Don't get me wrong magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.

When I left Europe in 1987 I did so with the thought that my relevance as a composition teacher would benefit from a certain cool distance to certain tendencies I had been observing for several years with increasing disquiet.

With Jackson there was quiet solitude. Just to sit and look at the landscape. An inner quietness. After dinner to sit on the back porch and look at the light. No need for talking. For any kind of communication.

Sometimes we look for those thunderous things to happen in our life for our lives to change or go in the other direction. We seek the miracle. We seek the parting of the seas the moving of the mountains. But no it's a quiet thing. At least for me it was.

It wasn't so long ago that I was a working mom myself. And I know that sometimes much as we all hate to admit it it's just easier to park the kids in front of the TV for a few hours so we can pay the bills or do the laundry or just have some peace and quiet for a change.

The business of the advertiser is to see that we go about our business with some magic spell or tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds.

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules while quietly playing by your own.

Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It's like the ultimate rest. It's better than the best sleep you've ever had. It's a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh.

The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.

The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet Doctor Quiet and Doctor Merryman.