Curiosity Keeps You Young

Be curious, not judgmental.
- Walt Whitman

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization.
- G. M. Trevelyan

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
- Albert Einstein

Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.
- Bryant H. McGill

Being curious is a quality of youthful minds.
Being judgmental is a quality of calcified minds.
Welcome inquiry, discovery, and new vistas
with an open heart and an open mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Power of Imagination

A Fire to be Kindled

Curious - Adventurous

Asking Better Questions
        

Dance Wildly With Life

You're only given a little spark of madness.
You mustn't lose it.
- Robin Williams

Follow Your Bliss.
- Joseph Campbell 

If being good isn't working - try being outrageous.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Who said that life had to be serious?
Imagine, Play, Sing, Turn Cartwheels, Be Unstoppable, Dance Wildly With Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today is your day to practice whimsey,
smile broadly, sing loudly,
paint your rooms in bold colors,
watch wondrous cloud animals parade your story,
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,
and dance lightly with life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What if we like our outrageous side best?
We "know" that the "right" thing to do is to suck it up,
put the costume and the happy face back in storage for another year,
re-dress in our frown and gray flannel suit,
and trudge back to job, chores, "responsibilities," and "duty."
Stop! Maybe TODAY is the day to put the frown and gray flannel
into that dusty storage locker, and start to LIVE.
Not just today, but EVERY DAY for the rest of your life!
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today: Do something Outrageous - just because you want to.
Take off your shoes and dance on the beach... Play in the mud... Sing at the top of your lungs... and don't care who hears you.
Celebrate today... Celebrate ME... Celebrate Life... Celebrate Rainbows and Butterflies... Celebrate Whimsey...

Further reading: Today is Your Day (my complete poem)

Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Life is too important to be taken seriously

Do Something Crazy
     

Driven by Emotions

At the most basic level, the human emotions that drive all our actions
are the emotion of Love, and the emotion of Fear.
Love expresses itself through compassion, kindness, generosity, and understanding.
Fear expresses itself through self-centeredness, greed, jealousy, and exclusion.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Have compassion for those whose actions are driven by fear,
even when those actions cause serious harm to others.

We should not pretend to understand the world
only by the intellect.
The judgment of the intellect
is only part of the truth.
- Carl Jung

Feelings are much stronger than thoughts.
We are all led by instinct,
and our intellect catches up later.
- Bono

When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.
- Dale Carnegie

Further reading: There are Only Fear and Love

Choosing the World You Live In

Learning To Live Together

Master of My Emotions
     

Grandeur of Creation

Today is a good day to look around at the grandeur of creation.
Whether flower or cactus, butterfly or caterpillar, elk or lizard,
vegetable garden or compost pile.
Our world is magnificent - all of it.
Rejoice and give thanks for all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing.
None is excluded, but excludes himself.
You have only to push aside the curtain.
- Henry David Thoreau

Study nature, love nature,
stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Further reading: Nature's Messengers

Everything is a Miracle

Beauty and Adventure in the Commonplace

One Drop of Water
     

The Test...

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

There are pastors who won't go to people's sick beds.
How can people of God turn their back on the sick,
poor and hungry?
- James Robinson

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

If the misery of the poor be caused
not by the laws of nature,
but by our institutions,
great is our sin.
- Charles Darwin

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


Further reading: Helping Others

All Brothers and Sisters

Out Purpose is To Serve

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
   

An Unimagined Future

There are all kinds of futures.
There is a hoped-for future,
there is a feared future,
there is a predictable future,
and there is an unimagined future.
- Werner Erhard

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you
it's going to be a butterfly.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Vision stands on the shoulders of what is actual
to get a better view of what is possible.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Hold Fast to Your Dreams

