Halloween 2017

Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy;
dash the last trace of your self-consciousness;
and cavort your most uninhibited play.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
- e. e. cummings

The burden of the self is lightened when I laugh at myself.
- Rabindranath Tagore

I will not play tug o' war.
I'd rather play hug o' war.
Where everyone hugs instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses, and everyone grins,
and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins.
- Shel Silverstein

Further reading: Lighten Up, Be Happy

Laughter

The Need for Humor

Not Too Serious
        

Solitude in Nature

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.

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

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

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

Further reading: Renew Yourself

What To Do When Your Whole World Is Falling Apart?

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
    

Respecting God's Natural World

Find out how much God has given you
and from it take what you need;
the remainder is needed by others.
- Saint Augustine

Show me your hands.
Do they have scars from giving?
Show me your feet.
Are they wounded in service?
Show me your heart.
Have you left a place for divine love?
- Fulton J. Sheen (Archbishop)

God expects us to care for His world -
to clean up our sewage and our industrial pollution -
to respect His forests and His wild animals.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: To Keep the Golden Rule

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

Confession of Sins

Unity in One Body and One Spirit
     

Celebrate Life

Today is your day to paint life in bold colors;
set today's rhythm with your heart-drum;
walk today's march with courage;
create today as your celebration of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To love what you do and feel that it matters,
how on earth could anything be more fun.
- Katherine Graham

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal.
Live this day as if it were your last.
The past is over and gone.
The future is not guaranteed.
- Wayne Dyer

Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous;
there's really nothing to lose.
There's no wrong you can't make right again,
so be kinder to yourself;
have fun, take chances. There are no bounds.
- Jewel

I am the poet of my mind.
I am the painter of my heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Creating Your Masterwork

Big Dream - Big Adventure

Fun and Success

The Canvas Of Life
     

Dare to Take Risks

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy

Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have
the possibility of being great.
- Cher

There's something liberating about not pretending.
Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.
- Drew Barrymore

With courage you will dare to take risks,
have the strength to be compassionate,
and the wisdom to be humble.
Courage is the foundation of integrity.
- Keshavan Nair

People do not wish to appear foolish.
To avoid the appearance of foolishness,
they are willing to remain actually fools.
- Alice Walker

All Life is a risk - even crossing the street, or sitting in your easy chair.
So relax, don't worry, and live the most productive and enjoyable life you can.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live Your Greatest Life

The Myth of Security

Courage to Overcome Fear

Live Courageously
      

Accepting that Life is a Mystery

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

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

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something
unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle

Pause to Wonder

Wonder and Mystery
    

Shining a Light

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

The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others
will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
- Helen Keller

Good works are links that form a chain of love.
- Mother Teresa

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Further reading: Happiness in Cheering Others

Offering Comfort

Leave the world a bit better

My thoughts on Kindness, Charity, and Religion
      

Patience and Fortitude

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.
- Virgil

The way lies in softness and patience,
as the softest water cuts through the hardest rock.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Emulate the Patience of Nature

Beyond Worry

The Wisdom of Patience

Try Again Tomorrow

Strength in Silence

Fortitude
    

Worry is the Darkest Cloud over Our Happiness

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

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

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

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

Worry is the Darkest Cloud over Our Happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beyond Your Worries

Master of My Emotions

Worry, Frustration and Resentment

Fear of Suffering
      

Appreciate the Abundance You Still Have

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Comparisons are odious.
- Old English Saying
Read more about this...

Expectations Diminish Joy.
- Anonymous

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.
- Douglas Horton

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: We have Already Arrived

Comparison - Cause of Unhappiness

Appreciating Our Lives

Rejoice for What You Have
   

Let Caring and Integrity Define Your Very Being

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Intentional Living

How To Know What To Do

Who You Are

Honor
      

Play full-out and enjoy all of Life

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- widely misattributed to Mark Twain

I have accepted fear as a part of life -
specifically the fear of change...
I have gone ahead despite the pounding
in the heart that says: turn back.
- Erica Jong

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars,
or sailed to an uncharted land,
or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
- Helen Keller

Play full-out and enjoy all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Think Big, Act Big

Become a Seeker

Don't Wait!

My thoughts on "safety" versus living full-out
      

Received but Not Heard

There are many answers you have received but have not yet heard.
- A Course In Miracles

As long as one keeps searching, the answers come.
- Joan Baez

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.
- Epictetus

Let today be a day to open your eyes to the unfamiliar and the hidden.

