Welcome to my Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote. See today's daily inspirational quotes below.
May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I have a Dream... Martin Luther King Jr.

I have a Dream...
- Martin Luther King Jr.


I get goosebumps whenever I listen to Dr. King's speech. Do I believe in the content of Dr. King's Dream? Very much so. But beyond that, I hold his level of conviction as an example for all our lives.

  • Have a Vision, a Dream.
  • Believe in that Vision.
  • Live that Vision with every fiber of your being.

Osho: The beauty of facing life unprepared is tremendous.


The beauty of facing life unprepared is tremendous. Then life has a newness, a youth; then life has a flow and freshness. Then life has so many surprises. And when life has so many surprises, boredom never settles in you.
- Osho


Is Osho completely disagreeing with Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting and creator of the motto, "Be Prepared?" I think not. Both are making a point about facing life fearlessly. Each is asserting that we don't know what tomorrow will bring, and that we do well to begin each day with courage and a sense of adventure.

Courage affirmation: I release the familiar that I may better discover my inspiring future.

Further reading: Be Prepared

Joseph Campbell: The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Life only appears to be rushing toward us

Life is always lived in the eye-of-the-storm - jlh

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Tears and laughter cleanse the heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Are you holding back long-suppressed emotions? Let your feelings flow, right now.

While some of us wear our emotions on our sleeve, others keep feelings bottled up for decades. Strike a balance. If you are suffering with unexpressed frustration or grief, let the tears flow. Then find a friend to laugh with. Laughter, however artificial it feels, lightens the saddest moments and bonds us to family and friends.

Further reading: Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings. - jlh

Life's burdens are lighter when I laugh at myself - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is magnificent - just as it comes.

How To Cope With Loss, Grief and the Fear Of Your Own Mortality

Monday, September 28, 2009

Choose to be as a young child - fully awake, eager for the next experience. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Choose to be as a young child - fully awake, eager for the next experience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

As we age, we experience disappointments, and then develop a fear of the unfamiliar.

Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child, to whom all of life is a grand adventure. Life is your playground, fashion grand castle and sweeping boulevards, defeat fire-breathing dragons and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Further reading:

Shed the scales from your eyes

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind - jlh

Discovery and adventure, rather than fear

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Henry Ford: Those who believe they can do something and those who believe they can't are both right.


Those who believe they can do something and those who believe they can't are both right.
- Henry Ford


Whether the challenge is reaching the moon, sailing around the world, hitting a home run, acing a job interview, or walking again after a stroke, we can usually accomplish what we believe we can. But once we doubt ourselves, success slips beyond our grasp.

Further reading:

Eleanor Roosevelt quote: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Helen Keller: Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

C. S. Lewis You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream

ACTION - the sixth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

What if you could have happiness AND prosperity?

Money isn't as important as happiness, but what if you could have happiness AND prosperity?

Take a moment for a quick smile.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

I Am One With Spirit and All Creation

I Am One With Spirit and All Creation - I give thanks for the unity of all creation and for everything that has brought me to this moment. I release my entire being to the gentle nurture of Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.
- Chief Seattle

Read my article: Five 30-Second Emotional Releases to De-Stress at Work

The message Don't believe yourself prompted a multi-part question about the nature of beliefs, which got me to writing... The Nature of Beliefs

Further reading: UNITY - the eighth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Friday, September 25, 2009

The beauty does not live out there; the beauty's in my eyes. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The beauty does not live out there; the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Perspective. Point-of-view. Is something ugly, or beautiful? Noble or insensitive? There are six billion ways of seeing life.

Everyone believes that their beliefs are the right ones -
that is why they are called beliefs.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes. - jlh

Don't believe yourself.

Life is magnificent - just as it comes.

Visualize a kinder world

The Nature of Belief

What do you believe? Why do you believe that? What is the fundamental nature of belief?

Is a belief a perception of the five senses or is it a perception of emotional feeling? Is it better to say "I sense" and/or "I feel"? Is it better to say " I know" than "I believe"? Is belief based on experience or on a idea? My thinking is that belief/believing is a very missed used word.
- Anonymous

These are BIG questions with several facets...

