Greatest Mistake

The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the
human condition there is no shame in being wrong,
only in failing to correct our mistakes.
- George Soros

It's better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong
than to agonize at length and be right too late.
- Marilyn Moats Kennedy

To live a creative life
we must lose our fear of being wrong.
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

Further reading: Never Second Guess Yourself

Fear of Striking Out

Make a Decision
   

Choose to See the Beautiful

Much in life can be seen as ugly or beautiful - it's our choice.
Why would we choose to see any part of life as ugly?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't live in the world of reality,
we live in the world of how we perceive reality.
- Bryan Singer

There is nothing true anywhere,
The true is nowhere to be seen;
If you say you see the true,
This seeing is not the true one.
- Abraham Lincoln paraphrasing Lao Tzu's Tao te Ching

Even those things which seem out of reach of our choice
are governed by how we choose to perceive them.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Seeing the light is a choice, not seeing the light is no choice.
- Douglas Horton

Those who are highly evolved,
maintain an undiscriminating perception.
Seeing everything, labeling nothing,
they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness.
Thus they are supported by it.
- Lao Tzu

Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Labels

Finding Beauty

Opinions

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
    

Reverence for Our Earth

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

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children's future.
And we are all mortal.
- John F. Kennedy

We need to think of the future and the planet we are
going to leave to our children and their children.
- Kofi Annan

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

To cherish what remains of the Earth
and to foster its renewal
is our only legitimate hope of survival.
- Wendell Berry

Consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

Image of our earth taken by the NASA Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.

Further reading: Our Grandchildren's Planet

Natural Web of Life

One Great Dewdrop

All Life
    

Serenity rather than Fear

Life is always lived in the eye-of-the-storm
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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A few minutes ago every tree was excited,
bowing to the roaring storm,
waving, swirling, tossing their branches
in glorious enthusiasm like worship.
But though to the outer ear these trees
are now silent, their songs never cease.
- John Muir

When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar,
and the lightnings blaze around us,
it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post.
- Luther Martin

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm,
you'll never enjoy the sunshine.
- Morris West

The Eye-of-the-Storm.
Surrounded by the winds and the rain,
yet peaceful in its own unworldly way -
an unnatural ruddy-cloudy misty-bright kind of way.
Whatever comes next, the eye of the storm is
a moment of serenity among the challenge -
a time for repose and contemplation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Live a Stress-Free Life

How to Stop Worrying

Tested by Storms

Beyond Fear
    

Love as a Free-Will Gift

Love me when I least deserve it,
because that's when I really need it.
- Swedish Proverb

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.
That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.
- Emily Kimbrough

Love cures people - both the ones who give it
and the ones who receive it.
- Karl A. Menninger

Love wasn't put in your heart to stay.
Love isn't love until you give it away.
- Michael W. Smith

Who, being loved, is poor?
- Oscar Wilde

Love without jealousy. Love without need.
Let love be an unconditional gift.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Where there is Great Love

The Power of Unconditional Love

Love Tenderly
    

Choose to Celebrate Life

Choose to celebrate life.
Celebrate family, celebrate friends, celebrate love, celebrate adventure and discovery.
Celebrate and give thanks for all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

See that the whole existence is celebrating.
These trees are not serious, these birds are not serious.
The rivers and the oceans are wild,
and everywhere there is fun,
everywhere there is joy and delight.
Watch existence,
listen to the existence and become part of it.
- Osho

When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed,
but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage
to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong,
that's celebration.
- Shauna Niequist

Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.
- Joanne Harris

You are here to evolve and make your consciousness high
You are here to dance, sing and celebrate life.
You are here to help others to make their life happy.
We are here not to compete, but to learn, evolve and excel.
We are not here to make divisions in the name of prophets and religions.
We are here to encompass the world with love and light.
- Amit Ray

Most people reserve celebration for some future "special day."
I choose to celebrate each and every day as a special day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Appreciate Today

What If Every Day Were Your Day - Celebrate Whimsey Today

CELEBRATION - An Inspired Life
   

Faith in Tomorrow

Every tomorrow has two handles.
We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety
or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

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

Find a time and place of solitude.
Look into the distance, and into the future.
Visualize the tomorrow you are going to build -
and begin to build that tomorrow, today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.
- Leo Buscaglia

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

Further reading: Power of Faith

Beyond Your Worries

End Overwhelm, Fear, and Worry

The Quiet Voice of Courage
    

Stand Rapt in Awe

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

We have to stop and be humble enough
to understand that there is something called mystery.
- Paulo Coelho

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong

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

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

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

Further reading: All Life is a Miracle

Appreciate the Basics of Life

An Unknowable Future

Cherish Mystery
    

Draw from Suffering

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself
the means of inspiration and survival.
- Winston Churchill

Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
- Helen Keller

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
- Japanese Proverb

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Today's affirmation:
I gather strength from life's storms.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Facing the Fear of Change

Stop Longing for "Easy"