Faith in a Great Future

Be a Dreamer, In Action

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

Eyes To See Beyond

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

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Simple Joys

Seeing Unexpected Beauty

Things Divine

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
       

Thanksgiving 2017

As we join hands in fellowship
around this bountiful table,
we give thanks for the blessings of this food
and the love of these friends
as a symbol of our gratitude
for all the manifold blessings of this life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The food which we are about to eat
Is Earth, Water, and Sun, compounded
through the alchemy of many plants.
Therefore Earth, Water and Sun will
become part of us.
This food is also the fruit of the labor of
many. We are grateful for it.
May it give us strength, health, joy.
And may it increase our love.
- Unitarian Blessing

In a world where so many are hungry,
may we eat this food with humble hearts;
in a world where so many are lonely,
May we share this friendship with joyful hearts.
- Anonymous

We receive this food in gratitude to all beings
Who have helped to bring it to our table,
And vow to respond in turn to those in need
With wisdom and compassion.
- Buddhist Blessing

For food that stays our hunger,
For rest that brings us ease,
For homes where memories linger,
We give our thanks for these.
- Anonymous

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

Thankful and Content

My Thoughts on Thanksgiving 

Giving Thanks for the Commonplace
    

Love is Everything Good

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

Love is an act of faith,
and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
- Erich Fromm

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

Love is an undulating energy that moves through you,
within you, and radiates out of you,
and changes everything.
- Bartholomew

Further reading: Natural Goodness

Giving Love and Comfort

The Power of Unconditional Love

What Does Love Look Like?
     

In Prosperity We [tend to] Forget God

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer.
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity,
for in prosperity we forget God.
- Dwight L. Moody

Keep a grateful journal. Every night,
list five things you are grateful for.
- Oprah Winfrey

Today... Give thanks for the miracles -
Give thanks for the love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Attitude toward Gratitude

Love All Of Life

A Thankful Heart

Have a Conversation with God, Today
   

Committed Action

There are a hundred valid reasons why something can't be done,
but only one reason, Commitment, why it can.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

You either do it completely and utterly,
or you should stop doing it.
- Bono (paraphrase)

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 Charge of Your Life - Secrets for Getting Un-Stuck

Wanting To Win

Enthusiasm and Passion

You Can Do It
     

Be Wary of What Humans Do in God's Name

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want.
It is the belief that God will do what is right.
- Max Lucado

What does it profit, my brethren,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can faith save him?
- James 2:14

A person who is fanatic in matters of religion,
and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe,
becomes a person who has no faith at all.
- Alan Watts

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God.
It's religion I'm doubting.
- Bono
(Bono is deeply influenced by the Northern Ireland "Troubles," the 1968-1998 civil war
between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians in which thousands were killed.)

To know a person's religion
we need not listen to his profession of faith
but must find his brand of intolerance.
- Eric Hoffer

Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.
- Michel de Montaigne

Trust in God's goodness.
Be wary of what humans do in God's name.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Know that You have been Blessed

Where there is Great Love

Thank You Prayer

Heaven on Earth
    

Pay it Forward - with Gratitude

TODAY, consider performing an act-of-kindness for someone who can never repay you.

Is there someone who will be alone on Thanksgiving unless you share your table with them?

Sometimes our light goes out but
is blown into flame by another human being.
Each of us owes deepest thanks
to those who have rekindled this light.
- Albert Schweitzer

The moment you become miserly you are closed
to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing.
The moment you start clinging to things,
you have missed the target.
Because things are not the target,
you, your innermost being, is the target -
not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you;
not much money, but a rich you;
not many things, but an open being,
available to millions of things.
- Osho

Pay It Forward.
Gift future generations in proportion to your gratitude.
The nature of life is that we pay forward
our biological creation and nurture.
Our parents gift us with life and nurture,
and we gift our children with life and nurture.
While this much is essential to continued human existence,
choose to take "pay it forward" farther - much farther.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father
goes forward, not backward.
What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
- Nancy Friday

Each of us has been generously gifted by parents, teachers, mentors, and others we can never repay. So, in gratitude for what we have received, it is now our turn to generously gift the children, the up-and-coming, and the down-and-out -- with no expectation that they can ever repay us - and with the hope that they will, in turn, pay-forward to another generation.

