Fork in the Road

Every thought is a fork in the road.
- Carly Cermak (perhaps older and anonymous)

One day Alice came to a fork in the road
and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
His responses was a question: "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
- Lewis Carroll

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
- Yogi Berra

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ...
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

Every thought we think is creating our future.
- Louise L. Hay

Further reading: How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

How to Forgive and Move On

My thoughts of the day on Living with Joy, Purpose, and Conscious Choice

Great Relationships

Don't fall for looks, they can deceive. Don't fall for wealth, in the end it fades away. Find someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. - Anonymous 

 A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself - to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart. - Leo F. Buscaglia 

 Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu 

 Further reading: 7 Secrets of Happy Couples 

  What is Love? 

  Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

About Yourself

The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

If evil be spoken of you
and it be true, correct yourself,
if it be a lie, laugh at it.
- Epictetus

Humility is not thinking less of yourself,
it's thinking of yourself less.
- Rick Warren

No one can give you better advice than yourself.
- Cicero

Further reading: Life is All in the Perspective We Take on It

Assumptions

Expectations

Strong Women

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." - Mary Anne Radmacher 

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

 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. - Marianne Williamson 

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

 Further reading: How to be Positive Around Negative People 

  Is Now a Time to be Reasonable? 

  How to Build Self Esteem

The Mind

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We are shaped by our thoughts;
we become what we think.
When the mind is pure, joy follows
like a shadow that never leaves.
- The Buddha

Nurture your mind with great thoughts,
for you will never go any higher than you think.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Further reading: Question Your Questions

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Open Mind - Open Heart

Mind Quotes

Thoughts Quotes

Heart Quotes

Gentle Quotes

Beware Quotes

Erica Jong - Robert Frost

March 26 is the birthday of Erica Jong (1942) and Robert Frost (1874). Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting. - Robert Frost I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back. - Erica Jong The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. - Erica Jong Further reading: Risk a Little Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

Winds of Grace

The winds of grace are always blowing;
all we need to do is raise our sails.
- Anonymous

Let us touch the dying, the poor,
the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received
and let us not be ashamed
or slow to do the humble work.
- Mother Teresa

Grace defies reason and logic.
- Bono

Further reading: Uplifting

What I Know - What I Don't Know

Trust in the Light

Grace Quotes

Comfort Quotes

Blessings

Cheer Up Quotes

Uplifting Messages

Insight

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
- Henry David Thoreau

The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth
- don Miguel Ruiz

The universe is wider than our views of it.
- Henry David Thoreau

The real lessons from the book of life
are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Question Your Questions

Be Positive

I give thanks for both my bloom and my thorns.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

None of us is perfect - and that's OK.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you
that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Standing in the inspiring vision of my future,
I boldly take every step - large and small -
with courage and intent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't give up

Stay Positive

Think Positive

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes about Life

Positive Thinking Quotes

Positive Attitude Quotes

Positive Quotes about Change

Power

Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love. Power based on love
is a thousand times more effective and permanent
then the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Giving is the highest expression of our power.
- Vivian Greene

Know the power of choice.
Fly life on free wings,
and sing to its glory.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Place for Honor

To Thine Own Self Be True

How To Not Care What Others Think

Quotes about Power

Quotes about Character

Quotes about Adversity

Quotes about Choice

Quotes about Giving

Amazing

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

As we light a path for others, we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Further reading: Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Joy Blooms Where Minds and Hearts are Open

Love All of Life

Thoughts

What we think, we become.
All that we are arises with out thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
- The Buddha

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Mary Anne Radmacher's famous Live with Intention poem

Planting Seeds

What Are You Doing?

Relationships

Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it's not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long. - Amy Grant 

 Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude. - William James 

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

 Further reading: 7 Secrets of Happy Couples What is Love? 

  Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

Inspirational Love

Where there is great love, there are always miracles. - Willa Cather We can do no great things, only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. - Martin Luther King, Jr. Further reading: Feel the Love Create Love Love is the greatest force for good.

Good Night

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep. - Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. - E. Joseph Cossman Make sure you never, never argue at night. You just lose a good night's sleep, and you can't settle anything until morning anyway. - Rose Kennedy Sleep is the best meditation. - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront, and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow... the easier I sleep at night. - Mary Anne Radmacher Further reading: How to Sleep Better Tonight How to Overcome Frequent Insomnia Help, It's 2AM and I Can't Fall Asleep

Smile

Smile broadly, sing loudly,
paint your rooms in bold colors,
search every rabbit hole
for a magical white bunny,
have caviar for breakfast
and oatmeal for dinner,
wear a purple coat with a red hat -
dance lightly with life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every time you smile at someone,
it is an action of love,
a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
- Mother Teresa

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

Further reading: Celebrate Whimsey Today

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Take Charge of Your Life

Quotes about Smiling

Quotes about Happiness

Positive Quotes

Quotes about Feelings

Sad Quotes

A Great Life

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. - John D. Rockefeller 

 The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves. - Bob Proctor 

 To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. - Kofi Annan 

 Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose 

  When is Your Best Good Enough? 

  Time, Like Life Itself, Has No Inherent Meaning

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner and Time Magazine Person of the Century, was born March 14, 1879 and died April 18, 1955.

He who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success,
but rather try to become a man of value.
- Albert Einstein

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
- Albert Einstein

Peace cannot be kept by force;
it can only be achieved by understanding.
- Albert Einstein

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes
the objects of his creation
and is but a reflection of human frailty.
- Albert Einstein

[Einstein visualized God as being without gender, physical form, or human emotions such as anger.]