Don't Struggle
    

Deflating Worry

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

Do not anticipate trouble,
or worry about what may never happen.
Keep in the sunlight.
- Benjamin Franklin

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

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
- Winston Churchill

How much pain they have cost us,
the evils which have never happened.
- Thomas Jefferson

Further reading: Master of My Emotions

Fear of Suffering

Worry, Frustration and Resentment

Beyond Your Worries
    

Good People

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that
the whole country isn't in flames,
that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.
- Charles Kuralt

I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything,
I still believe that people are really good at heart.
- Anne Frank

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.
- Audrey Hepburn

It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil.
If they would only expend the same
amount of energy loving their fellow men,
the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
- Helen Keller

America's present need is not heroics but healing;
not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.
- Warren G. Harding

There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things,
quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people,
or delusions of superiority.
- Charles Kuralt

Appreciate good people, wherever they are.
Appreciate friends, family, and community.
Appreciate those who serve you.
Appreciated those you serve.
Give thanks that most people really are good people,
despite the best efforts of TV news to tell you otherwise.

Photo shows people in Austin waiting for the bats to fly out from under the bridge at sunset.

Further reading: Life Really Is Good

Bounty of the Earth

Appreciate Yourself
    

Give Thanks for the Smallest Blessings

When you arise in the morning,
give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength.
Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself.
- Tecumseh

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

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

Further reading: Giving Thanks for Our Food

What do you take for granted?

My Glass of Life

Celebrating the Small Miracles of Our Lives
    

Encourage Your Friends

A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice -
but when you don't follow it,
they still respect and love you.
- Doris Wild Helmering

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
- William Arthur Ward

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us
to be what we know we could be.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Being human, we are imperfect.
That's why we need each other.
To catch each other when we falter.
To encourage each other when we lose heart.
Some may lead; others may follow;
but none of us can go it alone.
- Hillary Clinton

Further reading: A Little Help from My Friends

Offer Comfort

Acts of Kindness

Give Love and Comfort
    

God's Voice

God's voice is still and quiet and easily buried under an avalanche of clamor.
- Charles Stanley

My hope for my children must be that they respond
to the still, small voice of God in their own hearts.
- Andrew Young

The woods speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver

Conscience is the authentic voice of God to you.
- Rutherford B. Hayes

Learn to become still.
And to take your attention away from what you don't want,
and all the emotional charge around it,
and place your attention on what you wish to experience.
- Michael Beckwith

It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds,
not the deafening blasts of doom.
- William Dean Howells

In prayerful silence you must look into your own heart.
No one can tell you better than yourself
what comes between you and God.
Ask yourself.
Then listen!
- Johannes Tauler

Further reading: Honor Stillness

The Quiet Voice of Courage

The Beat of the Universe

Heaven is Within Us
    

Life is Love - Enjoy It

Life is a song - sing it.
Life is a game - play it.
Life is a challenge - meet it.
Life is a dream - realize it.
Life is a sacrifice - offer it.
Life is love - enjoy it.
- Sai Baba

Find your balance and stand with it.
Find your song and sing it out.
Find your cadence and let it appear like a dance.
Find the questions that only you know how to ask and
The answers that you are content to not know.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Life is not about perfection -
or a quest for perfection.
Life is about enjoying what we have -
for as long as we have it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live Your Life Fully

Life Really Is Good

Cherish the Whimsey

Small Pleasures
   

Welcome Inquiry, Discovery, and New Vistas

Be curious, not judgmental.
- Walt Whitman

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
- Albert Einstein

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization.
- G. M. Trevelyan

Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.
- Bryant H. McGill

Judgment is discernment on a bad hair day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Being curious is a quality of youthful minds.
Being judgmental is a quality of calcified minds.
Welcome inquiry, discovery, and new vistas
with an open heart and an open mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Fire to be Kindled

Power of Imagination

Asking Better Questions

Curious - Adventurous
    

Know and Trust Yourself

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

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself,
what you're afraid of.
- Linda Evans

How strange that, although we dwell within ourselves,
we seldom know what we truly want
or what we truly believe about important matters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
- Benjamin Spock

You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
- Bodhidharma

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

Further reading: Know Thyself

Be Simply Yourself

Saying NO

Follow Your Bliss

At the center of your being you have the answer
   

Make Your Choice for Inner Peace

Inner peace is a choice -
make that choice today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.
- Lao-Tzu

The key to happiness is inner peace.
The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions
such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion,
while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility
are the sources of peace and happiness.
- Dalai Lama

There is a criterion by which you can judge
whether the thoughts you are thinking
and the things you are doing
are right for you.
The criterion is: Have they brought you inner peace?
- Peace Pilgrim

If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
- Lao Tzu

Further reading: Appreciate Today

Find Peace in Forgiveness

God Grant Me The Wisdom

Choose to Live in Peace
    

The Trouble with Taking or Giving Advice

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer
but wish we didn't.
- Erica Jong

Don't follow any advice, no matter how good,
until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think
in your mind that the counsel is wise.
- Joan Rivers

I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde

Most people when they come to you for advice,
come to have their own opinions strengthened,
not corrected.
- Josh Billings

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

Further reading: Trust Yourself

Granting Space

Encourage Me

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
    

Be Kind and Gentle with Yourself

Be gentle first with yourself.
- Lama Yeshe

In my own deepening understanding of myself
I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well.
The better I am at self-care
the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Rest when you're weary.
Refresh and renew yourself, your body,
your mind, your spirit.
Then get back to work.
- Ralph Marston

First renew your own body, mind and emotions;
be kind, compassionate, and gentle with yourself.
Then use your regenerated strength and commitment
to be of service to the less fortunate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Affirmation: Today, I will be gentle with myself.

