As Mother's Day approaches, I am humbled by these lessons of partnership, as well as those of parenthood -- the privilege of birthing your best teacher, seeing your clearest mirror, and walking beside your greatest reminder for a lifetime.

Serving enables us to step beyond our own desires and to release any sense of separation. It takes us out of selfishness and neediness, and in the process we see our own self-centeredness in greater perspective.

When you serve, you discover that often the most important things you have to offer are not things at all. You start to uncover the full range of resources at your disposal -- your time, presence, attention -- and recognize that the ability to give stems from a state of mind and heart.

Biologists are forming a better view of humankind than the traditional opinions of it as warlike and selfish....