Further reading: Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Opportunity for Daily Thanksgiving

Universal Kindness and Compassion

True Measure of a Successful Life
    

Understanding is Beyond Knowing Facts

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding:
you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
- Charles Kettering

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
- Robertson Davies

If you understand, things are just as they are;
if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
- Zen Proverb

The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it.
- Mark Twain

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.
- Chinese proverb

Not until we are lost
do we begin to understand ourselves.
- Henry David Thoreau

Further reading: Open Minds

Knowledge is Soon Changed

Understand More, Fear Less

Listen, Really Listen to Understand

Seek the Truth
     

How You Choose to View Your Life

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?
- Sydney Harris

What if we just acted like everything was easy?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Adversity can crush our spirit - or strengthen it - it is our choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whenever you say or even think, "This is hard,"
that task or challenge becomes difficult.
Dread it, and it becomes terrifying.

When you choose to move past fear -
fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of "looking bad," fear of losing respect -
life becomes much lighter, and most any task becomes possible - perhaps even enjoyable.
Most any challenge can become an adventure of discovery.

Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The secret to a great life is recognizing that life was never intended to be fair.
Life simply isn't "fair," and that's okay.
The joy of life comes from playing the game of life as best we can,
focusing far more on the love and good example we can contribute
to other lives than on demanding money, stuff, love, or appreciation.
Service becomes a source of joy when it is not viewed as a duty.

Further reading: Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of

Strength In Hard Times

Do not rail against life
      

True Serenity

Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often.
- Anonymous

Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued,
is always just beyond your grasp,
but which, if you will sit down quietly,
may alight upon you.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Laugh at yourself and at life.
Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity,
but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain,
cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective
that seemingly terrible defeat and worry
with laughter at your predicaments,
thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution
that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.
- Og Mandino

We have a good life when we manage to live with both
satisfied and unsatisfied needs,
when we are not obsessed by what is beyond our reach.
- Kjell Magne Bondevik

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time;
serenity, that nothing is.
- Thomas Szasz

Do what you can, and do it well.
Accept the rest with equanimity, and trust in God.
No one can ever do more than that.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Serenity

Pay Attention to the Natural World

Living in Peace


      

Fire of the Mind

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed

Open Minds

Lifelong Learning

Reason
    

Appreciate the Basics of Life

Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively,
the basic goods of life, with awe,
pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy,
however stale these experiences may have become to others.
- Abraham Maslow

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

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

A Table Grace of Thanksgiving:
We gather today in gratitude for the bounty of the land,
the joyful company around this table,
and all the other blessings of this life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Let Each Day be a Thanksgiving

Gratitude: Virtue and Joy

A List of Gratitudes - a Thanksgiving

Thank You God
    

Heal and Bless

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

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 best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

What power there is in our service
when our actions line up with our mission, skills and joy.
– Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Serving Others

The Power of Generosity

Helping

We Belong to Each Other
    

Veterans' Day 2017

Duty, Honor, Country.
Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be,
what you can be, what you will be.
- Douglas MacArthur

When we step on the battlefield, I will be
The First Boots On and the Last Boots Off.
- LtG. Hal Moore

Pessimism never won any battle.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery
as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man.
All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are,
the more they are frightened.
- George S. Patton

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence,
is a continuing imperative.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt
to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- Colin Powell

The soldier above all others prays for peace,
for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the
deepest wounds and scars of war.
- Douglas MacArthur

War settles nothing.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Further reading: Stop Trying to Grasp at "Security"

Honorable Paths to Noble Goals

Watch What You Pray For 
      

Forgiveness is Cleansing

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

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

In forgiveness you grant,
and more so in the forgiveness you receive.
- Terry Goodkind

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

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: How to get over regrets and resentments

Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

Forgiveness is Essential to a Great Relationship

Finding Peace in Forgiveness

Burned by Your Own Anger
      

One Must Have Sunshine, Freedom...

