Resolved: A New Beginning...

Every day is a good day to make a resolution
for beginning a new way of living,
but the New Year's Day holiday provides a good focus
for reviewing our lives
and resolving to live each day with conscious attention.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

From small beginnings come great things.
- Anonymous proverb

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

Whatever you want in life, start today. Not tomorrow - today.
Let it be a small beginning - a tiny beginning.
Your happiness depends on starting today - every day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Break Old Patterns of Action

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

The Good Old Ways

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions
    

The Secret of Change

The secret of change is to focus all your energy,
not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
- Dan Millman

Before moving on, you have to clear away your cherished beliefs.
- Dick Raymond

Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience,
independent will and creative imagination.
These give us the ultimate human freedom...
The power to choose, to respond, to change.
- Stephen Covey

Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Exercise: Make a list of the 10 best things that happened for you this year.
Celebrate and have gratitude.
(If you have trouble making a list, begin with the basics:
you are still alive; probably you had enough to eat, clothes to wear, a roof over your head; ...)

Further reading: Progress: Escaping Old Ideas

The Good Old Ways

Be an Instrument of Change

Progress of the Human Mind
    

Meet Yourself in Stillness

Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.
- Hermann Hesse

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

Breathe; let go; relax; forgive.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

The essence of your true being dwells in stillness; meet yourself there.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Mind that is Still

Let Go and Accept This Moment

Keep Stillness

Breath by Breath

Solitude vs. Feeling Lonely

Know the Difference
    

Don't Believe Me

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

Don't believe me.
I don't want you to believe me
but I want you to listen and make choices - your choices.
If what I say, doesn't work for you, leave it.
But if it works for you and that's what you want, then make it yours.
- don Miguel Ruiz

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

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

Each man is the architect of his own fate.
- Appius Claudius

Since you are the one who has to live with your choices,
be sure they are your own.
- Alan Cohen

Further reading: To Thine Own Self Be True

Encourage Me

Don't Take It Personally

True to Your Best
    

Circle of Compassion

Until he extends the circle of
his compassion to all living things,
man will not himself find peace.
- Albert Schweitzer

A generous heart, kind speech,
and a life of service and compassion
are the things which renew humanity.
- The Buddha

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

Compassion is the ultimate value in life.
Service is the ultimate action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: We Belong to Each Other

Practice Compassion

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion
    

No Regrets, No Worries

Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons.
Love yourself, trust your choices, and everything is possible.
- Cherie-Carter Scotts

A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.
- Yiddish Proverb

Gain happiness by living in the present -
without regret for the past or fear of the future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be prepared for life -
to live happily and without regret,
knowing that you have done your best.
- the Boy Scout Handbook

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

Today's affirmation:
I never regret what I have ever done or failed to do,
but I learn from my mistakes.
I never worry about tomorrow,
but I prepare for the future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Burn Away Old Regrets and Resentments

Revising the Past

Live Life with No Regrets
      

Christmas 2016

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
- Norman Vincent Peale

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
- Ada V. Hendricks

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
- Charles Dickens

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- Calvin Coolidge

Further reading: The Power of Unconditional Love

Happy Birthday Jesus

With Love in My Heart

Brotherly Love
   

Christmas - a Time to be Together

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree
is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
- Burton Hills

Do you know someone who will not be with their family this holiday season?
Consider inviting them to your home and welcoming them into your family.

What is our family?
We touch our full hearts and see ourselves
reflected whole in each other's eyes.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
- Dr. Seuss

Your greatest gift to your family and friends is yourself -
your relaxed, happy, and fully-present self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The World is My Family

A Joyous Season of Renewal

Joy at Home

What is a Home?
  

Living with Integrity

Have the courage to say no.
Have the courage to face the truth.
Do the right thing because it is right.
These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.
- W. Clement Stone

Integrity is living the truth you know.
- Rinaldo S. Brutoco

If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely.
It is absolutely touch and go.
Each one of us could make the difference.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

If you don't have integrity, you have nothing.
You can't buy it.
You can have all the money in the world,
but if you are not a moral and ethical person,
you really have nothing.
- Henry Kravis

Further reading: Live with Integrity

Who You Are

Your Words

Your Promises
    

Share the Gifts

One must know not just how to accept a gift,
but with what grace to share it.
- Maya Angelou

Spending the holidays without family can feel depressing. If you are not with your family this holiday, take positive steps to feel good about yourself: affirm your self worth, spend time with your religious (or community) group, and extend yourself to be of service to the less fortunate.

Is there someone who will be alone this Christmas unless you share your holiday with them? Invite them to spend the day with you.

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.
The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
- Lao Tzu

Giving is the highest expression of our power.
- Vivian Greene

Among its other benefits,
giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- Maya Angelou

Please invite your friends to use the form at www.jlhuie.com to sign themselves up for these Daily Inspiration emails.