Language: Before we can get down to true thoughts and feelings, we have to deal with language. We may call it "English," but we don't speak the same language. We have regional differences and cultural differences as well as personal differences. In addition, our language is changing rapidly. We may agree on words like "door" and "walk," but words like "belief" and "God" call up different images for each of us.

Some words are "trigger" words. "Liar" is certainly a trigger word for many people. It creates an emotional reaction that is way beyond the literal meaning of the word. I once discovered to my dismay that the word "scapegoat" is that kind of trigger word for a few people. It is very easy to use someone else's trigger word in a completely innocent way, as I did, and then be accused of making a racial, religious, gender, or personal slur.

Getting back to "belief," when one is having a deep one-on-one conversation, it is worthwhile to create a mutual working definition of the key terms of the conversation, such as "belief." In public speaking or writing, sometimes it is important to state one's own definition of key terms, as I do in my book Simply An Inspired Life.

On a day-to-day basis, however, just be clear with yourself about what you mean in conversations with others and especially with yourself.

In everyday conversation, I seldom attempt to be truly precise in my speaking. Like most people, I say "It's a beautiful day." and "The cheesecake is terrible." and "He shouldn't talk to her like that." I KNOW those are merely my opinions, but it's impractical to label everything I say as being my opinion. Everything I and everyone else ever says or thinks is merely an opinion, whether it regards the nature of God or the state of the cheesecake.

So how do we form our opinions? Our opinions (or our beliefs, feelings, prejudices, or knowledge, if you prefer) come from only two sources, our genetics and our history. "Prejudice" is another trigger word, but it describes an often-valid practice. Our ancestors wouldn't have survived without prejudice. If I watched my father being eaten by a lion, I become prejudiced against all lions. Perhaps the next lion would be friendly, but ... NO, of course I don't think religious, racial, or similar prejudices are acceptable, but I do understand that they are based on instinctive generalizations.

Whether we say "It is my opinion," "I believe," "I feel," "I sense," "I know," or just state something as if it were a fact (such as "The cheesecake is terrible."), we are speaking about our perception of the world as we relate to it, and cannot with any validity imagine how others perceive their worlds. Moreover, I contend that it is presumptuous for us to think we know how others SHOULD perceive their worlds.

Further reading: Suggestions for Reading Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote

Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Friedrich Nietzsche: There are no facts, only interpretations

Perspectives on the Nature of God - Which of these Five Views Matches Yours?

Oscar Wilde quote: Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

Five 30-Second Emotional Releases to De-Stress at Work

To reduce the effects of stress in the workplace, take an emotional and spiritual, as well as a physical break, at least every two hours, preferably every hour.

Here are five de-stressors you can do in thirty seconds each...

1. Stretch your hands, arms, and shoulders. In addition to unwinding the kinks, this exercise provides a good warm-up for any of the other emotional exercises. Stand and hold your arms out to your sides so your body and arms form a cross. Gently bend each hand back at the wrist until the fingers point straight upward. Keeping your arms fully extended to the sides, with your fingers still extended upward, twist each hand and arm in a wringing motion as if you were operating a screwdriver.

2. Conscious Breathing: Breathe deeply and slowly. Focus your entire attention on each in-breath and out-breath. Visualize drawing new clean energy in through the top of your head on each in-breath, and expelling old stale energy out the soles of your feet on each out-breath.

3. Inner Smile: While conscious breathing, close your eyes and set the corners of your mouth in just the slightest smile. Visualize your smile growing larger and larger, and your happiness increasing.

4. Release: This exercise releases both your attachment to those things that haunt you, and your attachment to the fear of losing what you do not believe you can live without.

4a. Choose something that is very important to you and that you don't think you could stand to lose - such as your house, your favorite sport, your pet, your relationship with a loved one, your hearing, your eyesight, your life. Visualize your treasure between your hands. Feel intense love and gratitude for every joyful instant that you have spent with your important something. Now slowly raise your hands above your head, spread your hands apart, and RELEASE your treasure back to the Universe. It never belonged to you anyway - it was just on short term loan from Spirit. Choose another important something and release it. For everything important in your life, pick it up, love it, nurture it, give thanks for it, and then release it. Do the same exercise for each person that you have ever loved, and that has passed from this life. Hold them, love them, give thanks for them, and then release them back to the Universe.

