Cheer for Endings

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
- Joseph Campbell

What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
- T. S. Eliot

At the end of a matter ask,
"What will I learn from this to make me better?"
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Cheer for endings -- whether goals have been met or not --
whether the ending is tidy or ragged.
Without endings, there would be neither the opportunity
nor the incentive to think new thoughts,
and to begin great new projects.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What's Done is Done

Break Old Patterns of Action

Endings and Beginnings

Time to Move On 

Create Completion

Finishing

Commitment to a Better World

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

Individual commitment to a group effort -
that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
- Vince Lombardi 

Idealism detached from action is just a dream.
But idealism allied with pragmatism,
with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit,
is very exciting.
It's very real.
It's very strong.
- Bono

Imagine what you could accomplish if you enrolled others into your dream.
The world changes when people of vision and commitment
create an infectious enthusiasm for their ideas.
What is your great idea whose time has come?

Further reading: The Power of Teamwork

Dream To Reality

Take Action Today

Wanting is Not Enough

Action Beats Inaction

Embrace Change

Humor in the Face of Adversity

There is no defense against adverse fortune which is
so effectual as an habitual sense of humor.
- Thomas W. Higginson

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

You can turn painful situations around through laughter.
If you can find humor in anything, even poverty,
you can survive it.
- Bill Cosby

Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
- Mark Twain

Life is not a tragedy, it is a comedy.
To be alive means to have a sense of humor.
- Osho

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.
- Mark Twain

Keys to a great life... taking oneself lightly, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Further reading: Power of Laughter

A Happy Life

Having a Sense of Humor

As a Child Again 

Too Serious?

Cherish the Whimsey

Release the Struggle

Honor your being,
Release each and every struggle,
Gather strength from life's storms,
Relax into the arms of spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Don't fight forces, use them.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
- Lao Tzu

To struggle less:
Plan more.
Thoughtfully consider alternatives.
Have more patience.
Have more Faith.

Further reading: Unbending

End the Struggle

The Inner Smile Exercise

Bad Hair Heron

Go With the Flow

Solitude as a Cure for Loneliness

Language... has created the word "loneliness"
to express the pain of being alone.
And it has created the word "solitude"
to express the glory of being alone.
- Paul Tillich

When you are lonely you are thinking of the other,
you are missing the other.
Loneliness is a negative state...
Aloneness is the presence of oneself.
Aloneness is very positive.
- Osho

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy
is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,
alone with the heavens, nature and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
- Anne Frank

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men
than when we stay in our chambers.
- Henry David Thoreau

If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
- Jean-Paul Sartre

Further reading: Feeling Lonely and Depressed?

Feeling Alone

Filled with Love Inside

Being Alone

You have not been abandoned.

Fun and Success

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
- Dale Carnegie

If we like what we do, if we always do our best,
then we are really enjoying life.
We are having fun, we don't get bored,
we don't have frustrations.
- don Miguel Ruiz

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous;
there's really nothing to lose.
There's no wrong you can't make right again,
so be kinder to yourself;
have fun, take chances. There are no bounds.
- Jewel

It's work only if I say it's work,
but it's play if I say it's fun.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Realizing Success

Cherish the Whimsey

Dream. Begin. Persevere.

Bounce Back

We Come This Way But Once

Christmas 2014

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall,
the genial flame of charity in the heart.
- Washington Irving

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
- Ada V. Hendricks

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
- Charles Dickens

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- Calvin Coolidge

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
- Dr. Seuss

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree
is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
- Burton Hills

(Jesus on Love)
You have heard that it was said,
"Love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I tell you: Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
- Matthew 5:43-44

Further reading: Happy Birthday Jesus

The Power of Unconditional Love

Love your enemies - Jesus

Love Your Neighbor

Seek To Love

Welcome to Our Family

A happy family is but an earlier heaven.
- George Bernard Shaw

Do you know someone who will not be with their family this holiday season?
Consider inviting them to your home and welcoming them into your family.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do...
but how much love we put in that action.
- Mother Teresa

What is our family?
We touch our full hearts and see ourselves
reflected whole in each other's eyes.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Nothing can bring a real sense of security
into the home except true love.
- Billy Graham

Your greatest gift to your family and friends is yourself -
your relaxed, happy, and fully-present self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Joy at Home

What is a Home?