Further reading: The Power of Generosity

Channels Made for Sharing

Share the Season
   

Fear vs. Love

What is not love is always fear, and nothing else.
- A Course In Miracles

Love is granting another the space to be
the way they are and the way they are not.
- Werner Erhard

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

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

Step back from the clamor.
Step back from the urgency.
Step back from the anger.
Step back from the fear.
Step back into the knowing and the love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: True Faith Needs No Guarantees

The Miracle of Unconditional Love

Calm During Storms

Hatred vs. Love

Master of My Emotions
    

Contentment in Ourselves

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Fortify yourself with contentment,
for it is an impregnable fortress. -
- Epictetus

It is not our circumstances
that create our discontent or contentment.
It is us.
- Vivian Greene

True humility is contentment.
- Henri Frederic Amiel

Further reading: True Riches

Living Content

Rejoice

A Life of Abundance
    

Welcome Progress

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
- Charles Kettering (1876-1958 - holder of 186 US Patents, including the automotive electric starter)

The world moves, and ideas that were
once good are not always good.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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

Wise men put their trust in ideas
and not in circumstances
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Incite a riot of new ideas.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cheer for Endings

Progress

Flexibility

A Better Plan
    

The Ideal of Service

It is high time that the ideal of success
should be replaced by the ideal of service.
- Albert Einstein

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Life is an exciting business,
and most exciting when it is lived for others.
- Helen Keller

As we work to create light for others,
we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

One of the secrets of life is that
all that is really worth the doing
is what we do for others.
- Lewis Carroll

The path to your own happiness is usually found in service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

Beyond Thinking about Ourselves

Helping is what Life is About

Charity: To Do God's Work
    

Wear Purple

Who made the rule that life has to be so serious?
One would think that "life is serious" had been engraved
upon stone tablets to judge from how most lives are lived.
Get a life, smile broadly, sing loudly,
paint your rooms in bold colors,
search every rabbit hole for a magical white bunny,
have caviar for breakfast and oatmeal for dinner,
wear a purple coat with a red hat - dance lightly with life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life must be lived as play.
- Plato

I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.
- Waylon Jennings

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves.
- Jenny Joseph

Further reading: Cherish the Whimsey

Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Make Time For Yourself

Do Something Crazy

Life is too important to be taken seriously

Today is Your Day (my whole poem)
    

Breathe in Eternal Peace

When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom
because you know you are not the mind and you are not the body.
- Osho

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.
- Zhuangzi

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others,
is stronger than any physical force in the universe.
- Wayne Dyer

Breathe deeply and slowly.
Let yourself become centered - shut out all distractions.
Breathe out your worries; empty your body of regrets and resentments.
Breathe in eternal peace; let your body fill with unconditional love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Breath by Breath

Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Gratitude for THIS Moment

Forgiveness: Path to Inner Peace
   

Discovery and Adventure, Not Fear

Choose what lies in the shadows to be a matter
for discovery and adventure, rather than fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

Who never walks save where he sees
men's tracks, makes no discoveries.
- J. G. Holland

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

Today's affirmation:
I release the familiar that I may better discover my inspiring future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Impulse to Soar

Understand More, Fear Less

Curious - Adventurous
    

Success Requires Hard Work

A dream doesn't become reality through magic;
it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
- Colin Powell

Some people dream of success
while others wake up and work hard at it.
- Anonymous

Vision without action is merely a dream.
Action without vision just passes the time.
Vision with action can change the world.
- Joel A. Barker

If you dream of something worth doing
and then simply go to work on it
and don't think anything of personalities,
or emotional conflicts, or of money,
or of family distractions;
it is amazing how quickly
you get through those 5,000 steps.
- Edwin Land

To lead a great life:
Dream, Take Action, Repeat.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: You Are What You Do

Fulfilling Your Dreams

Walking Your Path

Action Beats Inaction
    

Circumstance Reveals What We're Made Of

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.
- James Allen

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.
- Richard Bach

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men
who have grown hopeless about them.
- Clare Boothe Luce

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

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless,
you are slamming the door in the face of God.
- Charles L. Allen

Further reading: Inner Life - Outer Life

The Power of Courage

Progress
    

No Comparisons

Things are as they are.
Looking out into the universe at night,
we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars,
nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
- Alan Watts

The world you see has nothing to do with reality.
It is of your own making and does not exist.
- A Course In Miracles

There are two very different kinds of "Reality:"
1. What is really out there, and which none of us can accurately perceive.
2. The "personal reality" that each of us perceives differently from any other human.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Jealousy is the fear of comparison.
- Max Frisch

The ego lives by comparisons...
The ego cannot survive without judgment.
- A Course in Miracles

Nature is neither virtuous nor evil, it just IS.
Assign no moral judgement to stars or mountains, sunshine or hurricanes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Comparisons are Odious

Your Gift

Do Not Compare

We Have All Been Blessed
    

Life is a BEing and a Becoming

Life is not a having and a getting,
but a being and a becoming.
- Matthew Arnold

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

Any human being who is becoming independent of conditionings,
of religions, scriptures, prophets and messiahs, has arrived home.
He has found the treasure which was hidden in his own being.
- Osho