Further reading: Finding A Way

A Fire to be Kindled

Beyond Answers

Asking The Right Questions
  

Is Now the Time to Move On?

A big part of letting go is recognizing when it is time
to stay in a situation and when it is time to move on.
- Darren L. Johnson

Letting go doesn't mean giving up... it means moving on.
- Anonymous

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

We have to let go of all blame, all attacking, all judging,
to free our inner selves to attract what we say we want.
- Joe Vitale

Further reading: Release the Struggle

How to Move On and Let Go

Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

What's Done is Done

Forgiveness Releases the Past
   

Persevere

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman 

All endeavor calls for the ability
to tramp the last mile,
shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.
The fight to the finish spirit is the one...
characteristic we must posses
if we are to face the future as finishers.
- Henry David Thoreau

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is
that one comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won't.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day,
a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stand Up To Your Obstacles

Emulate the Patience of Nature

Mental Attitude

Realizing Success
    

Be a Person with No Secrets to Keep

The man who can keep a secret may be wise,
but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep.
- Edgar Watson Howe

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed
to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers

There are no secrets that time does not reveal.
- Jean Racine

The fewer secrets you have, the happier you will be.
If you don't want others to know about it, don't do it.
If you always do what you know you should,
you will never have to worry about keeping secrets.
Be a person with no secrets to keep.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: 7 Secrets for a Happy Life

Honor Your Commitments

Set an Impeccable Example

Why be Good?
      

A Prayer for Peace and Healing

Lord God, Holy Spirit, Giver of All Light,
Bless and Keep All Those of This World.
Grant Us Your Peace, Your Light, Your Love.
Grant Us Complete Renewal of Body, Mind and Spirit -
Continual Rebirth in Newness of Life.
Let Your Light Shine Upon Us and Be Gracious to Us.
Grant to Each and Every One of Us:
Health, Comfort, Joy, Peace Within Ourselves,
Peace Within Our Families, Peace Within Our Communities,
and Peace among All those This World.
Grant That I May Be an Instrument of Thy Peace.
Grant That I May Radiate Thy Peace, Thy Light, Thy Love,
Thy Healing, Thy Comfort, Thy Joy,
to All Those Around Me and All Those in My Thoughts
This Day and Ever More. AMEN.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Further reading: Allow Healing

Be an Open Channel

A Tool for Healing Your Troubles

Create Light

Be a Pillar of Goodness
       

This Moment is Your Life

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

Life must be lived as play.
- Plato

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

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: Choose to Soar

The Wisdom of Patience

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Creating Happiness
        

Not as it Appears

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
- Ludwig Boerne

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
- Oscar Wilde

What if it were only an illusion?
Perhaps life is not as threatening as it appears.
Perhaps the greatest threat to our serenity
is our fear of the future -
our fear of the unknown.
Perhaps, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said,
"The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's image shows a Müller-Lyer perceived length optical illusion.

Further reading: When Life Looks Hopeless

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Belief - Point-of-View

Question Your Questions
    

Your Natural State

Soar - it's your natural state.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves, to express ourselves.
But if we look at our lives we will see that most of the time
we do things just to please others ...
The worst part is that most of us are not even aware that we are not free.
- Don Miguel Ruiz

Further reading: Aspire to Being Yourself

No Limits on Your Life

On the Wings of Gratitude

Choose Loveliness over Busyness
      

Yin-Yang -- Seek Balance In Life

The ancient Chinese yin-yang symbol represents the balance of yin (peacefulness, serenity, acceptance, rest, rejuvenation, roots, tradition) with yang (activity, strength, striving, movement, change, wings, invention, progress). A meaningful and joyful life is to be found in balance.

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

Manage the remarkable balance between acting
from your heart and close to your gifts
with completing the obligations
that your labor and tasks require of you.
Leverage opportunity AND seize joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.
- Confucius

Be aware of wonder.
Live a balanced life -
learn some and think some
and draw and paint
and sing and dance
and play and work every day some.
- Robert Fulghum

Maintain a balance between skepticism and faith.
Maintain a beginner mind. Be open to possibility.
Don't give in to skepticism,
but don't give in to fantasy either.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Go With the Flow - Six Ways to Live a Happier Life

Finding Balance in Life

Balance Work and Play
     

Be Gentle and Smile

Who forces time is pushed back by time;
who yields to time finds time on his side.
- The Talmud

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize.
The first is gentleness;
the second is frugality;
the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others.
Be gentle and you can be bold;
be frugal and you can be generous;
avoid putting yourself before others
and you can become a leader among men.
- Lao Tzu

Smile.
Today would be a wonderful day
not to take life so seriously.
Today may end up the way you prefer -
and it may not.
Happiness is not about being a winner -
it's about being gentle with life -
being gentle with yourself.
Let life be a dance,
and choose the kind of
dance you want for today -
perhaps a gentle loving dance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Tending the Garden of Our Lives

Depressed? Laugh!