Further reading: Feel Good About Yourself

Renew Yourself

Make Time For Yourself

Keeping Your Head

Love Yourself
   

Instrument of Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

It is not enough to say we must not wage war.
It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Luke 1:79

Know that all people are your brothers and sisters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Being a Channel for God's Light

Gaining Peace Through Peace

Where there is Great Love

Doing God's Work
    

Your Power of Reason

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,
or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
- The Buddha

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

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

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

further reading: Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Practice Conscious Awareness

Trust Your Own Advice
   

Your Personal Boundaries

Set and enforce your personal boundaries.
You and only YOU get to choose how much influence
you allow others to exert over your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Never be bullied into silence.
Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
Accept no one's definition of your life;
define yourself.
- Harvey Fierstein

"No" is a complete sentence, and so often we forget that.
When we don't want to do something, we can simply smile and say "No."
We don't have to explain ourselves, we can just say "No."
Love yourself enough to be able to say "Yes" or "No."
- Susan Gregg

A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater
than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please,
or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: The Power of Saying NO to the Demands of Others

To Thine Own Self Be True

Appreciate Yourself
    

Bless and Give Thanks for All of Life

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

We all have our thorns.
We, and Life, have our moments.
Life occurs before our morning coffee.
Life occurs in our bathrobe with our hair uncombed.
Bless and give thanks for All of Life - the bloom and the thorns.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon

Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments.
- Rose Kennedy

The most glorious moments in your life
are not the so-called days of success,
but rather those days when out of dejection and despair
you feel rise in you a challenge to life,
and the promise of future accomplishments.
- Gustave Flaubert

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.
- Andy Rooney

Further reading: Don't Resist to Life

The Power of Your Intention

Choosing a Joyful Life

Life is Not Supposed to be Fair
   

Treat Trifles as Trifles

Don't sweat the small stuff... and it's all small stuff.
- Richard CarlsonRead several of Richard Carlson's 100 ideas from Don't Sweat The Small Stuff.

It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles
and important matters as important.
- Doris Lessing

For every minute you remain angry,
you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Worry" is a word that I don't allow myself to use.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
- Richard Carlson

Further reading: Know The Difference

Lighten Up, Be Happy

Live Lightly

Humor in the Face of Adversity
    

Accepting Others

You never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view.
- Harper Lee

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

If you have some respect for people as they are,
you can be more effective in helping them
to become better than they are.
- John W. Gardner

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Fear of difference is fear of life itself.
- M. P. Follett

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

The essence of compassion is accepting others as unique individuals,
without believing that they are less good for not being carbon copies of ourselves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Opportunity for Kindness

What Compassion Looks Like

Open Minds

Tolerance

Diversity
   

A True Friend

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg
even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.
- Bernard Meltzer

Friends are helpful not only because they will listen to us,
but because they will laugh at us;
Through them we learn a little objectivity,
a little modesty, a little courtesy.
- Will Durant

A friend is someone who understands my past,
believes in my future,
and accepts me just the way I am.
- Anonymous

One measure of friendship consists
not in the number of things friends can discuss,
but in the number of things they need no longer mention.
- Clifton Fadiman

Further reading: Happy Friends, Happy You

Choosing Your Friends

Tears and Laughter
   

Do Good Now

Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

You can't live a perfect day without doing something
for someone who will never be able to repay you.
- John Wooden

I expect to pass through this world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do,
or any kindness that I can show to my fellow-creature,
let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
for I shall not pass this way again.
- William Penn 

Compassion is the universal standard of moral living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Being of Service

The Least Of These

Feeding the Children

Material Possessions
   

Small Opportunities

Small opportunities are often
the beginning of great enterprises.
- Demosthenes

Opportunities are like sunrises.
If you wait too long, you miss them.
- William Arthur Ward

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work,
so most people don't recognize them.
- Ann Landers

If you wait for opportunities to occur,
you will be one of the crowd.
- Edward de Bono

Today's Affirmation:
I am ready and willing to seize the opportunities life offers.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish the Whimsey

Who You Are

Our Opportunity

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams
    

Humor is Humanity's Greatest Blessing

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

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.
- Mark Twain

If we could all just laugh at ourselves,
in hard times or good times, it would be an incredible world.
- Jena Malone

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Power of Laughter

Having a Sense of Humor

Cherish the Whimsey

As a Child Again