4b. Now, release your burdens - your fears, regrets, guilts, shames, embarrassments, angers. One by one, focus on each memory or fear that troubles you, hold it close, then release it back to the Universe. Release each incident from your past that still bothers you. Release each fear - your fears about your health, your family, your job, and every other fear. Breathe deeply, and give thanks.

5. Merging: While conscious breathing, close your eyes and visualize merging with the entire Universe - with each person, each animal, each plant, each bit of everything seen and unseen. Feel a unity with Spirit and all that is.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

They don’t call them DEADlines for nothing - keep breathing. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


They don’t call them DEADlines for nothing - keep breathing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I will not be governed by the tyranny of immediacy.
- mary anne radmacher

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beware the barrenness of a busy life
- Socrates

Further reading: Lao Tzu: Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished

Gifts freely given are never obligations - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Time is my friend

Never Let Anyone Get Your Goat, Push Your Buttons, Get You Riled Up, or Annoy You - 6 Ways to Cope


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Be Prepared


Today's message comes from page 190 of Simply An Inspired Life: Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times and Bad with permission of my publisher Conari Press...

“Be Prepared.”

“Be prepared for what?”

“Why, for any old thing.” said Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting.

[as quoted in the Boy Scout Handbook]


For Baden-Powell, the motto, “Be Prepared,” meant more than just being ready for emergencies, it meant being ready for all challenges to mind and body - meeting all of life’s struggles with courage - happily and without regret - having done your best.

Pretty smart, those scouts. The motto of the Boy Scouts, could profitably be a way of life for all of us.

Further reading: Eight Points of An Inspired Life - Keys to Happiness

Mark Twain quote: Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ...

Eleanor Roosevelt quote: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

I create Today as a celebration of my life - jlh

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or something other than himself. - Joseph Campbell


A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself or something other than himself.
- Joseph Campbell

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.
- Keshavan Nair

Let today be the day that you choose to become your own greatest
Hero.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Who is your greatest hero, and why do you admire them? Take a few minutes to think about this.

Further reading: Courage Quotes and Sayings - famous, familiar, or meaningful

Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter

Jimmy Yen - My Personal Greatest Hero

Let today be the day that you choose to become your own greatest Hero

Monday, September 21, 2009

Simple living is the way to happy living - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Simple living is the way to happy living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu


The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
- Elbert Hubbard


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


Further reading: A Story of Money

My world expands with the generosity, compassion, inventiveness, and service that I contribute - jlh

Say NO to Stress

Do You Own Your Money and Stuff Or Do They Own You? - Take This Quiz to Find Out

Saturday, September 19, 2009

I have no need to conform to the stereotypes others have defined for me. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


I have no need to conform to the stereotypes others have defined for me.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I received a couple of comments describing yesterday's message as "disgusting," and "offensive." I apologize if anyone felt offended, it was certainly not my intention to insult anyone or to suggest that life is less than difficult for anyone.

The issue with my message, as one writer put it... "In this day and age, women are 'expected' to work outside the home as well as care for the children, husband and home....get the meals, do the laundry, etc. Perhaps they are incredibly tired, find little time for them to get back to a peaceful state of mind as they are expected to carry so many loads."

I agree. Those are the generally accepted expectations of American society.

But what next?

One choice is to suffer, the other choice is to seek joy.

So how to seek joy?

Sometimes joy can be found in striving to make changes, and sometimes it is better attained through acceptance. This is well said in the Serenity Prayer...

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr

Whether you opt to seek change, or to accept, choose joy.

Each of us has a choice in all matters. There is nothing that any of us ever HAVE to do. Each of us, man or woman, chooses the roles we play, and what we make of our lives at each instant. Expectation and Tradition are burdens we take upon ourselves, or choose to throw off.

Does this mean becoming selfish? Not at all, it means becoming selective. It always means doing what we believe is right, regardless of the expectations of others.