The World is My Family

A Joyous Season of Renewal

Cheer Whenever Others Succeed

Appreciation is a wonderful thing.
It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
- Voltaire

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life
comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Sadly, it is human nature to measure success by comparison with our neighbors.
A consequence of this tendency is the instinct to wish for others to fail
and our own status to therefore appear higher by comparison.
Strive to cheer whenever others succeed
and to avoid viewing your own achievements in comparison to others.

The more we care for the happiness of others,
the greater is our own sense of well-being.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Light for Others

Empathy

The Art of Listening

Disappointment

Eight Rules for Living Your Greatest Life

Offering Comfort

Respecting Yourself Without Ego

Happiness blooms in the presence of self-respect and the absence of ego.
Love yourself.
Love everyone around you.
Love everyone in the whole world.
Know that your own life is of infinite importance, as is every other life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are
something to do,
something to love,
and something to hope for.
- Joseph Addison

We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
Therefore, everything one does as an individual affects the whole.
All thoughts, words, images, prayers, blessings, and deeds
are listened to by all that is.
- Serge Kahili King

If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
- The Buddha

Further reading: Ego versus Self Respect

The Secret of Happiness

Appreciate Yourself

Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

What We Are Made Of

God's Children

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore

If there is anything we wish to change in the child,
we should first examine it and see
whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
- Carl Jung

Everything you do, and everything you do not do,
is your legacy to future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

In this month of celebrating the birth of Jesus
and the rebirth of the Seasons,
let us honor all children
and put ourselves into service
preparing a magnificent earthly home for future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

Our Grandchildren

Feeding the Children

A Parent's Gift

Passing the Torch

Love and Relationship

Love that does not renew itself every day
becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.
- Khalil Gibran

Marriage, ultimately, is the practice of
becoming passionate friends.
- Harville Hendrix

No partner in a love relationship should feel
that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.
- May Sarton

The magic words for a great relationship are,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Celebrating Your Differences

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Marriage

Coping with Heartbreak

Say It Out Loud

Let Your Heart Soar

May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity.
May your heart sing sweet lullabies of timelessness.
May your spirit soar throughout the vast cathedral of your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Refuse to be average.
Let your heart soar as high as it will.
- Aiden Wilson Tozer

Few is the number of those
who think with their own mind
and feel with their own heart.
- Albert Einstein

Why settle for less?
If you do not yet feel your wings spreading,
look for the chains tethering you to your history.
You were born wild and free. What happened?
Are you willing to break free of your past?

Further reading: How to Regain Your Dreams

Soar Your Spirit

Choose Your Life Purpose

Living in Harmony

The Edge

Live Your Greatest Life

Criticism and Complaint

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

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
- William Shakespeare

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never ascribe to malice that which is
adequately explained by incompetence.
- Napoleon

We have to let go of all blame, all attacking, all judging,
to free our inner selves to attract what we say we want.
- Joe Vitale

When they are disappointed, most people react by assigning blame,
and finding someone to criticize.
What if we accepted that our disappointments
are seldom the result of malice on the part of anyone,
and worked together to make life better for all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Times of Trial and Suffering

Why Me?

