Give Thanks for Both the Bloom and the Thorns

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon

The key to happiness is not to have what you want
but to want what you have.
- Anonymous

The most glorious moments in your life
are not the so-called days of success,
but rather those days when out of dejection and despair
you feel rise in you a challenge to life,
and the promise of future accomplishments.
- Gustave Flaubert

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.
- Andy Rooney

We all have our thorns.
We, and Life, have our moments.
Life occurs before our morning coffee.
Life occurs in our bathrobe with our hair uncombed.
Bless and give thanks for All of Life - the bloom and the thorns.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments.
- Rose Kennedy

Further reading: Choose a Joyful Life

Don't Resist Life

Life is Not Supposed to be Fair

The Power of Your Intention
     

Embrace that the Seasons Change

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier
state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
- George Santayana

There are good and bad times,
but our mood changes
more often than our fortune.
- Thomas Carlyle

In times of change, learners inherit the earth;
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped
to deal with a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer

Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or present
are certain to miss the future.
- John F. Kennedy

Further reading: Renewal and Rebirth - The Great Cycle

Another Wave Comes, Another Wave Goes

Endings and New Beginnings
      

First accept reality, only then choose how to react to it

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- Aldous Huxley

Dwell in stillness.
Observe without reacting and without judging.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Life is simple.
Everything happens for you, not to you.
Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late.
You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.
- Byron Katie

 Be still and know who you are.
- Kirtana

Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is,
and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

You're either attaching to your thoughts or you're inquiring. There is no other choice.
- Byron Katie

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
- Byron Katie

First accept reality, only then choose how to react to it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish This Moment

Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you

Cultivate Awareness

Live in the Present

Cease Striving

Breath by Breath 
   

Welcome Today with a Commitment and with a Smile

Just smiling goes a long way toward making you feel better about life.
And when you feel better about life, your life is better.
- Art Linkletter

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.
The great opportunity is where you are.
- John Burroughs

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen?
Then prepare to accept it.
Then proceed to improve on the worst.
- Dale Carnegie

Smile and the world smiles with you.
- Anonymous

Always do the best you can,
and everything else will take care of itself.
Focus your energies on doing what you can
rather than worrying about what you can't.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Peace begins with a smile.
- Mother Teresa

A smile that begins as an effort and a pretense quickly grows to become genuine,
and given time, a habit of happiness. In the words of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, "Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Inner Smile Exercise:
1. Breath slowly, deeply, and consciously.
2. Close your eyes and set the corners of your mouth in just the slightest smile.
3. Visualize your smile growing larger and larger, and your happiness increasing.

Today's affirmation:
Every day in every way I am getting better and better.
- Émile Coué

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Beyond Your Worries

No Regrets
   

Yes, Make the Effort -- Do Small Things with Great Love

We hear two voices calling us,
one saying, "Why not?"
and the other, "Why bother?"
- Sydney J. Harris

We can do no great things,
only small things with great love.
- Mother Teresa

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could do only a little.
- Edmund Burke

Righteousness does not speak in the powerful voices blaring from your television.
Righteousness speaks in a small quiet voice from deep within your own soul.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Small Quiet Voice

Really Listen

Trust Your Own Advice

Is That All There Is - Peggy Lee