One Human Race

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

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

The reason why the world lacks unity,
and lies broken and in heaps,
is because man is disunited with himself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Few are the giants of the soul that actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Never succumb to the notion that others are less important
based on their place of birth.
All of humanity are our brothers and sisters.

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

Natural Web

War

All things share the same breath

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Your Choices Determine Everything

It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets)

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

Laws control the lesser man.
Right conduct controls the greater one.
- Mark Twain

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink,
but they whose heart is firm,
and whose conscience approves their conduct,
will pursue their principles unto death.
- Thomas Paine

Make your important choices in life
based on your values and your long-term objectives
rather than on a need for approval.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Thinking for Yourself

Bad Habits

Embrace Change

Choosing to Love Life

The Price of Standing for Something Important

Where there is Great Love

Where there is great love there are always miracles.
- Willa Cather

Where love is, there God is also.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

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

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the
gift of unconditional love and acceptance.
- Brian Tracy

Love is the greatest force for good.
- jlh

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

Love: the Greatest Force for Good.

Unconditional Love

Seek To Love

Living from Your Heart

Extending Love

Pause to Wonder

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and all science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something
unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

That sense of sacredness,
that thinking in generations,
must begin with reverence for this earth.
- Paul Tsongas

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Edge of All We Know

The Beat of the Universe

The Miracle of Gratitude

Life Really Is Good

Childlike Wonder

Your Path

Power Tests Integrity

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

You can easily judge the character of others
by how they treat those who can
do nothing for them or to them.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

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

If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely.
It is absolutely touch and go.
Each one of us could make the difference.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Further reading: A Place for Honor

Doing What You Know Is Right

Being Honorable

Your Most Important Values

Who You Are

Taking Action About Things That Matter

Harmony of the Soul

Grace has been defined as the outward expression
of the inward harmony of the soul.
- William Hazlitt

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

Grace defies reason and logic.
- Bono

I know, to banish anger altogether
from one's breast is a difficult task.
It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort.
It can be done only by God's grace.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Grace isn't just a little prayer you say before receiving a meal.
It's a way to live.
- Jackie Windspear

Further reading: Serenity in Times of Crisis

Be Not Unbending

Everything is a Miracle

The Darkest Night

Faith Plus Action

Accepting the Fear of Change

Life is defined more by its risks than by its samenesses.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

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

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history
to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Further reading: Life's Daring Adventure

Where do you want to go?

The Power of Courage

Curious - Adventurous

The Myth of Security

Be Simply Yourself

Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
- Judy Garland

Since you are the one who has to live with your choices,
be sure they are your own.
- Alan Cohen

Be simply yourself and don't compare or compete.
- Lao Tzu

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.
The process never ends until we die.
And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Believe in Yourself

Trust Your Own Advice

Appreciate Yourself

Have Confidence in Yourself

My Own Person

Thinking for Yourself

A Loving Relationship

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

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

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

Further reading: 7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Celebrating Your Differences

Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

What is Love?

Giving Unconditional Love

Renewing Love

The Need for Humor

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance
to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.
- William Arthur Ward

Through humor, you can soften some
of the worst blows that life delivers.
And once you find laughter,
no matter how painful your situation might be,
you can survive it.
- Bill Cosby

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
- Ethel Barrymore

A sense of humor... is needed armor.
Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign
that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.
- Hugh Sidey

Further reading: Laugh at Yourself

Sense of Humor

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart

The Power of Laughter

May love and laughter light your days

Life Is Not Meant to be Serious

Nature's Messengers

Flowers are Nature's messengers - reminders of an unspeakable beauty.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer
and give strength to the body and soul.
- John Muir

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty
out-values all the utilities of the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
- John Lubbock

Flowers always make people better, happier,
and more helpful; they are sunshine,
food and medicine for the soul.
- Luther Burbank

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

Further reading: Finding Joy in Nature

Smell The Flowers

Gardening is all about optimism - mar

Water of Life

Spring

Your Relationship with Time

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The bad news is time flies.
The good news is you're the pilot.
- Michael Althsuler

You will never find time for anything.
If you want time you must make it.
- Charles Buxton

We must use time creatively.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Procrastination is the thief of time.
- Edward Young

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Don't fight against time.
Develop a comfort and friendship with time.
Time enjoyed is never time wasted.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: Time is my friend.