To be what we are,
and to become what we are capable of becoming,
is the only end in life.
- Baruch Spinoza

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

Further reading: Leap

Your Intuition is Your Guide

The Inner You

Be Simply Yourself
    

Born Innocent

Every act of conscious learning
requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem.
That is why young children,
before they are aware of their own self-importance,
learn so easily.
- Thomas Szasz

Children are natural Zen masters;
their world is brand new in each and every moment.
- John Bradshaw

Children are born innocent.
Before they are domesticated they live in the moment,
love without fear, and don't even think about the opinions of others.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Unlike grown-ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Children are curious and are risk takers.
They have lots of courage.
They venture out into a world
that is immense and dangerous.
A child initially trusts life
and the processes of life.
- John Bradshaw

Further reading: Value Honor, Not Ego

Childlike Wonder

Our Children's Earth
    

Let Go and Have Faith

The attitude of faith is to let go,
and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
- Alan Watts

Man cannot discover new oceans
unless he has the courage
to lose sight of the shore.
- Lord Chesterfield

We seek opinions that are likely to
support what we want to be true.
- Thomas Gilovich

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
- Henry David Thoreau

When we blindly adopt a religion,
a political system, a literary dogma,
we become automatons. We cease to grow.
- Anais Nin

Have Faith!
Listen to the Voice of God,
rather than to the people who say they know what God wants you to do.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Don't Struggle

Faith Before Dawn

This God Called Money
    

Calm - Clarity

CALM IN CHAOS
In the midst of the flurry - clarity.
In the midst of the storm - calm.
In the midst of divided interests - certainty.
In the many roads - a certain choice.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Calm provides clarity. Pause to consider
the gifts you have been given,
the difference you have made
and the direction in which you are headed.
- Anonymous

Life is a gift, and I try to respond with grace and courtesy.
- Maya Angelou

In service, there is clarity and compassion.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

He who has faith has...
an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness,
and assuring trust that all will come out well -
even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.
- B. C. Forbes

Further reading: Greatest Gifts

Keeping Your Head

Finding Joy in Our Troubled Lives

Choose Not To Stress
   

Confidence is Half of Victory

If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.
- Carl Lewis

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
- Samuel Johnson

If you have no confidence in self,
you are twice defeated in the race of life.
With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

With realization of one's own potential and
self-confidence in one's ability,
one can build a better world.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Confidence is half of victory.
- Yiddish Proverb

Further reading: Believe In Yourself

Making Dreams Come True

Ignore Your Critics

My Wish
    

The Blessings of Solitude

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

A quiet mind cures all.
- Robert Burton

Let us be silent, that we may
hear the whispers of the gods.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself.
- Laurence Sterne

Spend some time alone every day.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Affirmation: Today, I Will Spend Time In Silence.

Further reading: Solitude is a Cure

Being an Open Channel

The Beat of the Universe

Nature's Messengers
    

Happiness Is The Way

There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.
- Anonymous

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world.
Then you can love, and do what you will.
- Dan Millman

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind,
than on outward circumstances.
- Benjamin Franklin

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are,
or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about.
- Dale Carnegie

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect.
It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Choosing a Happy Life

7 Secrets for a Happy Life

Happiness Depends upon Ourselves
    

No Walls

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Love recognizes no barriers.
It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls
to arrive at its destination full of hope.
- Maya Angelou

The walls we build around us
to keep sadness out
also keep out the joy.
- Jim Rohn

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
- Isaac Newton

Looking at a sunset, just for a second
you forget your separateness:
you are the sunset.
That is the moment when you feel the beauty of it.
But the moment you say that it is a beautiful sunset,
you are no longer feeling it;
you have come back to your separate,
enclosed entity of the ego.
Now the mind is speaking.
- Osho

Further reading: Another Door

Progress

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Living from Your Heart
    

Stay Positive, Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings - not your troubles.
- Dale Carnegie

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.
- Helen Keller

Positive thinking will let you do everything
better than negative thinking will.
- Zig Ziglar

Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.
- Johnny Mercer

Further reading: Self Pity

Set Goals - Take Action

Be Positive
    

My Religion

The world is my country,
all mankind are my brethren,
and to do good is my religion.
- Thomas Paine

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

We can never be the better for our religion
if our neighbor is the worse for it.
- Anonymous

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

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal
to reason and is in conflict with morality.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

We must be ready to learn from one another,
not claiming that we alone possess all truth
and that somehow we have a corner on God.
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

A person's religion is what they do and say all day, seven days a week -
not what they say and do at 10 am on Sunday.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How To Know What To Do

Everything is God

Perspectives on the Nature of God
    

Unlimited Opportunity

Don't Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.
- Anonymous

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

The challenge before us is to savor the unknown
and delight in the taste of possibility.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- Winston Churchill

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

Today's affirmation: I am unlimited. I am unstoppable.

Further reading: Circumstance

Overcoming Difficulties

Challenge of the Unknown

Finding A Way