Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

For hundreds of years, philosophers, artists, teachers, mystics and poets have celebrated the endless possibilities of the human spirit. But none more eloquently than the brilliant Spanish composer Pablo Casals.

Casals wrote that his music sprang “directly from his awareness of the wonder of life and the joy of feeling the incredible marvel of being a human being.” And he urged us to start seeing our own possibilities and those of our children in the bright light of mutual compassion:

“When will we teach our children in school what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you.

“And look at your body—what a wonder it is! Your legs, your arms, your cunning fingers, the way you move! You may become Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.

“Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who, like you, is a marvel?”