Choosing Selflessness

We are formed and molded by our thoughts.
Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts
give joy when they speak or act.
Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
- The Buddha

Only those who have learned the power
of sincere and selfless contribution
experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment.
- Tony Robbins

Our compassion and acts of selflessness
take us to the deeper truths.
- Amma

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind,
because oneness is the secret of everything.
- Swami Vivekananda

Today's affirmation:
I choose the higher road -
the path of charity, acceptance,
love, selflessness, kindness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Through Each Other's Eyes

Open Mind - Open Heart

Empathy
    

Memorial Day 2016

Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.
- Anonymous

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
- Pericles

A man's country is not a certain area of land,
of mountains, rivers, and woods,
but it is a principle
and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
- George William Curtis

Farewell My Friend
It was beautiful as long as it lasted
The journey of my life.
I have no regrets whatsoever
save the pain I'll leave behind.
Those dear hearts who love and care...
And the strings pulling at the heart and soul...
The strong arms that held me up
When my own strength let me down.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends,
Friends who stood by me,
Even when the time raced me by.
Farewell, farewell my friends
I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears for I need them not
All I need is your smile.
If you feel sad do think of me
for that's what I'll like when you live in the hearts
of those you love, remember then
you never die.
- Gitanjali Ghei

Further Reading: Words of Comfort on the Death of a Loved One

Coping with Heartbreak

Going Home to God
    

John F. Kennedy 99th birthday

The problems of the world cannot possibly
be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
- John F. Kennedy

Do not pray for easy lives.
Pray to be stronger men.
- John F. Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest,
but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
- John F. Kennedy

The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- John F. Kennedy

There are risks and costs to action.
But they are far less than the long range
risks of comfortable inaction.
- John F. Kennedy

Further reading: Difficulties Offer Opportunities

Conformity

What Is Life All About?

Our Grandchildren

The Future Belongs to Dreamers

Today's photo: "The roof of the 12-story Chicago City Hall building has been retrofitted with a 22,000 square-foot rooftop garden
to reduce urban air temperature." | Credit: Katrin Scholz-Barth
     

No Limits on Your Life

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

There are no constraints on the human mind,
no walls around the human spirit,
no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
- Ronald Reagan

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

There are no great limits to growth because there are
no limits of human intelligence,
imagination, and wonder.
- Ronald Reagan

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: Soar Your Spirit

How to Regain Your Dreams

Choose Your Life Purpose

The Edge
    

Rejoice for What You Have

Be content with what you have,
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

Wealth consists not in having great possessions,
but in having few wants.
- Epictetus

If you want to feel rich,
just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.
- Anonymous

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

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
- Epictetus

Further reading: Becoming Conscious of Our Wealth

A Life of Abundance

Thankful and Content

A Simple Life

Worshiping Money
   

Sharing Yourself Deeply

Share your heart as deeply as you can reach.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

There never was any heart truly great and generous,
that was not also tender and compassionate.
- Robert Frost

Live your life from your heart.
Share from your heart.
And your story will touch and heal people's souls.
- Melody Beattie

True love never comes with conditions.
Become a source of unconditional love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Proactive in Our Love

Tender

What Does Love Look Like?
   

Owner of My Choices

Footprints in the sands of time...
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Why are you going there?
Pay attention.
Don't let resentments or pessimism answer for you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There's no reality except the one contained within us.
That's why so many people live an unreal life.
They take images outside them for reality and never
allow the world within them to assert itself.
- Hermann Hesse

To raise new questions, new possibilities,
to regard old problems from a new angle,
requires creative imagination.
- Albert Einstein

I am the owner of my choices.
I am the source for the perspectives I choose to hold...
regardless of how aware I am of why or how I come to possess
that particular perspective.
It takes courage to look into the mirror of our souls, absent excuses.
I will look into that mirror little bits at a time.
SEE and ACT. SEE what I can bear to see and ACT upon what I am able.
This is the heart of a gentle invitation to personal responsibility.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

Seek the Truth

Many Answers

Knowing Yourself
    

Living in Harmony

He who lives in harmony with himself
lives in harmony with the universe.
- Marcus Aurelius

What is happiness except the simple harmony
between a man and the life he leads?
- Albert Camus

Happiness is when
what you think,
what you say,
and what you do
are in harmony.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Harmony (the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole)
is one of the qualities of a great life.
Let all the aspects of your nature be in harmony with each other,
and let your existence be in harmony with all of creation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Balance Your Life

Let me bring peace into moments of chaos

Slow Down and Focus

Balance and Harmony
    

Be Passionate

Nothing is as important as passion.
No matter what you want to do with your life,
be passionate.
- Jon Bon Jovi

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

A man can succeed at almost anything
for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
- Charles M. Schwab

Life is action and passion;
it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of the time,
at peril of being judged not to have lived.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Life is unlimited - it expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that you contribute.
-Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: This Life is Not a Rehearsal

Curious - Adventurous

Think Big, Act Big

Welcome the Unknown
    

Offer Your Hand... Often

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
- Mother Teresa

There are no small acts of kindness.
Every compassionate act makes large the world.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

It's the little things you do
that can make a big difference.
- Bob Proctor

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

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
- Jesus (Matthew 25:40)

Our opportunity is to visualize a kinder world.
To sing glad songs of tomorrow -
imagining a world of love -
of the whole world filled with love.
To offer our hand... often.
To breathe deeply and honor ourselves.
To pause and contemplate... just because.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Doing Your Best

Duty to Help Others

We Belong to Each Other

Serving Others
    

Live Life with No Regrets

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, "It might have been".
- John Greenleaf Whittier

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

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

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

Never Second Guess Yourself
    

Having Eyes for Beauty

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

Beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love.
- Evelyn Underhill

Those who find beauty in all of nature
will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself.
- L. Wolfe Gilbert

We live in a wonderful world that is
full of beauty, charm and adventure.
There is no end to the adventures that we can have
if only we seek them with our eyes open.
- Jawaharlal Nehru

Look closely... See with new eyes...
Don't just pass by what is familiar without a thought.
Pay attention and look closely.
There is beauty - there is discovery -
there in a whole new world hiding
beneath the face of the familiar.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beauty is Everywhere

How We See Things

Art of Seeing

Simply Marvelous

Observe
    

What We Contribute Gives Meaning

It is not what we get.
But who we become, what we contribute...
that gives meaning to our lives.
- Tony Robbins

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

Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment,
and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations.
- George Bernard Shaw

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

Further reading: Serving Others

Passing the Torch

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

Recognizing Our Abundance
    

Beauty and Adventure in the Commonplace

It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
- Amelia Barr

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
- Aristotle

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
- Bill Moyers

There is beauty and adventure in the commonplace
for those with eyes to see beyond.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Seeing Unexpected Beauty

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Simple Joys

Things Divine
  

Seeds You Plant

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

With every deed you are sowing a seed,
though the harvest you may not see.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Actions are the seed of fate.
Deeds grow into destiny.
- Harry S. Truman

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple,
but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.
- Robert H. Schuller

The season of failure is the best time
for sowing the seeds of success.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Plant trees for your great-grandchildren -
for future generations.
Create the legacy of a better world.
Leave this world a better place than you found it.
Literally planting trees for
your great-grandchildren is a wonderful idea,
but far more important...
use this symbolism - this imagery -
to represent the kind of legacy
you want to leave to future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: For Our Grandchildren

Pay It Forward

Tending the Garden of Our Lives

Upheaval
    

Pay Attention to the Natural World

Pay attention to rainbows, and snowflakes,
butterflies and the songs of birds,
the crash of storm-driven waves
and the mirror-surface of a quiet pond.
Let the depths of nature become a part of your innermost being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good,
and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.
- Richard Cecil

Do the small things of life with a relaxed awareness.
When you are eating, eat totally -
chew totally, taste totally, smell totally.
Touch your bread, feel the texture.
Smell the bread, smell the flavor.
Chew it, let it dissolve into your being.
- Osho

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
the wise grows it under his feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Further reading: What You Focus On

Managing Your Wayward Mind

Cultivate Awareness

Life is Beautiful
   

Shine the Light of God

Grant That I May Radiate Thy Light, Thy Love,
Thy Healing, Thy Joy, and Thy Peace,
to All Those Around Me
and All Those in My Thoughts
This Day and Ever More.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that heal and bless.
- Billy Graham

Anyone can heal who believes that he can
and will take the time to put that belief into motion.
- Ernest Holmes

To be a beneficial presence in the world,
cultivate a conscious awareness of your unity with Spirit.
Expect good in your own life.
Desire good for all others as well.
See and affirm abundant blessings of peace,
health, and plenty for everyone.
Align your thoughts with peace and happiness,
and realize that these qualities are your true nature.
- Kathy Juline

Today's affirmation:
I shine my Light of God wherever I see darkness.

Further reading: Be an Open Channel

Create Light

A Tool for Healing Your Troubles

Be a Pillar of Goodness

Allow Healing
    

Examine Your Life

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Further reading: What Is Success?

A Truly Successful Life

What You Become

To Live, Not Merely To Exist
    

In Service to All Children

Let this be a time to honor all children
and to put ourselves into service
preserving a magnificent earthly home for future generations.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The greatest challenge ...
is not the exploring of the mysteries of the outer space,
but the developing of the millions of God's forgotten children,
the developing peoples of the world,
so they can become our equal
and full partners to build a better world -
a world of freedom and brotherhood.
- Jimmy Yen

Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity.
They are children, women and men who share a legitimate desire for being more.
- Pope Francis

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.
- Matthew 25:40

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

Further reading: Our Children's Earth

Pay It Forward

Honor the Children

A Truly Successful Life
    

The Darkness of the Unknown

When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
__ There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
__ or, you will be taught how to fly.
Faith © Patrick Overton from his book of poems: The Leaning Tree, 1975
[Widely mis-attributed to Barbara J. Winter, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and others]

Faith is realizing that you always get what you need.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

If I could tell the world just one thing
it would be we're all okay,
and not to worry cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair,
I will gather myself around my faith.
Light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

The most telling act of true Faith
is celebrating the death of a loved one
with the certain knowledge that
they are now in a better place.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: An Unknowable Future

The Edge of All We Know

Faith Before Dawn

Eternity
    

Dreams and Action

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

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

Fortune and love befriend the bold.
- Ovid

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

Dare to dream of your great success.
Become intimate with those things
which deeply motivate you
and regularly work toward
the realization of that mission.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Life's Daring Adventure

Fulfilling Your Dreams

You Are What You Do

Your Day

Personal Growth
    

Absolute Truth?

There is no truth, only human opinion.
- Anonymous

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion
is not assurance of its truth.
- Pierre Bayle

Even the truth, when believed, is a lie.
You must experience the truth, not believe it.
- Werner Erhard

There is no truth.
There is only perception.
- Gustave Flaubert

If you wish to see the truth,
then hold no opinion for or against.
- Osho

Having a personal opinion is great.
Believing that one's personal opinion is absolute truth
leads to most of the world's troubles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What is "The Truth?"

Not As It Appears

The Work - Four Questions

Art of Seeing
   

Praise and Celebrate Your Life

The more you praise and celebrate your life,
the more there is in life to celebrate.
- Oprah Winfrey

The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception
to such an extent that it changes the world you see.
- Robert Holden

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

The path to happiness is forgiveness of everyone
and gratitude for everything.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish This Moment

Ritual and Celebration

Declare Victory

Celebrate Our Differences
    

Love and Miracles

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

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

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.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Mother's Day

Love: the Greatest Force for Good.

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Miracles are Expressions of Love
    

Simple Living and Small Pleasures

It is of the small joys and little pleasures
that the greatest of our days are built.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Life is made up of small pleasures.
Happiness is made up of those tiny successes.
The big ones come too infrequently.
And if you don't collect all these tiny successes,
the big ones don't really mean anything.
- Norman Lear

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin;
what else does a man need to be happy?
- Albert Einstein

The secret to a joyful life is Simplicity -
saying NO to the latest this and the most glamorous that -
saying NO to chasing an overly-demanding career -
saying NO to the stressful demands upon your time and energy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Give Thanks for the Small Miracles

The Essence of Life

Thankful and Content

Life is Really Simple
    

Choose Loveliness over Busyness

May your life always be Counterpoint to the Clamor of the World.
May you delight in Dancing Lightly With Life.
May you soar on eagle wings, high above the madness of the world.
May you always sing Melody in the Symphony of Your Life.
May you taste, smell, and touch your dreams of a beautiful tomorrow.
May your sun always shine, and your sky be forever blue.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life has loveliness to sell,
all beautiful and splendid things,
blue waves whitened on a cliff,
soaring fire that sways and sings,
and children's faces looking up,
holding wonder like a cup.
- Sara Teasdale

The world clamors, "Do more! Be all that you can be!"
But our Father whispers, "Be still and know that I am God."
- Joanna Weaver

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world,
we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.
- Jack Kornfield

Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness.
It does not believe that I do not want it.
- Mary Oliver

Further reading: 12 Ways to De-Stress Your Life

A Life of Harmony

Try Meditation

Make Healthy Choices to Relieve Stress

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
    

Try Another Door

Every wall is a door.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Sometimes the things you really want
sneak in the back door.
Notice.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
- Matthew 7:7

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.
- John Barrymore

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
- Milton Berle

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate:
he who loves finds the door open.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Further reading: Another Door

Learning from Failure

Follow Your Bliss
    

Be a Dreamer, In Action

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

You see things and you say, Why?
But I dream things that never were and say, Why not
- George Bernard Shaw

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die,
life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
- Langston Hughes

Believe in yourself. Dream big dreams.
Set important goals. Take action on those goals.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Never Lose Hope

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life

Choose With Intention

How to Choose Your Life Purpose
    

Life as Play

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
- Anonymous

The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness,
all the burden on your heart disappears.
All the fear of death, of life, of love - everything disappears.
- Osho

Be happy for this moment.
This moment is your life.
- Anonymous

Life must be lived as play.
- Plato

Let today be a day to take life less seriously.
Kick back, smile, laugh,
watch the busyness of the world from a quiet corner
and find joy in everything around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Creating Happiness

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

The Wisdom of Patience

Choose to Soar
   

Experience This Moment

Fully experience THIS moment -
breathe in, breathe out - nothing more.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive -
to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love.
- Marcus Aurelius

Be Here Now
- Ram Dass

He who can give thanks for little
will always find he has enough.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Give Thanks

Be Fully Present in TODAY

Regarding Gratitude and Life

Nurture Yourself Today
   

Divine Love

We live in a spiritual Universe.
God is in, through, around and for us.
- Ernest Holmes

Divine love will meet all human needs
- Mary Baker Eddy

Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love
Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.
- Rumi

This is what the Lord asks of you: only this,
to act justly, to love tenderly,
and to walk humbly with your God.
- Micah 6:8

Know that you are loved.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Have a Conversation With God, Today

Divine Spark

Know that You have been Blessed