Make Lemonade

When life gives you lemons, Make Lemonade.
- Anonymous saying

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

Being defeated is often a temporary condition.
Giving up is what makes it permanent.
- Marilyn vos Savant

Close scrutiny will show that most "crisis situations"
are opportunities to either advance,
or stay where you are.
- Maxwell Maltz

Zig as Life Zigs and Zag as Life Zags.
Stay Adaptable, Stay Joyful
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: There is a Way

Learning from Failure

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

How to Stay Positive Around Negative People
    

Same Creation, Many Views

Loving people live in a loving world.
Hostile people live in a hostile world.
Same world.
- Wayne Dyer

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

The eyes of the cheerful and of the melancholy man
are fixed upon the same creation;
but very different are the aspects which it bears to them.
- Albert Pike

A mentality of scarcity - of lack -
is the natural consequence of
viewing the world through eyes of fear.
In contrast, when the world is viewed
through eyes of love,
the future becomes unlimited.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choosing a Joyful Life

Being a Reflection

Don't Let One Cloud

Power of a Positive Attitude
    

Appreciating Our Lives

Joy is what happens to us
when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find.
- Charles Kuralt

Appreciate the Unexpected.
- Anonymous

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer,
for it acknowledges the presence of good
wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
- Alan Cohen

Seeing my glass of life as mostly full
triggers an amazing cycle of transformation
Appreciation for the abundance of life incites gratitude -
which brings on that warm comfortable
feeling of joy and satisfaction with life.
Gratitude for abundance also creates increasing abundance.
Being truly grateful for the abundance that
is now in my life causes an ever greater abundance
to flow in my direction.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Giving Thanks for the Commonplace

Feeling Blessed

The Power of Appreciation

Appreciating Today

Life Really Is Good
   

Burning Away Old Regrets and Resentments

Forgiveness is the cleansing fire
that burns away old regrets and resentments.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
- A Course In Miracles

There is no love without forgiveness,
and there is no forgiveness without love.
- Bryant H. McGill

The practice of forgiveness is our most important
contribution to the healing of the world.
- Marianne Williamson

Today's affirmation:
I accept everything that ever has been,
with no regrets, no resentments, and no call for vengeance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

Finding Peace in Forgiveness

Forgiveness is Essential to a Great Relationship

How to get over regrets and resentments

Burned by Your Own Anger
    

Surrender to Spirit

When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace.
Then send, dear Lord, the spirit of peace from me to all the world.
Amen.
- Marianne Williamson

Don't seek God in temples.
He is close to you.
He is within you.
Only you should surrender to Him
and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.
- Leo Tolstoy

Unless you have made a complete surrender
and are doing His will
it will avail you nothing.
- Billy Sunday

"Surrender to a Higher Power," a central tenet of 12-step programs,
is the key to recovering from depression, worry, and fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choosing Inner Peace

The Cleansing Fire of Spirit

Blessed to Forgive

Focus on Peace
    

The Questions that Really Matter

The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about these once in a while
and watch your answers change.
- Richard Bach

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
- Francis Bacon

The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

The wise man doesn't give the right answers,
he poses the right questions.
- Claude Levi-Strauss

Successful people ask better questions,
and as a result, they get better answers.
- Tony Robbins

Questions are a microscope peering into the depths of the soul.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Importance of Asking The Right Questions

Keeping Curiosity Alive

The Mind: A Fire to be Kindled

Quotations Pose Questions
    

The Nature of Learning

We Learn...
10% of what we read,
20% of what we hear,
30% of what we see,
50% of what we see and hear,
70% of what we discuss,
80% of what we experience,
95% of what we teach others.
- William Glasser

Learning is the beginning of wealth.
Learning is the beginning of health.
Learning is the beginning of spirituality.
Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.
- Jim Rohn

Education is not the answer to the question.
Education is the means to the answer to all questions.
- William Allin

True learning is not about facts,
but about conscious appreciation of the experience of living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Learning From History

Learning Through Observation

Learning from Failure

Knowledge is Soon Changed
    

Just the Way You Are

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

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

If you love something, set it free;
if it comes backs it's yours,
if it doesn't, it never was.
- Richard Bach

Love allows your beloved the freedom to be unlike you.
Attachment asks for conformity to your needs and desires.
Love imposes no demands.
Attachment expresses an overwhelming demand – "Make me feel whole."
Love expands beyond the limits of two people.
Attachment tries to exclude everything but two people.
- Deepak Chopra in The Path to Love

Further reading: Love is Everything

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

What is Love?

Great Relationships
    

Choice vs. Conformity

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

To live is to choose. But to choose well,
you must know who you are and what you stand for,
where you want to go and why you want to get there.
- Kofi Annan

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

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

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Embrace Change

Doing What You Know Is Right

Making a Decision

Try Being Outrageous
    

Honor Both Tradition and Change

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children
One is roots, the other is wings.
- Hodding Carter

I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.
- Theodore Bikel

Those who can see value only in tradition,...
deny man's ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
- Stephen Bayley 

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches,
letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.
- Pauline R. Kezer

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
There are times that call for repetition and perseverance;
and there are times that require new ways of thinking and doing.
The challenge is knowing one from the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Embrace Change

Conformity

Life is an Adventure

Beyond Your Comfort Zone
    

How We See Life

We see life through the fun-house mirrors of our own point-of-view.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
- Marcus Aurelius

Get the facts first.
You can distort them later.
- Mark Twain

The dream you are living is your creation.
It is your perception of reality that you can change at any time.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Everyone believes that their beliefs are the right ones -
that is why they are called beliefs.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Be Too Sure

Your world IS as you believe it is

Your Attitude is Your Window

Seek the Truth
    

Song of Angels

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

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

Knowledge is of the mind, wisdom is of the soul.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

From far beyond this life,
I hear the call.
From place beyond all place,
I feel the call.
From time before all time,
I know the call.
From one before all ones,
I am the call.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Harmony of the Soul

May You...

Being the Melody

Stillness
    

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

We are one people on one planet with one destiny.
- Al Gore

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.
And man can be as big as he wants.
No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
- John F. Kennedy

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.
- Albert Einstein

If you do not create your destiny,
you will have your fate inflicted upon you.
- William Irwin Thompson

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
- Tony Robbins

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

Further reading: Becomes Your Destiny

Your Most Important Values

Choosing Your Destination

To Do That Which Will Endure
    

Your Dream in Action

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau

 Formula to live your dream:
1. Be bold. 2. Begin now, 3. No exceptions.
- William James

Dream. Begin. Persevere.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Dream and Take Action

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Finding A Way

Spread Your Wings
    

What You Emphasize

The trick is in what one emphasizes.
We either make ourselves miserable,
or we make ourselves happy.
The amount of work is the same.
- Carlos Castaneda

When any situation arises which tempts you to become disturbed,
say: "There is another way of looking at this."
- A Course In Miracles

Our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions
and not on our circumstances.
- Martha Washington

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

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

Further reading: Choosing a Joyful Life

Not Too Serious

Your Choices Determine Everything

Don't Let One Cloud
    

Self-Pity is Your Worst Enemy

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie

We have met the enemy and he is us.
- Walt Kelly (Pogo comic strip)

Your best friend and worst enemy are both in this room right now.
It's not your neighbor right or left -
and it's not God or the devil -
it's you.
- Edwin Louis Cole

Self-pity is our worst enemy
and if we yield to it,
we can never do anything wise in this world.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: How to Feel Better About Yourself

Feeling Sorry for Yourself?

How to Gain Self Confidence

How to Stay Positive
    

Legacy to Future Generations

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
- Native American traditional

We have an obligation to live in harmony with God's creation.
- Bruce Babbitt

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

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

Further reading: The World We Leave Our Children

Plant Trees For Your Grandchildren

All Life

The Seeds You Plant
   

We have Already Arrived

Not what we have,
but what we enjoy,
constitutes our abundance.
- Epicurus

Abundance is not something we acquire.
It is something we tune into.
- Wayne Dyer

Our journey into consciousness of wealth begins
with the realization that we have already arrived.
- Michael Beckwith

Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.
- Wayne Dyer

Today's affirmation:
My Cup Runneth Over - My Life Is Abundant.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Abundance

Know that You have been Blessed

Gratitude for THIS Moment

Is your glass of life half empty? Or half full?
    

A Clear Conscience

When will our consciences grow so tender
that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
- Eleanor Roosevelt

I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing,
than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.
- Robert E. Lee

'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

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
- B. C. Forbes

There are only two ways to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball.
One is to have a clear conscience,
and the other is to have no conscience at all.
- Ogden Nash (paraphrase)

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it BECAUSE it is right.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today's picture is of a Yazidi refugee camp.

Further reading: Passing the Torch

Your Choices Determine Everything

Character

Martin Luther King, Jr.
    

To the Mind that is Still

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu

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

In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen -
that stillness becomes a radiance.
- Morgan Freeman

Find stillness and you find God.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Letting Go and Accepting This Moment

Living in Peace

Finding God in Silence

The Cleansing Fire of Spirit
    

Don't Wait, Drive Change

Drive Change, don't wait for change to drive you.
The nature of life is constant change.
The world is not the same today as it was yesterday,
and it will be different still tomorrow.
We can be victims of that change, or we can proactively drive change.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

 He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Change is the essential process of all existence.
- The character Spock on the TV series Star Trek

Further reading: Only Today

Think Big, Act Big

Take Action - Now
    

You are Your Window on the World

Better keep yourself clean and bright;
you are the window through which
you must see the world.
- George Bernard Shaw

The world will persist in exhibiting before you
what you persist in affirming the world is.
- Emma Curtis Hopkins

God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.
- Publilius Syrus

Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.
- Wayne Dyer

Today's affirmation:
I approach life with an Open Mind,
Clean Hands, and a Loving Heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose the World You See

Three Wise Monkeys

Art of Seeing

Simply Marvelous

Each Other's Eyes
    

All is One

God is all there is - God includes everything,
all possibility and all action,
for Spirit is the invisible essence and substance of all form.
- Ernest Holmes

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity;
so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
- Henry David Thoreau

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns,
so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the
organization of the entire tapestry.
- Richard P. Feynman

The fabric of existence weaves itself whole.
- Charles Ives

Today's affirmation:
I am one with the Earth,
with the Water,
with the Fire,
with the Air that I breathe,
with all Living Things,
and we are one with Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Our Children's Earth

All Life

Natural World

Rejoice
  

The Wrong Questions

When you keep getting the wrong answers,
try asking better questions.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There are no right answers to wrong questions.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

When we have arrived at the question,
the answer is already near.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.
- Tom Lehrer

We thought that we had the answers,
it was the questions we had wrong.
- Bono

Often, we get stuck on a question
for which we can't find an acceptable answer.
That is a good time to consider asking a different question.
Every question is based on some assumptions -
usually invisible assumptions that we don't see, unless we go looking.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: I question my questions.

Further reading: Expectations (Demands)

Assumptions

Great Truths
   

Making Peace with Yourself

Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances
but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.
- Joy Page

The world has always been in an uproar, and it always will be.
Choose Peace. Choose to live with Peace.
Choose to interact peacefully with everyone -
especially those whose instinct is not to be peaceful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Kick Back

Slow Down and Focus

Gratitude for THIS Moment

Focus on Peace
    

The Will to Help Others

The purpose of human life is to serve,
and to show compassion and the will to help others.
- Albert Schweitzer

It's a privilege to serve the poor.
- Bono

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.
- W. Clement Stone

A hero is somebody who is selfless,
who is generous in spirit,
who just tries to give back
as much as possible and help people.
A hero to me is someone who saves people
and who really deeply cares.
- Debi Mazar

There is no shame in asking for support.
Our purpose here on earth is to help others.
Consider that in asking another for help,
you are supporting them in fulfilling their life purpose.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Create Light for Others

Making a Difference

Basic Kindness

True Measure of a Successful Life
    

Life is Constant Change

Without change, there would be no butterflies.
- Anonymous

If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
- Gail Sheehy

When you are through changing, you are through.
- Bruce Barton

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The inherent nature of life is constant change.
To fear change is to fear life itself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Upheaval

Life is an Adventure

How to Change the World
    

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted.
- Michael Beckwith

The invariable mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A thankful heart is the greatest virtue.
- Cicero

Today's affirmation:
I find joy and inspiration in the commonplace
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Simple Pleasures

Beauty is Everywhere

The Commonplace
    

Victim of Your Own "Story"

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

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

The most erroneous stories are those
we think we know best -
and therefore never scrutinize or question.
- Stephen Jay Gould

Cease lying to yourself, and stop telling yourself stories
about why you behave the way you do.
Stop blaming your behavior on other people
and take responsibility for your emotional reactions.
- Sheri Rosenthal

The greatest obstacle to a Joyful Life
is your "story" about your life.
Your story is filled with perceived needs and obligations,
and littered with resentments and regrets.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stilling Your Mind

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan

Opening Your Mind

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
    

The Serenity of Simple Pleasures

Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

If thou wilt make a man happy,
add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
- Epicurus

To live a pure unselfish life,
one must count nothing as one's own
in the midst of abundance.
- The Buddha

As you simplify your life,
the laws of the universe will be simpler;
solitude will not be solitude,
poverty will not be poverty,
nor weakness weakness.
- Henry David Thoreau

What if happiness were found in the serenity of simple pleasures.
What if we didn't need the newest gizmo... the highest high?
What if happiness is in the air we breathe...
slowly, deeply, and consciously?
What if happiness is one fresh grape, savored with gratitude?
What if happiness is in our oneness with all creation?
What if happiness is about enjoying life exactly as it comes to us -
without chasing after it?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Simple Life

Bounty of the Earth

Giving of Yourself