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau

How much do you engage yourself in what's truly real
and important in life? That's the individual question.
- Ted Danson

Today's affirmation:
I live every moment, and I live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life in Bold Colors

Live Every Moment, Joyfully

Enjoy Life

A Life Without Fear
    

Evolved Consciousness

You are here to evolve and make your consciousness high
You are here to dance, sing and celebrate life.
You are here to help others to make their life happy.
We are here not to compete, but to learn, evolve and excel.
We are not here to make divisions in the name of prophets and religions.
We are here to encompass the world with love and light.
- Amit Ray

Those who are highly evolved,
maintain an undiscriminating perception.
Seeing everything, labeling nothing,
they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness.
Thus they are supported by it.
- Lao Tzu

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.

As many raindrops join to form a great river of water,
many souls join their highest intent to form
the river of evolved consciousness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Participate with Consciousness

Wisdom through Understanding

The Journey Within

Be an Observer of Life
      

Finding Peace in Gratitude

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

Have Gratitude for the Smallest Blessings,
for the crust of bread and the cool drink of water.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude.
Each day be happy and grateful for what you have,
independent of yesterday and of other people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I give thanks for all of life.
I Find Peace in Gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Appreciate Your Blessings

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Praise and Celebrate Your Life

Believe in...
      

Welcome Uncertainty

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
- Pliny the Elder

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates

It is important to expect nothing,
to take every experience,
including the negative ones,
as merely steps on the path,
and to proceed.
- Ram Dass

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
- William Shakespeare

Welcome the Unexpected.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Recognizing Our Abundance

Expectations

World in Upheaval

Pause to Wonder

Appreciate the Unexpected
   

Share Your Heart

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

I have found that among its other benefits,
giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- Maya Angelou

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

Love cures people - both the ones who give it
and the ones who receive it.
- Karl A. Menninger

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the
gift of unconditional love and acceptance.
- Brian Tracy

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

It costs you nothing to make another happy -
and you gain your true self through the act of spreading joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What Does Love Look Like?

Tender

Proactive in Our Love
       

Rejoice when You See Beauty

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.
- Anonymous (falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty, never grows old.
- Franz Kafka

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated.
She will give up to you the object of your struggles
only after you have paid her price.
- Napoleon Hill

Further reading: What One Emphasizes

Seeing Unexpected Beauty

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

Planting Flowers
    

The Creative Mind

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life
stimulates the creative mind.
- Albert Einstein

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers,
but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.
- Antony Jay

Creativity has more to do with the elimination of the
inessential than with inventing something new.
- Helmut Jahn

Fill your heart with the creative power
to accept the past,
decorate the present
and transform the future.
- Osho

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority
has made the world better.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement
and the thrill of creative effort.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Creativity is the quality that you bring
to the activity that you are doing.
It is an attitude, an inner approach -
how you look at things.
- Osho

To live a creative life
we must lose our fear of being wrong.
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Seek Your Own Wisdom

Welcome Inquiry, Discovery, and New Vistas

Scientific Thinking

Discovery through New Eyes
      

Live Your Life with Passion

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Curious - Adventurous

This Life is Not a Rehearsal

Welcome the Unknown

Think Big, Act Big
    

A Month-Long Celebration of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday, as being grateful for everything, especially for the gift of life itself, is at the top of my list of values. Will you join me in a celebration of Gratitude and Thanksgiving for the entire month of November?

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter
everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe
that change forever how we experience life and the world.
- John Milton

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melody Beattie

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

Suppose our gratitude could be zero-based gratitude.
With zero-based gratitude,
we would be grateful for everything we had each day -
regardless of whether it was more or less than yesterday.
With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful for all the people,
the love, the food, the shelter, the services,
the health, that I am blessed with today,
regardless of what I had yesterday.
With zero-based gratitude,
I can be grateful each day for the gift of life itself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Affirmation:
I commit the whole month of November to expressing gratitude and thanksgiving.

Read about Zero-Based Gratitude

Further reading: The Truly Rich

Recognizing Our Abundance

Know that You have been Blessed

Gratitude for THIS Moment

My Glass of Life