Further reading: Master of Patience

Your Relationship with Time

Your To-Do List

Make Time For Yourself

Everything Happens In Its Own Time

 

The Shadow of Worry

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
- Swedish Proverb

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.
- Nelson Mandela

You can't change the past,
but you can ruin the present
by worrying about the future.
- Anonymous

The antidotes for worry are gratitude, action, service, and faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Finishing Old Business

Master of My Emotions

Feeling Down? Help Someone Else

Light of Reason

If we would guide by the light of reason
we must let our minds be bold.
- Louis D. Brandeis

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
- Terry Goodkind

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus

The ultimate authority must always rest
with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

We are not afraid to follow truth
wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Let reason trump tradition and the opinions of others,
but let your own sense of what is Right trump even reason.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Know Yourself

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Practice Conscious Awareness

What is Moral versus What is Right

Rules For Living A Successful Life

Saint Patrick's Day 2015

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.
- Traditional Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
- Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.
- Irish Blessing

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

Further reading: Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

How to be Happier in Life

Words of Comfort on the Death of a Loved One

How to be Happy in Life by Breaking the Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering

The Meaning of Life

This Is Your Life

Be the Melody in the Symphony of Your Life.
Write the melody and the lyrics.
Be the soloist and the conductor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
- Stephen R. Covey

I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley

Don't live your life to please other people.
- Oprah Winfrey
[Be of service, but don't be a doormat.]

It is your life.
In the symphony of your life, you are the star.
You write the melody and the lyrics.
You are the soloist and the conductor.
You are merely a bit player in other people's lives,
but in your own life, you are the star.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Melody Within Your Soul

Where Are You Going?

What guides you and maintains your direction?

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Your Inner Thoughts

Your inner thoughts reveal your true nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
- Proverbs 23:7

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

A man is but the product of his thoughts -
what he thinks, he becomes.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Change your thoughts, change your life.
- James Allen

Further reading: Doing What You Know Is Right

Your Thoughts

What We Are Made Of

Intentional Living

Serenity in Times of Crisis

Finding Joy in Our Troubled Lives

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

Find a place inside where there's joy,
and the joy will burn out the pain.
- Joseph Campbell

I live to experience something new each day -
to learn something new,
meet a new friend,
bring joy into someone's life,
feel the wind newly on my skin,
touch a new fear, a new anger,
and with focused intent and good fortune,
find an ample measure of my own joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

Have NO EXPECTATIONS.
Life will not meet your expectations.
Choose joy anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose Joy Anyway

Calm During Storms

Beyond Your Worries

When It's Darkest

Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Analysis AND Emotion

What is a scientist after all?
It is a curious man looking through a keyhole,
the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

Do not limit yourself to either analysis or emotion.
Look deeply into the DNA of its seeds,
AND appreciate the intoxicating grandeur of the forest.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
- Harry S. Truman

A man should look for what is,
and not for what he thinks should be.
- Albert Einstein

All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

Inquiry

Being a Seeker

Discovery

Conscious Learning

Being a Reflection

Everything you say and do,
is a reflection of the inner you.
- Anonymous

How we think shows through in how we act.
Attitudes are mirrors of the mind.
They reflect thinking.
- David Joseph Schwartz

When I'm trusting and being myself...
everything in my life reflects this
by falling into place easily, often miraculously.
- Shakti Gawain

Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes.
It is not something physical.
- Sophia Loren

More often than not, the world mirrors your attitude back to you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmations:

I will reflect the finest qualities my friends offer me
and remind them of all the promise I see in them.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

I am a Mirror for Love and Light,
but never for Anger or Fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Power of Your Intention

We see what we expect to see

Life Is A Mirror

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Creating Your Own Future

Teaching by Example

Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating.
Youngsters need good models more than they need critics.
It's one of a parent's greatest responsibilities and opportunities.
- John Wooden

Example is not the main thing in influencing others.
It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish.
Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you want others to follow your example,
don't criticize or cajole others,
but rather live your own life
in a manner that convincingly demonstrates
both the virtue and the success
of your way of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Inspiring Others

Being a Leader

Live a life you hope your children will emulate

How We Learn

The Nature of Education

The Quiet Voice of Courage

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

My quiet voice speaks the loudest.
- Richard Carlson

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

Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.
- Virgil

Your inner voice always knows what to do,
but it is a quiet voice.
You can only hear the whisperings of your inner voice -
your inner compass - when you turn down the volume
of your fears, your regrets, your resentments,
and the fear-based advice
your neighbors are so willing to give you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Not Fair, But Joyful

Opening the Door

Your Own Greatest Hero

Endurance

Home as Sanctuary

A house is not a home unless it
contains food and fire
for the mind as well as the body.
- Benjamin Franklin

A house is made of walls and beams;
a home is built with love and dreams.
- Anonymous

The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can go as we are
and not be questioned.
- Maya Angelou

Home is our sanctuary, where we:
relax into being ourselves,
play with our inner child,
paint the walls green and pink,
dig in the dirt,
grow something,
love somebody else,
love ourselves even more,
snuggle with a warm blanket on a Sunday afternoon,
hang "go away" on the door whenever we want,
clean and tidy often... or never,
launch from and return to,
are truly ourselves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Home is where the heart is.
- Pliny the Elder

Further reading: Joy at Home

Family Time

Family Love

The Nature of Family

Don't Let One Cloud

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

Go within every day and find the inner strength
so that the world will not blow your candle out.
- Katherine Dunham

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.
- William Arthur Ward

It is so easy to become preoccupied with what is wrong in your life,
while just taking for granted all that is wonderful.
Take time today to think about all you have to be grateful for.
See the good in life.

Further reading: The Storm of Life

My Wish for You

Dark Days

Calm During Storms

The Darkest Night

Prejudice

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences.
No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
- Edward R. Murrow
Read Who was Edward R. Murrow

People see themselves as the center of the universe
and judge everything as it relates to them.
- Peace Pilgrim

Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear,
and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.
- Lester B. Pearson

There is no neutrality.
There is only greater or lesser
awareness of one's bias.
- Phyllis Rose

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
- H. L. Mencken

Everything we say, do, think, and feel
is a product of our personal history
and the collective history of humankind.
Our name for these histories is "prejudice."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love All, Judge None

Categorizing People

Travel Teaches Toleration

Avoid Labeling Yourself

Oscar Wilde on Morality

Understand More, Fear Less

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land,
or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
- Helen Keller

Seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us,
but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them.
- Joseph Henry

Who never walks save where he sees
men's tracks, makes no discoveries.
- J. G. Holland

Fear is the root of the tree of suffering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Darkest Night

Choose To Be Fearless

Seek the Truth

Creatures of Emotion

From Your Own Darkness

Listen, Really Listen

Treat ALL with Goodness

Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ...
Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith
(often attributed to Mother Teresa, who kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)
Read the whole "Mother Teresa Prayer"

You have heard that it was said,
"Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."
But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.
If someone strikes you on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also.
- Matthew 5:38-39

Then came Peter to him, and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee,
Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
- Matthew 18:21-22

Further reading: Seek To Love

Go and Do Likewise (The Parable of the Good Samaritan)

It's Not About You

Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

Natural Goodness

The Futility of Regret

Regrets are the tears of choices not made
and of good deeds left undone
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Regret is an appalling waste of energy,
you can't build on it - it's only good for wallowing in.
- Katherine Mansfield

He who spends time regretting the past,
loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
I forgive myself and others for that
which is done (and better left undone)
and also that which is not done (and better if done).
I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt.
I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The 3 Rs that Plague Humanity:
Regret, Resentment, and Revenge.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce

Live life with no regrets and no resentments.
Whatever happened in the past,
forgive yourself and others. Choose love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to get over regrets and resentments

Forgiveness Releases the Past

Choose to Love Life

Never Second Guess Yourself

Do What You Can Do

Simply Do Your Best

Earning a Good Name

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

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor
to be what you desire to appear.
- Socrates

A person acting from a motivation of contribution and service
rises to such a level of moral authority that worldly success is a natural result.
- Marianne Williamson

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
- Henry Ford

Almost nothing you worry about today
will matter in a hundred years.
Think carefully about what you can focus on today.
Choose tasks that will actually make a positive difference
to your great-grandchildren.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

How do you want to be remembered?
Take action now to earn that legacy.

Further reading: Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Tender with the Young, Compassionate with the Aged

Our Grandchildren

Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

What We Are Made Of

A Parent's Gift

The Power of Generosity

A Single Generosity Enlarges the World.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- Maya Angelou

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches
as to conceive how others can be in want.
- Jonathan Swift

Spread love everywhere you go.
Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
- Mother Teresa

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

Further reading: Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Brotherly Love (being of service)

Our Grandchildren

Lighting the Way

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Pay It Forward

A Light from Within

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from within.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

As we let our light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,
called conscience.
- George Washington

The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are choirs singing in your head.
If you listen, you will hear the music.
It is the song of angels.
Pay no attention to the sounds of the world.
They are just noises, and even when
added up all together
they have no value, make no sense.
Strain to hear the song of angels.
Listen to the melody within your soul.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Your inner thoughts reveal your true nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Create Light

What Lies Within Us

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Our Children, Our Conscience

Conscience - Choices