Seeds of faith are always within us; sometimes it takes a crisis to nourish and encourage their growth.

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.

I don't care how much you know, how many books you read, how you much you study and, you know, how educated you are, you're still going to struggle. Life is challenging.

Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.

Historically, black women have suffered tremendously, but today's black women are the triumph. We have choices, and that's what freedom is all about: having the power to choose.

We must learn how to live in the space of inner peace in our everyday lives. This takes consistent, conscious effort because I know so many black women are hurting and sad, and we don't easily express our heartache or show our wounds.

We don't have time to waste. Our communities are crumbling; our children are under siege. Failing schools and a for-profit prison-industrial complex are sucking the life out of black homes and communities. We are not going down like this!

When I joined 'Essence,' I was a young, single mother. I was 24. I hadn't gone to college. I wasn't making any money at 'Essence' - what was it, $500 a month - and I was struggling. So I was always looking down the road, always hoping for a better, you know, tomorrow.

We need a new order of ministers to stand in pulpits. It's not enough to sing and praise God in worship services. Any religion that doesn't encourage us to work together to end the needless suffering all around us is godless.

We live in an abundant universe. Everything we need to take care of ourselves, those things are all around us. Don't focus on that economy. Don't believe that there's not enough for you.

We women feel we are here to serve. That's the mistake we make. We may have children, husbands, lovers, bills, responsibility. Those things don't own us, but too often we let them.

Occasionally, I have to think like myself to remember where I put something.

There's a lot of rhetoric out here, a lot of talk about giving young people opportunity. Just looking so deeply into the RFK Children's Action Corps, I can see that they are really, really living that mandate.

I write about spirituality not so we get strong from within and achieve some state of nirvana and then distance ourselves from the real world. I write about it so we can feel empowered to doing the critical work that this generation of black women are charged with doing.