Fully Awake

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

Don't ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman

One does not become fully human painlessly.
- Rollo May

My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the
young and inflame their intellects.
- Robert M. Hutchins

Further Reading: Embrace Change

Stay Flexible

Welcome Upheaval
    

Life is Now

Life is now.
There was never a time when your life was not now,
nor will there ever be.
- Eckhart Tolle

Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)
Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day;
live life to the fullest;
make the most of what you have.
It is later than you think.
- Horace

"Seize The Day" (Carpe Diem) is sometimes interpreted as an invitation to party irresponsibly - without regard for the consequences. My interpretation of Carpe Diem is to seize the day in the sense of honoring the importance and sanctity of each day we live. It is so easy to delay the important parts of living until another day. But don't do that... Do something truly important Today.

Make Today count. Today - each Today - is the most important day of your life.

None is a failure who is enjoying life.
- William Feather

Further reading:  Cherish This Moment

Be the Melody

Live in the Present

Live Deeply
         

Question and Experiment

We Gain All Genuine Insight From Questions and Experiments.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Take the attitude of a student,
never be too big to ask questions,
never know too much to learn something new.
- Og Mandino

You've got to experiment to figure out what works.
- Andrew Weil

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.
What if they are a little coarse,
and you may get your coat soiled or torn?
What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled
in the dirt once or twice.
Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Ask Questions

Kindle Your Fires

Observe

Keeping Curiosity Alive
  

Choose With All Your Strength

Everyone should carefully observe
which way his heart draws him,
and then choose that way with all his strength.
- Hasidic Proverb

As you awaken,
may your dreams greet you by name,
and may you answer, "Yes!"
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Happiness is a choice.
You grieve, you stomp your feet,
you pick yourself up and choose to be happy.
- Lucy Lawless

To know what you prefer
instead of humbly saying Amen
to what the world tells you you ought to prefer,
is to have kept your soul alive.
- Robert Louis Stevenson 

Further reading: Honor Your Heart

Choose Your Attitude

Courage has a Quiet Voice
       

Love Without Judgement

Know the power and the peace of saying,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love is granting another the space to be
the way they are and the way they are not.
- Werner Erhard

Love is saying "I feel differently," instead of "You're wrong."
- Anonymous

Love is the absence of judgment.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

We all hate it when someone tells us we're wrong. "Them's fightin' words." So we end up hating the person who said that we were wrong.

There are two great reasons for never saying, "You're wrong," to someone you love...

First, it opens the door to anger and hatred. Why do that to someone you love?

Second, virtually everything is a matter of perspective and opinion. Whether the subject is politics, religion, sex, the kids' homework, or anything else, there really isn't a "right" way, just the way you prefer.

Further reading: Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

You Can't Make Them Change