Further reading: Great Truths

Gratitude for All of Life

Why be Reasonable?

Albert Einstein Sayings

Positive Sayings

Wise Sayings

Spiritual Sayings

Zen Sayings

Cheer Up

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up. - Mark Twain 

 Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. - Marianne Williamson 

 We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do. - Dale Carnegie 

 Further reading: Six Ways to Live a Happier Life 

  9 Secrets for Living a Happier Life 

  Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

Positive

Don't let one cloud obliterate the whole sky.
- Anais Nin

Life is 10 percent what happens to me
and 90 percent how I react to it.
- Charles Swindoll

All things at first appear difficult.
- Chinese proverb

Do not let what you cannot do
interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden

Further reading: Overcome Being Negative

How to Cope With Life

Play to win, but be a good loser

We are One

Drop the sword - for there is but one flesh to wound, and it is the one flesh of all humankind.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps,

is because man is disunited with himself.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted

according to the graces we have received

and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

- Mother Teresa

Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.

- St. Francis of Assisi

Further reading: Abundance or Scarcity?

Kindness and Charity

Miracles Need Both God and You

  

Winnie The Pooh

"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone
what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)

Jealousy

He that is jealous is not in love.
- Saint Augustine

To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is,
a dissatisfaction with self.
- Joan Didion

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
nor his male servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
- Exodus 20:17

One of the greatest cause of unhappiness -
perhaps even the only cause of unhappiness - is comparison.
I remember as a young child hearing my mother say,
"Comparisons are odious."
That is one of the oldest sayings in the English language,
and one of the most important.

Essentially all suffering is the result of...
1. Comparing what we have (or don't have) today with what we had yesterday.
2. Comparing what we fear we might have (or not have) tomorrow with what we have today.
3. Comparing what we have (or don't have) with what others have.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Make Yourself Miserable (satire)

Gratitude for All of Life

Overcome Being Negative

Funny but Meaningful

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
- Dale Carnegie

Money won't make you happy...
but everybody wants to find out for themselves.
- Zig Ziglar

Most truths are so naked
that people feel sorry for them
and cover them up,
at least a little bit.
- Edward R. Murrow

Further reading: Stop Anger Before it Stops You

Love, Celebration, and Humor

How to Stop Worrying

Everything Happens for a Reason

I believe that everything happens for a reason.
People change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right,
you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself,
and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

I think "learn to trust no one but yourself" is much too cynical, but the rest is good advice.

Conventional people are roused to fury
by departure from convention,
largely because they regard such departure
as a criticism of themselves.
- Bertrand Russell

Real love is accepting other people the way they are
without trying to change them.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

Success Tip: Drive Change

Question Your Questions

Quotes about People Changing

Everything Happens for a Reason Quotes

Thank You Quotes

Powerful Quotes

Quotes about Breaking Up

Good Morning

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
a moonbeam to charm you,
a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.
Laughter to you.
Faithful friends near you.
And whenever you pray,
Heaven to hear you.
- Irish Blessing

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

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Happy Friends, Happy You

Cheer Up Quotes

Feel Better Quotes

Happiness Quotes

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Good Morning Quotes

Criticism

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard

Do what you feel in your heart to be right -
for you'll be criticized anyway.
You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain,
and most fools do.
- Benjamin Franklin

Today's Affirmation:
I shine my light of happiness into the darkness of negativity. 

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Keep a Positive Attitude Around Negative People

How to Not Care What People Think

Expectations - Demands

The Edge

When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:

__ There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
__ or, you will be taught how to fly.

Faith © Patrick Overton from his book of poems: The Leaning Tree, 1975
[Widely mis-attributed to Barbara J. Winter, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and others]

It is not the easy or convenient life
for which I search,
but life lived to the edge
of all that I may be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Affirmation: When I Come To The Edge of the Familiar,
I Spread My Wings and Fly.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Fly Life

Butterflies

Watering

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant.
You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard
or just think it's going to get on by itself.
You've got to keep watering it.
You've got to really look after it and nurture it.
- John Lennon

The grass is not always greener
on the other side of the fence.
Fences have nothing to do with it.
The grass is greenest where it is watered.
When crossing over fences, carry water with you
and tend the grass wherever you may be.
- Anonymous

Water is the driving force of all nature.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap,
but by the seeds that you plant.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Further reading: Tending the Garden of Our Lives

Pay It Forward

Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

Quotes about Gardening

Quotes about Love

Quotes about Nurture

Quotes about Water

Quotes about Fences

Balance Service with Play

Take some time in a quiet place to contemplate
the balance between being of service -
both to this generation and to generations yet unborn -
and renewing your vitality with play and celebration.
Without play, one becomes old and dry.
Without service, life becomes meaningless.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Manage the remarkable balance between acting
from your heart and close to your gifts
with completing the obligations
that your labor and tasks require of you.
Leverage opportunity AND seize joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
- Proverb

Further reading: Finding Balance in Life

Healthy Choices to Relieve Stress

Meditation: What? Why? How?

Quotes about Balance

Quotes about Service

Quotes about Play

Quotes about Celebration

Quotes about Obligation

Obstacles

Stand up to your obstacles
and do something about them.
You will find that they haven't
half the strength you think they have.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

We have a choice of how we view the obstacles on our life path.
One choice makes us slaves to circumstance,
while the other empowers us, and motivates us
to follow our dreams - and our happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Overcoming

Stay Positive

Secrets for a Happy Life