As an example, imagine that our aging parent needs our help. There are three courses we can steer: #1. Care for them, but grumble and complain about how unfair and burdensome life is, how we are expected to provide assistance, and how unhappy it makes us to care for our mom. #2. Choose to make other arrangements for mom's care. #3. Be of service to mom because we CHOOSE to make a free-will gift of our time, energy and love.

I propose that #2 is preferable to #1. Visualizing myself as an aging parent (which doesn't take a lot of imagining), I wouldn't want an unhappy person around me who thought I was a burden. Naturally, I believe that #3 is the best option. But the way to get to #3 is to understand that #2 is also a choice. Unless we truly believe that #2 is an option, we can't reach #3, and we get stuck with #1, feeling resentful and victimized.

Life isn't fair. We can't choose our circumstances. But we can choose happiness, or not.

Conscious choices are NOT easy. It is much easier to believe that we are tossed about helplessly on the ocean of circumstances.

Expectations (Demands) suck the juice out of life. Don't believe that you are bound by other's demands. You do not have to conform to the stereotypes others have defined for you.

Further reading: Intention versus Expectation (Demand)

The path of the adventurer is a path of joy - jlh

Why I Choose to Believe that Others are Never the Cause of My Unhappiness

Resilience is about believing in yourself, and trusting your own wisdom rather than being swayed by the opinions of others.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Happiness comes from a conscious choice to live life joyfully. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Happiness comes from a conscious choice to live life joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Are people in general becoming less happy? Some say that modern living adds so much stress that people find less joy in life. Others say the opposite. What is truly important is for each of us to create or recover our own happiness.

Happiness is not something we can find or be given, but is something we create for ourselves, or don't.

Happiness is virtually unrelated to how much money we have, our type of work, our house, our possessions. If one is starving or homeless, it is very different, but once our minimum requirements are met, happiness comes not from material things, but from a conscious choice to live life joyfully.

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Happy Friends - Happy You

The Wisdom of Anne Frank

CHOICE - the fourth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Foreign Travel


“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.”
~ Rudyard Kipling

Winston Churchill quote: Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.


Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Winston Churchill


The importance of history is in its educational value for our lives today, not in regret, resentment, or revenge.

3 Rs that Plague Humanity - Regret, Resentment, and Revenge.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called Present.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Positive Attitude Sayings

Soar - it's your natural state. - jlh

Take Charge of Your Life

On the Unworkability of Vengeance

Mark Twain quote: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Thank you for your support

Thank you for your support of yesterday's launch of Simply An Inspired Life. Thanks to you, our book reached #243 on the Amazon bestseller list. 

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Universal Kindness and Compassion


If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Whatever you do, do with kindness.
Whatever you say, say with kindness.
Wherever you go, radiate kindness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Know that Spirit transcends all cultural differences and embraces all creation.

I Pray for Peace in the Middle East

Five Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Sad for No Apparent Reason

Aesop: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail

Caring - Kindness - Compassion - Appreciation ... It is my choice to care deeply about others. - jlh

When you want to look for an inspiring quote on a particular subject, or by a certain author, just use the search box at the top-left of www.DreamThisDay.com

You can select the most popular categories of quotes from the list in the Left Sidebar on any of the quotes pages. These popular quote topics include:

It's a Party - Simply An Inspired Life

Today is your day to dance lightly with life,
sing wild songs of adventure,
invite rainbows & butterflies out to play,
soar your spirit, and unfurl your joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Monday, September 14, 2009

This must never happen again.


This [the Holocaust] must never happen again. ... Be vigilant about your rights. Care about the rights and human dignity of others.

...
When the rights of any group, no matter how small, no matter how marginal, are violated, your liberty, your freedom is put at risk. Let there never be a day when we cast about in horror and have to ask the question, "How did it ever come to this?"
- Thomas Childers, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, in the closing remarks of his six-hour Teaching Company lecture series A History of Hitler’s Empire

Listening to Professor Childers on my iPod as I walked on the beach and drove around town, I was struck by the similarities between the early days of Hitler's rise to power in the 1920's and today's small but vocal minority of Americans calling for Muslims, Mexicans, Gays, and others to be treated as less than fully American, less than fully worthy human beings.

Let us all be fully vigilant.