Why I forgive everyone, especially myself

Don't shoot the messenger

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Our Light that Frightens Us

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.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson

When you find your path, you must not be afraid.
You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes.
Disappointment, defeat, and despair are
the tools God uses to show us the way.
- Paulo Coelho

If a man is called to be a street sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and earth will pause to say,
here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Further reading: Rekindling the Light

Fulfill the promise that is within you

What Really Matters

Light for Others

Self-Care

Finding God in Silence

We need to find God, and he cannot
be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence.
See how nature - trees, flowers, grass -
grows in silence; see the stars,
the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
- Mother Teresa

In silence you hear who you are becoming.
You create yourself.
- Jewel

Silence is a source of great strength.
- Lao Tzu

True silence is the rest of the mind,
and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment.
- William Penn

Further reading: Quiet Time

Have a Conversation with God, Today

A Quiet Moment

Choosing Inner Peace

Stillness of the Mind

Breath by Breath
 

Practicing Compassion

Compassion is the basis of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

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

It is in giving that we receive.
- St. Francis of Assisi

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures
is not to hate them,
but to be indifferent to them:
that's the essence of inhumanity.
- George Bernard Shaw

Kindness is better than piety.
- Yiddish Proverb

Further reading: What Does Compassion Look Like?

Feeding the Children

What Does Love Look Like?

Love Your Neighbor

Full Measure of a Person

Being of Service

The Cleansing Fire of Spirit

The highest proof of the Spirit is love.
Love is the eternal thing which men can already
on earth possess as it really is.
- Albert Schweitzer

Inhale, and God approaches you.
Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you.
Exhale, and you approach God.
Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.
- Krishnamacharya

The cleansing fire of Spirit
consumes the troubles of this world.
Feed your concerns to the fire.
Breathe deeply and rejoice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ritual and Celebration

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Breath by Breath

How To Stop Worrying By Using the Qigong Release Exercise

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Conscious Action

A life lived of choice is a life of conscious action.
A life lived of chance is a life of unconscious creation.
- Neale Donald Walsch

It is the Consciousness with which we participate
in activities that makes the difference.
- Michael Beckwith

Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
- Carl Jung

To change a habit, make a conscious decision,
then act out the new behavior.
- Maxwell Maltz

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

Thinking for Yourself

Habits - Like Water to a Fish

Open your mind to new thoughts

Are You a Prisoner?

Managing Your Wayward Mind

Life does not consist mainly,
or even largely, of facts or happenings.
It consist mainly of the storm of thoughts
that is forever flowing through one's head.
- Mark Twain

The moment we want to believe something,
we suddenly see all the arguments for it,
and become blind to the arguments against it.
- George Bernard Shaw

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Rattlesnake of the Mind" is a metaphor inspired by the Zen term, "Monkey Mind," which refers to the mind's tendency to invent an unending sequence of creative stories about everything we see and hear.

You are not your mind. You, a Spiritual BEing,
are neither your mind nor your body.
Mind and body are your tools - to use as you choose.
Sometimes your body appears to have a will of its own,
as when it twitches or pains.
Likewise, your mind often appears to have its own will.
That incessant chattering of regret, disappointment, guilt,
shame, foreboding, worry, and fear
is your Rattlesnake Mind striking off on its own.
Know that your mind can be a vicious rattlesnake, and be cautious.
The mind can be tamed, but only with conscious effort and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stilling Your Mind

Opening Your Mind

Common Sense

Power of a Smile

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Seeing Unexpected Beauty

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It all depends on how we look at things,
and not how they are in themselves.
- Carl Jung

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
- Franz Kafka

See beauty in unexpected places.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The virtue of anyone or anything is solely in our perspective.
See gold, and there is gold; see lead and there is lead.
If you see this thistle as a thorny nuisance, then it is a weed.
If you appreciate its bright pink bloom, then it is a flower.
It becomes what you name it.
The power is in your choice, your perspective, your speaking.

Further reading: Your Point of View

Be an Observer

What One Emphasizes

Open Minds

What You See

Beauty is Everywhere

Keeping Your Head

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...
- Rudyard Kipling

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it...
that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
- Dale Carnegie

I believe the ability to think is blessed.
If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it.
The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.
- Richard Pryor

Self-care is critical to having a strong inner foundation.
Taking good care of YOU means the people in your life
will receive the best of you rather than what is left of you.
- Lorraine Cohen

Further reading: Have Confidence in Yourself

Stand Tall and Proud

Feeling Tired?

