balanced.

The programs I do with my trainer are amazing for overall strength and have a major focus on building my core. We do a lot of unique exercises that shake up the nervous system, which builds my balance and propreception. That's really important for my sport.

I have a great life, amazing family and friends, so it's easy for people to be like, 'What have you got to be sad about?' But it's not that; it's a chemical imbalance in your brain that sometimes needs to be treated.

Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life. Every time I have set out to translate the book (or story, or hopelessly long essay) that exists in such brilliant detail on the big screen of my limbic system onto a piece of paper (which, let's face it, was once a towering tree crowned with leaves and a home to birds). I grieve for my own lack of talent and intelligence. Every. Single. Time. Were I smarter, more gifted, I could pin down a closer facsimile of the wonders I see. I believe, more than anything, that this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ? proof that humans can work magic.

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

I had a lot of losing in my life lately, but this would be a loss that I just couldn't bear. The world is full of women-I had a chance to survive that. But a fish of this caliber was truly something special. I have seen a lot of women in my life, and none of them have ever had me yelling at the top of my lungs in excitement at first glance. Wonder women are rare, wonder fish are twice as rare. This fact was not lost on me.

When we fail to balance our decisions with emotion and reason, we prohibit our brains from calculating the good or harm of our choices. Robert in Flower Girl A Novel

Things only look chaotic up close. If you take a step back, you'll see everything is in perfect balance just as it should be.

Balance comes from the realigning of our priorities.

Some good can emerge from the most horrific of events. There is something positive hidden in every negative, and something negative in every positive. Life is complicated, and a balanced person can see both sides.

Life is a tightrope walk. One has to balance the do's and don'ts.

You know, I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah, balance, that's the right word. Cause the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the one who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all.

"In the heart of every dreamer and innovator, there lies a good cosmic balance.

I want to tell her that I know all about the power imbalance that exists every time you meet someone who's seen you at your most vulnerable, whether or not it was your choice in the first place.