Further reading: A common denominator of all religions is that they have the power to bring out the best and the worst in people. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Edward R. Murrow: Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences

Dwight D. Eisenhower: How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?

Oscar Wilde quote: Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The fewer secrets you have, the happier you will be


The fewer secrets you have, the happier you will be.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


This aphorism is partly about being open and forthcoming, but it is more about never doing anything that you would be ashamed to have everyone know about. If you always do what you know you should, you will never have to worry about keeping secrets.

Further reading: This Above All, To Thine Own Self Be True - 5 Ways to Apply William Shakespeare's Advice Today

Open Mind - Open Heart: A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect

Stand Tall, Stand Proud.

The Eight Points of Simply An Inspired Life

Friday, September 11, 2009

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

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


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: Don't believe yourself.

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes. - jonathan lockwood huie

Love Quotes - Relationship Quotes - True love has no limits

Maya Angelou:I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Lao Tzu: He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

No one knows what he can do until he tries - Publilius Syrus

No one knows what he can do until he tries.
- Publilius Syrus


Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker


Courage is not always about action, and it doesn't always involve danger, but courage is always doing what is right.

Further reading: Eleanor Roosevelt quote: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Martin Luther King, Jr. - Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Mary Anne Radmacher: Dare to dream of your great success

Reminder: September TeleClasses - Mary Anne Radmacher

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

On the Nature of Quotes, Quotations, Sayings


A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotations are slippery things, really. A brief sentence or phrase, often repeated - always completely out of its original context, and sometimes not an accurate representation of the author's original words, let alone his intentions.

The Emerson quote often appears as, "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," which would, I believe, cause Emerson much discomfort. He was a man of very orderly habits, in addition to being a critic of unthinking conformity.

Quotes can take on a very different sense outside their original context, either losing power, or becoming an unintended generalization. The Anne Frank quote, "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains," has power in its own right, but becomes a nearly overwhelming affirmation of belief when we know that those are the words of a thirteen your old girl facing likely death at the hands of the Nazis.

Quotes also can get generalized into a greater meaning than the speaker intended. When baseball great Babe Ruth said, "Never let the fear of striking out get in your way," it is unlikely that he was expounding the universal truth his words have since become.

Many famous quotes are misattributed, which causes greater confusion. As a well-known example of the power of the internet to misinform, Marianne Williamson's memorable words, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us," have often been incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela. In fact, those words do not appear at all in the 1994 inaugural speech to which they were attributed.

Sometime spurious quotations are intentional, such as attributing religious or political ideas to people like Jefferson and Einstein that are contrary to their beliefs. More often, quotes are attributed to people who repeat them, or they just get confused over time. For example, the ancient Chinese proverb, "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness," is often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt because it was one of her favorite sayings.

So why pay attention to quotes at all? Personally, I am fascinated with the origin of quotes and the context in which they were first uttered. But I believe the greatest value of quotes is as a springboard to our own thinking. For this purpose, it mostly doesn't matter who first said the words, or whether they evolved over time. One of my favorite quotes is misattributed to Mark Twain, but is actually of unknown origin. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Whoever first said those words, they hold great value for me.

Some quotes express ideas that are universal, or nearly so. Shakespeare's, "What's done is done," is like that. One may be provoked to consider the consequences of the past being unalterable, but it's hard to argue with the basis of the truism. However, most quotes present only one side of a multifaceted issue, and are better considered as a question, and the beginning of an inquiry, than as a final answer.

What does the Francesco Petrarch quote, "Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure," mean? I have no idea what those words meant to a fourteenth century Italian Renaissance humanist, and I have no idea what they mean today. But I do find that quote to be the basis for a meaningful inquiry.

The Emerson quote is one of those that offers a great opportunity for inquiry. Which consistencies are foolish? What is the best balance between comfortable habit and skeptical questioning, between following community traditions and independent thinking, between acceptance and crusading for change? There are no easy answers, and there is much to be said in favor of following a middle path that balances the conflicting beliefs and desires of each life.