Is There Virtue In Avoiding Battles?
      

Native Americans' Day (aka Columbus Day) 2017

Like slave-owners Washington and Jefferson, Christopher Columbus was a person of his times.
Moreover, like all persons of all times, Columbus possessed qualities to admire, and qualities to condemn.
In the century following Columbus' arrival in the Americas, 95% of the 70 million Native Americans were either killer by Europeans, or died from diseases brought by the Europeans.

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
- Helen Keller

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you,
opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
- Henry David Thoreau

Read What Can Christopher Columbus Teach Us Today?

Further reading: Success Tip: Drive Change

Courage to Take Action

Dare to Dream of Your Great Success - Mary Anne Radmacher
     

Generosity and Service

We are rich only through what we give,
and poor only through what we refuse.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jesus said, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven."
- Mark 10:21

The love of money is the root of all evil:
which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith,
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things;
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
- Timothy 6:10-11

Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Serve them.
- Jimmy Yen (Y. C. James Yen)

Jesus said, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant."
- Mark 10:43

Further reading: What if Money Was No Object? (video)

Helping Others

What is Your Religion?

More Than Money

This God Called Money
       

Choose! Explore! Adventure!

Life is lived in the living.
Set aside convention, caution,
and arbitrary "rules" about how
life is supposed to be lived.
Choose! Explore! Adventure!
Live life to the fullest.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

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

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.
- The Buddha

Further reading: All That I May Be

Fear of the Unknown

Life as an Adventure

Discover New Worlds
      

Courage and Intent

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength
which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
- Marcus Aurelius

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

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: The Quiet Voice of Courage

Confidence and Action

Creating Your Future 

Hold Fast to Your Dreams
    

Repeating like a Wheel

If you do what you've always done,
you'll get what you've always gotten.
- Anthony Robbins

Life repeats itself mindlessly.
Unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel.
- Osho

Persistence only takes you so far.
Then you need to try a different approach.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I am persuaded that the world has been tricked into adopting
some false and most pernicious notions about consistency -
and to such a degree that the average man has
turned the rights and wrongs of things entirely around
and is proud to be "consistent," unchanging, immovable, fossilized,
where it should be his humiliation.
- Mark Twain

Further reading: Our Habits

Cheer for Endings

Flexibility is Key to Progress

A Better Plan

Your Whole Toolkit
     

Integrity Matters

If you have integrity, nothing else matters.
If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.
- Alan K. Simpson

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

'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

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

To be a person of true greatness...
Live with honor.
Respect yourself.
Respect others.
Act honorably.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Setting an Impeccable Example

Ethics Requires Respecting Others

Do Good Now

Earning a Good Reputation
       

Live Your Life From Your Heart

Steve Jobs' Three Rules of Life ...

1. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

2. Don't be trapped by dogma -
which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

3. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition -
they somehow already know what you truly want to become.
- Steve Jobs

I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley

Today's affirmation:
I set my own course through the ocean of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life and Death: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (video)

Fun and Success

Creating Your Masterwork

Big Dream - Big Adventure
   

Pray for Courage

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anaïs Nin

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
- Anonymous

Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless when facing them.
- Rabindranath Tagore

There can be no happiness when one lives in fear.
Whatever the future holds, fear will not improve tomorrow,
and it will destroy your happiness today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Power of Courage

Rattlesnake of the Mind

A Life Without Fear

Coping with Anxiety

Eye of the Storm
     

Heaven Within Us

Heaven is within us, and we experience it
to the degree that we become conscious of it.
- Ernest Holmes

Heaven means to be one with God.
- Confucius

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
- Henry David Thoreau

Affirmation:
I am one with Spirit. Spirit is within me.
Spirit permeates me and surrounds me.
Spirit is my comfort and my strength.
I am one with Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Being at Peace

Serving Others (pathway to Heaven)

An Attitude of Gratitude

Welcome to Our Family