To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

A beloved Buddhist teacher and author, Pema Chödrön has studied Tibetan Buddhism since 1974, and is now a resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, a Western Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia. Her books, which interpret Buddhist philosophy for a Western audience, often invite the reader to let go of the need for control, and instead lean into life’s frequent upheavals and changes. Here, she reminds us that the moments we feel the most off balance are deceptive: They are also often the moments in which we experience the most growth.