Further reading: The World's 10 Most Inspiring Quotations

Mary Anne Radmacher: Old Beginnings versus NEW beginnings

Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

1. Pounce on opportunity. He who hesitates, misses catching the passing lizard.

2. Patience. Infinite patience...

3. Concentration. A cat studying an opportunity just beyond his grasp is the epitome of focused attention. He doesn't even blink as he tunes out all distractions. His body is completely still except for his wildly twitching tail releasing his nervous energy.

4. Nothing is worth disturbing your beauty sleep.

5. Catnap. Even a few moments of shut-eye is refreshing.

6. If you're happy, purr. Show your appreciation by letting people know that you like what they do.

7. Do cat stretches - and other yoga poses, and try Qigong. Especially as we age, gentle stretching is one of the best things we can do for our bodies.

8. Wrestle with your best friend. She likes it when you're playful.

9. Eat when you're hungry and not by the clock.

10. Ask for what you want. If you are lovable and patient, you will probably get it.

11. You can't have everything you want. If you put your claws where they don't belong, you're going to get spanked.

12. Revel in life's simple pleasures. A ball of string is magic. Catnip is heavenly.

Further reading: It is never too late to begin.

How to Stop Anxiety and Get Back Your Life

Francesco Garri Garripoli: The Dance of the Cosmos

Resources and Recommendations - Get Started with Qigong

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Kofi Annan: We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.

We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race. - Kofi Annan

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa


Let today be a day of acceptance, compassion, and understanding. Let us feel our bond of humanity with each of our planet's six billion souls. Put aside color, geography, wealth, education, political and religious beliefs, and feel the throb of each human heart in your heart. Never let your compassionate connection with all creation be limited by your politics, your language, or your traditions. Know that Spirit transcends all cultural differences and embraces all creation.

Affirmation: I choose acceptance and compassion toward all humanity.

Further reading:
Try a new perspective on diversity. Across the country and around the world, we are all one.

UNITY - I Am One With Spirit and All Creation

Perspectives on the Divine

Honor Diversity

Aging With Grace by Dr. David Mokotoff

Aging With Grace
by Dr. David Mokotoff

I asked my office staff to pull the number of patients I had seen in the past year over the age of 90. I had assumed that maybe I had a couple dozen nonagenarians, but was stunned when the number came back at 81. And two of those were over the age of 100. The personality of these folks has always fascinated me, and I was looking for a common thread. Did they get to this age because of luck, clean living, great medical care, or good genetic background? In the end, I have concluded that it is largely serendipity. However, what I did learn in listening to them, two or three times a year, was mostly a non-complaining, victimless view of life. For the most part, they had aged with grace.

One man who I recently saw, age 95, responded to my question, “So how are you feeling?” with the following: “I have some aches and pains, you know, but at my age, everyday is a bonus.” This is an attitude that I rarely hear out of my patients in their seventh and eight decades.

Another delightful woman, who will turn 105 in October, has an intact mind and touch of humor. Every time I see her for during a semi-annual visit, her first words, given from a mischievous half-smile, are “Are you surprised that I’m still here?” In truth, I am not surprised, but stunned. With the degree of her heart disease, and by all objective parameters, she should have died ten years ago.

This solidified my belief that one never really knows when they will die. Several years, two of my colleagues died in their fifties during a horrific private plane crash in North Carolina. So when my very elderly patients ask, “Will I see you next time?” meaning “Will I live another six months?” I answer, “I don’t know if I will be here in another six months.” This places the value of living one day at a time in perspective for them.

It seems to me that for many of those lucky enough to reach 90, they appreciate life more than the rest of us. For the most part, they approach life with optimism, gratitude, and grace. Maybe this is why they got to this station in life after all.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure. - Francesco Petrarch


Sameness - Habit

Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
- Francesco Petrarch


Everything is a miracle, not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous comment on the blog post Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

When was the last time you took a different route to work ... just because? Consider shaking up your life a little (or a lot) ... for no reason, except to do it. Let your life be an adventure.

Further reading: Lao Tzu: A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Helen Keller: One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar

Mark Twain quote: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Throw off the bowlines.

CELEBRATION - the seventh Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Sunday, September 6, 2009

What do you take for granted?

What do you take for granted? It is human nature to take everything for granted - our companions, our homes, our electricity, our TVs and computers.

