Do All Things with Love.

Do all things with love.
- Og Mandino

Where love is, there God is also.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

I will greet this day with love in my heart.
And how will I do this?
Henceforth will I look on all things with love and be born again.
I will love the sun for it warms my bones;
yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit.
I will love the light for it shows me the way;
yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.
I will welcome happiness as it enlarges my heart;
yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.
I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due;
yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.
- Og Mandino

The regrets and resentments etched in a heart
remain until they are cleansed away with love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love One Another

The Brick - a story of brotherly love

Giving of Yourself

Choose to Follow Your Heart
    

Through Each Other's Eyes

Could a greater miracle take place
than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
- Henry David Thoreau

Before you criticize a man,
walk a mile in his shoes.
- Anonymous

The more we care for the happiness of others,
the greater is our own sense of well-being.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Understanding is a two-way street.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

We are all different - and we are all one.
Take time to understand, and to appreciate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Art of Listening

Of all the keys to happiness, Service to Others is the big one

Opportunity for Kindness

Open Your Mind
      

Imagining Leads to Accomplishing

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it.
- William Arthur Ward

Live out of your imagination, not your history.
- Stephen Covey

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.
- Albert Einstein

Imagination is everything.
It is the preview of life's coming attractions.
- Albert Einstein

The man who has no imagination has no wings.
- Muhammad Ali

Imagining is the first step to accomplishing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The power of imagination makes us infinite.
- John Muir

Further reading: Magic

Imagination

The Canvas Of Life

Why be Reasonable?
   

There is Magic in Respecting Others

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.
- Henri Frederic Amiel

It comes down to the way you treat people.
When you treat people with dignity and respect all the time,
you can work through anything.
- John Bacon

Be modest, be respectful of others, try to understand.
- Lakhdar Brahimi

Every human being, of whatever origin,
of whatever station, deserves respect.
We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.
- U. Thant

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem,
the more likely one will be to treat others with respect,
kindness, and generosity.
- Nathaniel Branden

There is magic in respecting others.
Respect customers, vendors, bosses, employees, co-workers.
Respect parents, spouses, sons, daughters.
Respect the trash collector, the mayor, the bank teller, the truck driver.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Condemn None

How To Be Happy In Life

Each To Their Own

Humble Yet Confident
        

The Burden Disappears

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

The Joy is in the Journey.
- Anonymous

Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living is joy enough.
- Emily Dickinson

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
- Anonymous

Today is a perfect day to be happy.
Every day is a perfect day to be happy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life is too important to be taken seriously

Today is Your Day (my complete poem)

Make Time For Yourself

Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat
     

Consciousness and Awareness

It is the Consciousness with which we participate
in activities that makes the difference.
- Michael Beckwith

What is necessary to change a person is
to change his awareness of himself.
- Abraham Maslow

Pay attention. Cultivate awareness.
Life cannot be lived fully or joyfully if
our thoughts are focused on regretting the past,
preoccupied with anticipating the future,
or lost in the mind-fog of unconscious habitual behavior.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Let us not look back in anger
or forward in fear,
but around in awareness.
- James Thurber

Today's affirmation: I practice keen awareness,
and make my choices with consciousness, courage,
and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Conscious Action

Letting Go and Accepting This Moment

Assumptions are Dangerous

Prejudice
      

Christmas 2017

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

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

Further reading: Happy Birthday Jesus

With Love in My Heart

The Power of Unconditional Love

Brotherly Love
   

The Light Drives Out Hate and Fear

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

An "enemy" is a mirage -
an image of self reflected on the sands of Hell.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When we hate our enemies, we are
giving them power over us:
power over our sleep, our appetites,
our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.
Our enemies would dance with joy if only
they knew how they were worrying us,
lacerating us, and getting even with us!
Our hate is not hurting them at all,
but our hate is turning our own days
and nights into a hellish turmoil.
- Dale Carnegie

Hate returns upon itself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You never hate that which you do not first fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Allow Love to Conquer Hate

Hatred vs. Love

Revenge, the Deadliest Sin?