Blaze Your Own Trail

Power of a Positive Attitude

Attitude is everything.
- Charles Swindoll

Our attitudes control our lives.
Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day,
for good or bad.
It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness
and control this great force.
- Irving Berlin

If you paint in your mind a picture of
bright and happy expectations,
you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.
- Norman Vincent Peale

We see what we expect to see.
If we believe the world to be violent and ugly,
we see violence and ugliness.
If we believe the world to be a gift,
we see rainbows, and butterflies, and smiles,
and hear babies cooing, and roosters greeting the dawn.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every day is a day to have a positive attitude.
Smile and keep positive regardless of the circumstances that attempt to beat you down.

Further reading: How to Think Positive

How I React

Get Un-Stuck

Mental Attitude

Staying Positive Around Negative People

Celebrate Every Ending

Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu

Don't cry because it's over,
smile because it happened.
- Anonymous

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
you shall begin it serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good Endings precede Good Beginnings.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Create Completion

What's Done is Done

Another Door Opens

The Rest of Your Life

Your Words

Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Speak with integrity.
Say only what you mean.
Avoid using your word to speak against yourself
or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word
in the direction of truth and love.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Better than a thousand hollow words,
is one word that brings peace.
- The Buddha

Every thought you think
and every word you speak
is affirming something.
- Louise L. Hay

Today's affirmation:
I open myself for the word of Spirit to flow through me.

Further reading: The Power of Your Intention

Pass the Word

Ways to live your life

Integrity

The Problem with Labeling

What`s in a Name?

Giving of Yourself

Your greatest gift to your family and friends is yourself -
your relaxed, happy, and fully-present self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Gift the love of your life with un-distracted,
un-televisioned, unhurried attentiveness.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

Further reading: Family Love

Being of Service

Love Your Neighbor

Give People the Gift of Themselves

Love All, Judge None

Seek To Love

Art of Seeing

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
- Jonathan Swift

Look at everything as though you were seeing it
either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
- Betty Smith

In all my ways of seeing - may I use new glasses,
a telescope and a microscope.
And may I always allow myself to see a circumstance
through the tender hearts of my friends.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Beginner Mind" is a Zen Buddhist term
that describes moving past our assumptions
of the nature of our life,
and really SEEING our surroundings -
especially the people we interact with -
with new eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Miraculous in the Commonplace

What You See

Beauty is Everywhere

Observe

Choose the World You See -jlh

Don't Be Too Sure

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Mark Twain (attributed)

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

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
- Wim Wenders

About most subjects, there is not "The Truth."
There is merely one's personal truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Illusion of Knowledge

Question Your Questions

Assumptions

Truth isn't True

Expectations

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Big Dream - Big Adventure

The big question is whether you are going to be able
to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
- Joseph Campbell

Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
- Danny Kaye

Winners Dream Big Dreams.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

What You Become

Why?

Dare to Dream of Your Great Success - Mary Anne Radmacher

Curious - Adventurous

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- widely misattributed to Mark Twain

When you finally accept that it's OK not to have answers
and it's OK not to be perfect,
you realize that feeling confused
is a normal part of what it is to be a human being.
- Winona Ryder

Be curious; be adventurous; live life full-out.
Accept the challenge, and reach for the brass ring.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose to Love Life

Life as a Dance

Think Big, Act Big

Don't Wait!

Addicted to Safety?

Welcome the Unknown

Making Dreams Come True

The secret of making dreams come true can be summarized in four C's.
They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy;
and the greatest of these is Confidence.
- Walt Disney

Happiness isn't at the end of the rainbow.
Happiness is at the beginning of the rainbow.
Following the rainbow is happiness,
not getting to the end of it.
- Werner Erhard

The resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us,
merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright.
- Anthony Robbins

Live a Life of Bold and Courageous Action Inspired by Powerful Dreams.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Motivate Yourself

How to Think Positive

How to Build Self Esteem

Stay Adaptable

Enjoy the Journey

The Secret of Happiness