We are so Blessed

If we are not happy, perhaps we should count our blessings.
To the right is a fairly average American home of 150 years ago - a time of short painful lives before antibiotics and anesthetics. To the left is a Peruvian home which the family shares with its business of brewing chicha (home made corn beer) and preparing guinea pigs for traditional celebrations

Imagine if we would just be grateful for everything we have, always.

Further Reading: Zero-based Gratitude

How do You View the World?

Mary Anne Radmacher: Dare to dream of your great success

Why I Choose to Believe that Others are Never the Cause of My Unhappiness

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Social Networks - and email

I encourage you to follow me on Twitter. I am @jonhuie on Twitter - http://twitter.com/jonhuie 

The best way to communicate with me is always via email at jlh {at} jlhuie {dot} com 
 I read everything you send, unless it gets caught in a spam filter or falls between the cracks, and I try to answer most email. Mail me again if you don't get a response.

thank you for your support,
- Jonathan

George Bernard Shaw quote: Write your Sad times in Sand, Write your Good times in Stone.

Write your Sad times in Sand, Write your Good times in Stone.
- George Bernard Shaw


It's so easy to focus on regrets and resentments over past events. For a happier life, remember the good times and forget your troubles. Better yet, make up happier stories about times past.

Further reading:  Life is always lived in the eye-of-the-storm - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A man's good name is his best monument - from an old churchyard at Lockerbie, Scotland

 How To Be Happy In Life - The 9 Paths To Happiness

 Overwhelmed By Abundance? - Choose Gratitude

Friday, September 4, 2009

Intention versus Expectation (Demand)

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr

There is an important distinction between the intentions we hold for our inspired future, and the demands (expectations) we tend to place on ordinary life.

We need to create a balance between accepting what life hands us, and working diligently to create the best life we can. We shouldn't want to live life as "a log floating down the river," but we can't be happy if we always fight against the currents of life either.

My own guideline for balancing action with acceptance, is that in living today and in designing my future, I choose action. I approach life from the point of view that there is nothing that I can't accomplish. However, with regard to the past, I believe that graceful unconditional acceptance is the only path to happiness. As William Shakespeare says, "What's done is done."

I believe that the Serenity Prayer says the same thing, but I place particular emphasis on the point that everything in the past falls into the category of things we can only accept.

My article The Paradox Of Living In The Moment - How To Be Happy Today And Prepare For Tomorrow attempts to address the paradox of taking charge of our future while accepting our past.

Play to win, but be a good loser.
Have a plan for your life,
but accept whatever comes your way with grace and gratitude.

- jlh

Light and Joy...
Jonathan

Further reading: The Serenity Prayer - God grant me the serenity...

don Miguel Ruiz: Always do your best

Vince Lombardi quote: Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is

Today is the bridge between acceptance and faith

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Question every assumption and expectation. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Question every assumption and expectation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


The more you expect, the more you get disappointed in life.
- Anonymous

Be clear that expectations are demands. Demanding that life turn out the way we prefer is a sure path to disappointment and suffering. Happiness lies in having no expectations, and accepting life as it comes.

Further reading: Life will not meet your expectations - choose joy anyway - jlh

Anais Nin: We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.

"Life is not supposed to be fair." - jlh

Monastery Housekeeping

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Rabindranath Tagore quote: If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The nature of life is constant change, yet we fight against it. Why do we fight change? Humans are creatures of habit and instinctively fear the unknown.

Affirmation: I welcome change as a great adventure.

Further reading: Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin

Helen Keller: Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Joseph Campbell: The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

Rabindranath Tagore

Feedback - Opinion - What would you like to see?

What subjects would you like to see Daily Inspiration address more often? Honor? Forgiveness? Gratitude? Relationships? Family? Love? Habits? Anger? What other subjects?

Please also leave your opinions and interests on any other subjects in comments below or email me privately at jlh {at) jlhuie {dot} com

Thank you for your help in designing the future of Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote and Simply An Inspired Life.

Thank you for joining me on this journey we call Life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
You can also have Jonathan Lockwood Huie's Daily Inspiration email sent by Follow.it - Choose the email service you prefer...
Get new posts by email: