All Life is an Experiment

Take the attitude of a student,
never be too big to ask questions,
never know too much to learn something new.
- Og Mandino

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.
What if they are a little coarse,
and you may get your coat soiled or torn?
What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled
in the dirt once or twice.
Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

You've got to experiment to figure out what works.
- Andrew Weil

We Gain All Genuine Insight From Questions and Experiments.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ask questions

Observe

A Fire to be Kindled

Keeping Curiosity Alive
  

Building on the Lessons of the Past

The lessons of the past provide the path to the future.
- Anonymous

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A little more persistence,
a little more effort, and
what seemed hopeless failure
may turn to glorious success.
- Elbert Hubbard

Most people give up just when
they're about to achieve success.
They quit on the one yard line.
They give up at the last minute of the game,
one foot from a winning touch down.
- Ross Perot

Further reading: Dark Days

Our Light that Frightens Us

Again Tomorrow

Rising Again
 

Beyond Your Worries

Worrying is like a rocking chair,
it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.
- Glenn Turner

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
- William James

Inaction breeds doubt and fear.
Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear,
do not sit home and think about it.
Go out and get busy.
- Dale Carnegie

Today's affirmation:
I reach toward the shining mountains,
beyond the fog of daily worries.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Stop Worrying

Time to Smell the Flowers

Not Too Serious

The Shadow of Worry
    

The Miracle of Unconditional Love

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.
The real miracle is the love that inspires them.
In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
- A Course in Miracles

There are no guarantees.
From the viewpoint of fear, none are strong enough.
From the viewpoint of love, none are necessary.
- Emmanuel (Pat Rodegast)

Love is what we were born with.
Fear is what we learned here.
- Marianne Williamson

Those of true faith don't require guaranteed security.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: True faith needs no guarantees

There are Only Fear and Love

Trust in the Light

More about Fear
    

Gratitude: A Cosmic Invitation

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.
- Oprah Winfrey

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
- William Blake

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't
come as a result of getting something we don't have,
but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
- Frederick Koenig

Expressing gratitude seems like a cosmic invitation
for all kinds of thankfulness and appreciation to pour in.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Recognizing Our Abundance

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

Know that You have been Blessed

Life Really Is Good
    

Reconsider Certainty

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.
- Will Durant

If you would be a real seeker after truth,
it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

Examine, inquire.
Look into the nature of things.
Search out the grounds of your opinions,
the for and against.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe,
and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
- Frances Wright

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea.
It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience,
something that never has been and never could
have been experienced by anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell

I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
- Georges Bataille

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.
- Hosea Ballou

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
- Thomas Paine

Further reading: Practice Conscious Awareness

Assumptions

Analysis AND Emotion

Quotations as a Spur for Inquiry
   

Notice the Beauty

Life is full of beauty. Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child,
and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential,
and fight for your dreams.
- Ashley Smith

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

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pause to appreciate the beauty around you.
Whether rainbow or butterfly, mountain or tree, painting or poem -
whether crafted by nature or by a human hand -
beauty adds a magical element to life that surpasses logic and science. 
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life is Beautiful

The Commonplace

Thank You Prayer

Appreciating Our Blessings
    

Beyond Understanding

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Wonder what opportunities you pass, unwittingly,
because your hands are so busy clasping
what you think you have always known.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Today is a good day to look around at the grandeur of creation.
Whether flower or cactus, butterfly or caterpillar, elk or lizard,
vegetable garden or compost pile.
Our world is magnificent - all of it.
Rejoice and give thanks for all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Life: Mystery and Riddle

Wonder and Mystery
    

New Strength

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

Every day brings new choices.
- Martha Beck

Every day is a new day -
a day for new beginnings, new dreams, new action -
a day for challenge, adventure, and discovery.
TODAY, what is your goal?
What is your dream?
What action are you taking to further your goals and dreams?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Letting Go - Moving On

When It's Darkest

Rising Again

Stand Up To Your Obstacles
   

Release Your Regrets and Resentments

What's done is done.
- William Shakespeare

My Mama always said you've got to put the past behind you before you can move on.
- the movie Forrest Gump

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

Stop holding on to the past.
Release your regrets about whatever you may have done
or failed to do that turned out poorly.
Forgive others for whatever they may have done
or failed to do that cause you harm.
Declare today to be a new beginning.
Let go of the past and move on with creating
a joyful new future for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Forgiveness Releases the Past

Never Look Back

A Better Plan

Let Go... and Become
    

Gratitude: Virtue and Joy

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero

We can only be said to be truly alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder

Gratitude bestows reverence,
allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies,
those transcendent moments of awe that change forever
how we experience life and the world.
- John Milton

With gratitude, all life appears as a blessing -
without gratitude, all of life is perceived as a burden.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Release the Struggle

Thank You Prayer

The Miracle of Gratitude

Zero-Based Gratitude
 

Our Secrets

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
- Paul Tournier

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed
to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers

The man who can keep a secret may be wise,
but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep.
- Edgar Watson Howe

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 people know about. If you always do what you know you should, you will never have to worry about keeping secrets.

Further reading: To Thine Own Self Be True

Approve of Yourself

Stand Tall and Proud

My Own Person
   

All That I May Be

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

The most difficult thing is the decision to act,
the rest is merely tenacity.
The fears are paper tigers.
You can do anything you decide to do.
You can act to change and control your life;
and the procedure, the process is its own reward.
- Amelia Earhart

The only way to discover the limits of the possible
is to go beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke

Powerful dreams inspire projects that can alter our world.
YOU make a difference to the world. Act on your dreams today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Only Today

Fulfilling Your Dreams

Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Follow Your Bliss

Why Hurry?

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

He who sows hurry reaps indigestion.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Hurry up" ranks right up there with "you need to" as a destroyer of our humanity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Is a deadline worth your health and happiness?
Consider a gentler, quieter, slower life.
Pause to smell the roses, to breathe, to take a quiet moment for yourself.

Let today be a day to remember that you get to CHOOSE how you spend your time.

Further reading: Using Your Time Wisely

Your To-Do List

Master of Patience

Don't Fight Against Time
  

Choosing What We See

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

See beauty in unexpected places.
- Mary Anne Radmacher 

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

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

You have a choice
about the perspective you take on life.
See tragedy, and the world is tragic -
see beauty, and the world is beautiful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beauty is Everywhere

Seeing Unexpected Beauty

How We See Things

Finding Beauty
    

Genuine Insight

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Read more about The Book of Life

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Lessons from Life

The Nature of Learning

Running in Circles

How We Learn

Playing the Cards You Hold

Life consists not in holding good cards
but in playing those you hold well.
- Josh Billings

We all go through life bristling
at our external limitations,
but the most difficult chains
to break are inside us.
- Bradley Whitford 

We can let circumstances rule us,
or we can take charge and rule our lives from within.
- Earl Nightingale

Success is to be measured not so much
by the position that one has reached in life
as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
- Booker T. Washington

Further reading: Do What You Can Do

Follow Your Bliss

Choose to Soar

Choosing Your Destination

Making Dreams Come True

Unity in One Body and One Spirit

The manifest universe is the body of God ...
all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.
- Ernest Holmes

Be completely humble and gentle;
be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit.
- Ephesians 4:2-4

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

He who experiences the unity of life
sees his own Self in all beings,
and all beings in his own Self.
- The Buddha

Today's affirmation:
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

Further reading: Condemn None

Perspective on Diversity

One World

Respecting All Others

The Good Old Ways

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

If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
- Lao Tzu

You hold onto religion,
you know, rules, regulations, traditions.
I think what God is interested in
is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.
- Bono

Tradition is neither always a good thing, nor always a bad thing.
Whatever the issue, consider the issue itself, with rational attention,
and make a considered choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The 'good old ways' are best... only until better ways are found.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Don't Be So Sure

Honoring Our Roots

Experts and Authorities

Thinking for Yourself

Revenge Never Ends

Revenge... is like a rolling stone,
which, when a man hath forced up a hill,
will return upon him with a greater violence,
and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
- Albert Schweitzer

Through violence, you may 'solve' one problem,
but you sow the seeds for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
- Lao Tzu

Peace cannot be achieved through violence,
it can only be attained through understanding.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I object to violence because
when it appears to do good,
the good is only temporary;
the evil it does is permanent.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

The ugliest word in the world is revenge.
It spells hate; it spells fear; it spells greed.
For my loss, I must kill; I must steal - must avenge.
It's your fault; you must pay; you must bleed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  The Unworkability of Vengeance

Ending Hatred

How to Deal with Anger - How to Deal with Fear

Enemies

Our Protected Refuge

The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me
- Psalm 23

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

There is beauty and serenity in the eye of the storm.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whatever the challenges that actually confront any of us on a given day, the potential threats are always far greater. There are always an array of catastrophes overhanging our lives - wars, terrorists, hurricanes, earthquakes, escaped murderers, child molesters, and maybe a runaway asteroid. In comparison with what "could" happen, our lives are rather serene.

Rather than worrying about the continuous stream of potential threats, let us give thanks for our blessing of living in the eye-of-the-storm - our protected refuge from the terrors of fearsome dangers just outside our lives. 

Today's affirmation: I walk today's march with courage.
I create today as my celebration of life.

Further reading: Serenity in Times of Crisis

Life is Not Fearsome

The Storm of Life

One Step, Another Step

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu (Chinese Proverb)

Today... maybe I can take one step
on that profoundly complex path to peace.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Further reading:  Faith is taking the first step

One Step Forward

Working Toward a Better World

One More Step

Overcoming Frustration

Our fatigue is often caused not by work,
but by worry, frustration and resentment.
- Dale Carnegie

It is hardly possible to build anything,
if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail.
- Lech Walesa

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
- Vince Lombardi

All that is necessary to break the spell
of inertia and frustration is this:
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
- Dorthea Brande

Further reading: How to Think Positive

Attitude is Everything

Feeling Stuck?

Be Boldly Decisive

Finding Your True Self

If I try to be like him, who will be like me?
- Yiddish proverb

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
- e. e. cummings

Don't go through life - grow through life.
- Eric Butterworth

The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you,
it is when you don't understand yourself.
- Anonymous

Today's affirmation:
I follow my own star and my own inner compass.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your Intuition is Your Guide

Be Simply Yourself

The Inner You

More Understanding, Less Hate

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Judge not, that ye be not judged.
- Matthew 7:1

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.
- Walter Kirn

Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.
- Lao Tzu

Further reading: Keep the Golden Rule

Love your enemies - Jesus

Three Wise Monkeys

Judge Not

Living Content

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
- Plato

There are nine requisites for contented living:
HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure;
WEALTH enough to support your needs;
STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them;
GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them;
PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor;
LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others;
FAITH enough to make real the things of God;
HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Happiness consists not in having much,
but in being content with little.
- Marguerite Gardiner

Keep your eyes open to your mercies.
The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Nothing is as good for the soul as a marshmallow roast.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Simple Life

Rejoice with What Is

A Life of Abundance

Be Thankful. Be Content.

The Miracle of Renewal

Just when the caterpillar thought
the world was over, it became a butterfly.
- Anonymous

Well-being is making its way to you at all times.
If you will relax and find a way to allow it,
it will be your experience.
- Abraham (Esther Hicks)

Come to the edge
We can't. We're afraid
We can't. We will fall. Come to the edge
And they came. And he pushed them
And they flew
- Guillaume Apollinaire

Leap and the net will appear.
- John Burroughs

Further reading: Accepting Miracles

The Edge of All You Know

The Winds of Grace

Goodness of Humanity

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

The Open Door

When one door closes, another opens.
But often we look so long, so regretfully,
upon the closed door,
that we fail to see the one that is opened for us.
- Helen Keller

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

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.
- Proverb

When God closes a door, he opens a window.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Learn from Failure

Know that You have been Blessed
(the door will be opened to you)

How to Think Positive

It's Never Too Late

Be Cooperative

If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive.
If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.
- Anonymous

Competition has been shown to be useful
up to a certain point and no further,
but cooperation, which is the thing
we must strive for today,
begins where competition leaves off.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Though force can protect in emergency,
only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation
can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

If you can laugh together, you can work together.
- Robert Orben

The choice is to work alone to be a little
more successful than the next person,
or to work together for the great betterment of humanity.
Do you ever question why our educational system
teaches competition rather than cooperation?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Shared Dream

Win-Win vs. Compromise

Standing Together

Progress of the Human Mind

Live the Life of Your Dreams

There is no passion to be found playing small -
in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
- Nelson Mandela

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
- Oprah Winfrey

Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you.
- Robert Kiyosaki

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd

Further reading: A Life Without Fear

My thoughts on "safety" versus living full-out

Life is an Adventure

The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher