Hands that Heal and Bless

We are not cisterns made for hoarding,
we are channels made for sharing.
- Billy Graham

It's about sharing.
You just give what you have to give
wherever you go,
and you let God handle the rest.
- Lindsay Wagner

The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have.
- Leonard Nimoy

Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none,
and anyone who has food should do the same.
- Luke 3:11

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

Further reading: Serving Others

Helping

The Power of Generosity

We Belong to Each Other
    

Hold Your Anger

Speak when you are angry -- and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
- Laurence J. Peter

An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
- Cato

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -
until we speak quietly enough so that our words can
be heard as well as our voices.
- Richard M. Nixon

When angry, count to ten before you speak.
If very angry, count to one hundred.
- Thomas Jefferson

Anger is often more hurtful than the injury that caused it.
- English Proverb

Further reading: Stop Anger Before It Stops You

The Price of Anger

Burned by Your Own Anger

Anger is a Killing Thing
    

Discover New Worlds

One does not discover new lands without consenting
to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
- Andre Gide

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.
- Mark Twain

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

Take a chance! All life is a chance.
The man who goes farthest is generally
the one who is willing to do and dare.
- Dale Carnegie

Further reading: The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

All Life is a Risk

Live Your Life Fully
   

Give up the idea of conflict entirely

If you want peace, you must give up the idea of conflict entirely and for all time.
- A Course In Miracles

Man must evolve for all human conflict,
a method which rejects
revenge, aggression and retaliation.
The foundation of such a method is love.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war
is nothing but an act of murder.
- Albert Einstein

Killing more people won't help matters.
- Jeanette Rankin (First woman elected to US Congress)

Further reading: Revenge Never Ends

Anger is a Killing Thing

Jimmy Carter on Peace

The Journey Within

The only journey is the one within.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

The longest journey is the journey inwards.
Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started
upon his quest for the source of his being.
- Dag Hammarskjold

Never make your home in a place.
Make a home for yourself inside your own head.
You'll find what you need to furnish it -
memory, friends you can trust, love of learning,
and other such things.
That way it will go with you wherever you journey.
- Tad Williams

The key to growth is the introduction of
higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
- Lao Tzu

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
- T. S. Eliot

Further reading: You Can't Escape Yourself

At the Center of Your Being

How We See Things
    

Heartbeat of the Universe

The goal of life is
to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.
- Joseph Campbell

Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away, once in awhile,
and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.
Wash your spirit clean.
- John Muir

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt,
head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body,
but the soul.
- Alfred Austin

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
- Standing Bear

Further reading: Setting Your Rhythm

All Life

Renew Yourself

Our Children's Earth

Nature's Messengers
   

Allow Others Their Freedom

Never impose on others what
you would not choose for yourself.
- Confucius (Ancient Chinese)

Live and let live.
- Yiddish Proverb

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil.
- Japanese pictorial maxim (the Three Wise Monkeys)
Read my thoughts about this saying.

Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling
with other men's concerns.
- Plato

Let It Be.
- Paul McCartney

Many people excuse their own faults
but judge other persons harshly.
We should reverse this attitude
by excusing others' shortcomings
and by harshly examining our own.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Let today be a day to honor and respect the beliefs and lifestyles of your extended family, your friends, your neighbors, your fellow citizens, and all those around the world.

Further reading: Point of View

Our Bond of Humanity

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Shouting

Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
    

Play to Win, but be a Good Loser

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
- Babe Ruth

The Babe, as well as being the Home Run King,
led the American League in Strike Outs in 1918, 1923, 1924, 1927 and 1928.

Play to win, but be a good loser.
Have a plan for your life,
but accept whatever comes your way
with grace and gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You are certain never to be a winner if you don't take your time at bat.
Do your best, and accept with gratitude whatever result you get.

How you think when you lose
determines how long it will be until you win.
- Gilbert (G. K.) Chesterton

Defeat is not the worst of failures.
Not to have tried is the true failure.
- George Edward Woodberry

Remember you will not always win.
Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat.
But there is, in this case, always tomorrow -
after you have done your best to achieve success today.
- Maxwell Maltz

Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill

Further reading: How to Feel Better About Yourself

How to Deal with Rejection

Simply Do Your Best
     

Open Your Mind and Heart

Only when we realize that there is no eternal,
unchanging truth or absolute truth, can we arouse in
ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.
- Hu Shih

Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Leo Tolstoy

The moment we want to believe something,
we suddenly see all the arguments for it,
and become blind to the arguments against it.
- George Bernard Shaw

If you take the responsibility for your life,
you can start changing it.
- Osho

Do to others what you would have them do to you,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
- Matthew 7:12

Respect the religious views of others
to the same degree that you ask them to
respect your views.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

The Golden Rule

Through the Eyes of Another

Cast the First Stone
    

Not Possession, but Freedom

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore

You Don't Own Me [watch the video]
- song by John Madara and David White

We really have to understand the person we want to love.
If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love.
If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our
own needs and ignore the needs of the other person,
we cannot love.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

He that is jealous is not in love.
- Saint Augustine

You know you love someone when you know
you want them to be happy,
even if their happiness means
that you are not a part of it.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Granting Space

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

A Loving Relationship

Love Tenderly
   

Save Only the Best of the Old Ways

Honor tradition AND question tradition.
Tradition is like a second-hand store.
It is best to sort carefully between the treasures and the trash.
See everything with new eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages.
Our best institutions are like young trees growing
upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.
- Henry Ward Beecher

The fairest thing in nature, a flower,
still has its roots in earth and manure.
- David Herbert Lawrence

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones;
to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
- Thomas Jefferson

What old people say you cannot do, you try,
and find that you can.
Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
- Henry David Thoreau

Its not that we need new ideas,
but we need to stop having old ideas.
- Edwin Land

"Old times" never come back and I suppose it's just as well.
What comes back is a new morning every day in the year,
and that's better.
- George Edward Woodberry

Greatness, in the last analysis, is largely bravery -
courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards.
- James Robinson

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Roots

Thinking for Yourself

Memories
   

The Power of Love

Hate is never conquered by hate,
Hate is only conquered by love.
- The Buddha

He who angers you conquers you.
- Elizabeth Kenny

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

When you pray for anyone, you tend to
modify your personal attitude toward them.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Know that anger is always fear and frustration.
What if we could lean back into the arms of Spirit
and trust the future?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Words of Truth and Love

Revenge, the Deadliest Sin?

Hatred vs. Love

With Love in My Heart
    

Act on Your Principles

You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.
- Carl Jung

You need to make a commitment,
and once you make it,
then life will give you some answers.
- Les Brown

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
- George Washington Carver

The key to success, and to happiness,
is being fully engaged in life -
leading yourself with inspiration and committed action -
setting your own fine and honorable example.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Take Action Today

How Much Do You Want It?

Committing to a Decision

Don't Wait - Begin Today
    

Our Future is the World's Children

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
- Nelson Mandela

Education is the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.
- Abraham Lincoln

It takes a village to raise a child.
- Nigerian proverb

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
- Victor Hugo

Our worst crime is abandoning the children...
Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot.
- Gabriela Mistral

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
- Frederick Douglass

Further reading: Honor the Children

The Test is How We Care for Society's Children

Feed the Children

God's Children

Teaching by Example
    

Let Me Sow Love

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

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

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

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

Further reading: Love All, Judge None

Doing God's Work

To Be a Faithful Follower of Jesus

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

Proactive in Our Love
    

Uncharted Territory

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard

Many people allow their need for other people's approval to control their lives.
They spend their lives worrying about what others think of them.
- Rick Warren

For those men who, sooner or later,
are lucky enough to break away from the pack,
the most intoxicating moment comes
when they cease being bodies in other men's command
and find that they control their own time,
when they learn their own voice and authority.
- Theodore H. White

Resilience is about believing in yourself,
and trusting your own wisdom
rather than being swayed by the opinions of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Be Yourself

Think for Yourself

Appreciate Yourself

Believe and Take Action
    

Sanctuary in Nature

If a person walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.
- George Washington Carver

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau

Take a course in good water and air;
and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own.
Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.
- John Muir

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

There is sanctuary in being alone with nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Let today be a day to spend time alone in nature.
Take a walk as far from the hustle and bustle of society as you can.
If you can, walk near trees or water.

Further reading: What To Do When Your Whole World Is Falling Apart?

Renew Yourself

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
    

What We Speak...

Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Speak with integrity.
Say only what you mean.
Avoid using your word to speak against yourself
or to gossip about others.
Use the power of your word
in the direction of truth and love.
- don Miguel Ruiz

What we speak becomes the house we live in.
- Hafiz

Every thought you think
and every word you speak
is affirming something.
- Louise L. Hay

Better than a thousand hollow words,
is one word that brings peace.
- The Buddha

Today's affirmation:
I open myself for the word of Spirit to flow through me.

Further reading: Our Character

Morality

Power Tests Integrity
    

Success and Happiness

Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Albert Schweitzer

To leave the world a bit better ...
to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Success" isn't about money or fame.
Success is living a life you feel proud of.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Success is getting and achieving what you want.
Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.
- Bernard Meltzer

The key to success, and to happiness,
is being fully engaged in life -
leading yourself with inspiration and committed action -
setting your own fine and honorable example.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Wanting is Not Enough

Childlike Wonder

Small Pleasures

Doing Your Best
    

All Connected

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
- generally attributed to Chief Seattle
but actually written by Ted Perry in 1972

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

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

Further reading: Everything is God

Sharing the Same Breath

One With Spirit and All Creation

All Brothers and Sisters
    

Becoming Wiser

The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

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

Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

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

Further reading: Open Minds

Reason

Knowledge is Soon Changed

Lifelong Learning
    

Feeding the Hungry

The test of our progress is not whether we add more
to the abundance of those who have much.
It is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Jesus preached more and taught more about helping
the poor and the sick and the hungry
than he did about heaven and hell.
Shouldn't that tell us something?
- John Grisham

Jesus said: "When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.
And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you."
- Luke 14:13-14

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
- Jesus of Nazareth (John 13:34)

Further reading: Helping Others

Out Purpose is To Serve

All Brothers and Sisters

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
   

The Pain of Jealousy

Beware! Jealousy is a green-eyed monster.
- William Shakespeare

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

The jealous are troublesome to others,
but a torment to themselves.
- William Penn

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
nor his male servant, nor his female servant,
nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
- Exodus 20:17

A good life isn't measured in material goods.
There is no quicker path to misery than coveting your neighbors' stuff.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Do Not Compare

Anger is a Killing Thing

The Pain of Envy

Comparisons are Odious
    

Aspire to Being Yourself

Normal is not something to aspire to,
it's something to get away from.
- Jodie Foster

Normal is in the eye of the beholder.
- Whoopi Goldberg

Refuse to be average.
Let your heart soar as high as it will.
- Aiden Wilson Tozer

The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries
and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.
- Colin Wilson

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
- Frank Zappa

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different
from what the average man is.
- Robert H. Schuller

The average estimate themselves by what they do,
the above average by what they are.
- Charles Edwards

Further reading: Is Now a Time to be Reasonable?

Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Life in Bold Colors

The Power of Courage
    

Surmounting Obstacles

If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up.
Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
- Michael Jordan

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and
try again in a different way.
- Dale Carnegie

Achievement seems to be connected with action.
Successful men and women keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

Choose your goal and keep your eye on it. Never give up.
Perhaps you will need to change your plan
and approach you goal from a different direction, but don't quit.
Keep thinking. Keep re-planning. Keep going.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Another Door

You Can Do It

Don't Give Up

Stand Up To Your Obstacles

Keep Moving
   

Love: the Heart of Creation

Love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us.
Love is not a mere sentiment.
Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

You know that you have fully experienced love
when you turn into love -
that is the spiritual goal of life.
- Deepak Chopra

Loving is the most unmitigated and courageous act I perform in a day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Hate destroys, Love builds.
Hate tears down, Love renews and creates.
Hatred holds no hope for the future.
Love creates Today as its own better future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love Reflects Love

Acts of Kindness

Forgiveness Releases the Past

Give Thanks for the Love
    

Your Thoughts Reveal Your Character

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

Change your thoughts, change your life.
- James Allen

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

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

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Doing What You Know Is Right

What We Are Made Of

Your Thoughts
    

Independence Day 2016

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson [Declaration of Independence]

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
- Emma Lazarus - written on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor

They who can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands
is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.
- Jimmy Carter

Further reading: Your Own Trail

Taking Action About Things That Matter

Presidential Quotes

The Price of Standing for Something Important
   

Let Go and Let God

Honor your being,
Release each and every struggle,
Gather strength from life's storms,
Relax into the arms of Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.
When you swim you don't grab hold of the water,
because if you do you will sink and drown.
Instead you relax, and float.
- Alan Watts

If you have to have it, it's ego.
If you have to not have it, it's ego.
Hold life lightly and it will deliver what you need
and release what you don't.
- Alan Cohen

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Further reading: Everything is a Miracle

Give Thanks for the Small Miracles

Unanswered Prayers

Faith Plus Action
    

Appreciating New Ideas

I can't understand why people
are frightened by new ideas.
I'm frightened of old ones.
- John Cage

Ideas, yes.
Inspiration, yes.
Creativity, yes.
Planning, yes.
Perseverance, yes.
More perseverance, yes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie 

   

Creating a Great Future

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.
But without it we go nowhere.
- Carl Sagan

Create your future from your future not your past.
- Werner Erhard

Imagination is the only key to the future.
Without it none exists - with it all things are possible.
- Ida Tarbell

The most effective way to cope with change
is to help create it.
- L. W. Lynett

Today's problems can seldom be solved using yesterday's answers.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
- Charles Kettering

Today's affirmation:
Standing in the inspiring vision of my future,
I boldly take every step - large and small -
with courage and intent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Hold Fast to Your Dreams

Creating Your Future

Confidence and Action

The Quiet Voice of Courage
    

Setting an Impeccable Example

Live so that when your children think of fairness,
caring and integrity, they think of you.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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

Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime -
to set an example -
and when he is dead,
to be an inspiration for history.
- William McKinley

Today's affirmation:
I choose to live a life of gratitude and joy,
inspiring others to follow my example.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How To Know What To Do

Honor

Who You Are

Intentional Living