Burned by Your Own Anger
      

Hope and Fear Cloud Our Vision

Hope and Fear Cloud Our Vision.
We do not always see what is before our face -
sometimes we see what we hope to see,
or what we fear we will see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them.
- Alan Watts

There are none so blind as those who will not see.
- John Heywood (also attributed to the later Matthew Henry, and others)
(based on Jeremiah 5:21)

Further reading: What We Perceive

Art of Seeing

Listen, Really Listen

Observe Life
    

Understand Darkness; Bring Light

Knowing your own darkness is the best method
for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
- Carl Jung

Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
- Carl Jung

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
- Lao Tzu

Fear grows in darkness;
if you think there's a bogeyman around,
turn on the light.
- Dorothy Thompson

Further reading: Prejudice

Categorizing People

Driving Out Darkness
     

God Permeates Everything

Reading about nature is fine, but 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

The experience of God,
or in any case the possibility of experiencing God,
is innate.
- Alice Walker

God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead,
and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.
- William Ellery Channing

God known only through books pales in comparison
to God personally experienced in daily life.
Become aware of God permeating everything.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Nature Speaks God's Truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Prayer and Mystery

Universal Connection

God of Children

Everyday Miracles
     

Reject Mindless Conformity

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
- John F. Kennedy

If you stand up and be counted,
from time to time you may get yourself knocked down.
But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again.
A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
- Thomas J. Watson

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.
- Rita Mae Brown

Let today be a day to take life less seriously.
Take the weight of the world off your shoulders.
Choose Joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Thinking for Yourself

A Foolish Consistency

My Own Person

How to Deal with Rejection
    

Learning by Living, and Staying Alert

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
- Helen Keller

The lessons of the past provide the path to the future.
- Anonymous

The difference between school and life?
In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test.
In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
- Tom Bodett

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
- B.F. Skinner

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors,
and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.
- George Washington

Never stop learning. Look for further education in all of life.

Further reading: Question Your Questions

 The Book of Life: Mystery and Riddle

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

Joy Blooms Where Minds and Hearts are Open

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb
      

Other People's Expectations

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.
- Stevie Wonder

People see you as an object, not as a person,
and they project a set of expectations onto you.
- Candice Bergen

It is a better thing to weigh and measure priorities
in the illuminating light of your own mission
than to have your activities formed by the
impressions and expectations of others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"You always..." and "you never..." are code phrases for
"you don't meet my expectations, so I am declaring you inadequate and unacceptable."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Question every assumption and expectation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Value Your Self Respect

Choice, Not Obligation

Criticism and Complaint

A Choice for Joy
      

Universal Kindness

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

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.

Constant kindness can accomplish much.
As the sun makes ice melt,
kindness causes misunderstanding,
mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
- Albert Schweitzer

Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
- Chinese proverb

We may have found a cure for most evils;
but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all,
the apathy of human beings.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: Love All, Judge None

To Be a Faithful Follower of Jesus

Doing God's Work

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion
        

Curing Boredom

When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
- Eric Hoffer

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

It is only a step from boredom to disillusionment,
which leads naturally to self-pity, which in turn ends in chaos.
- Manly Hall

For those who are bored with life,
the path to happiness almost always comes
through service to the less-fortunate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How can I find what my happiness is supposed to be or look like?

Break Old Patterns of Action

Nothing to look forward to?

Overcome Being Negative
  

Infinite Storm of Beauty

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop,
striped and dotted with continents and islands,
flying through space with other stars
all singing and shining together as one,
the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
- John Muir

For small creatures such as we
the vastness is bearable only through love.
- Carl Sagan

The massive bulk of the earth does indeed shrink
to insignificance in comparison with the size of the heavens.
- Nicolaus Copernicus

Take time today to appreciate beauty -
natural beauty, art, people.
Slow down, breathe deeply, smile.
It's a beautiful world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Our Grandchildren's Planet

Life: Mystery and Riddle
      

Become a Source of Love

Love me when I least deserve it,
because that's when I really need it.
- Swedish Proverb

Love wasn't put in your heart to stay.
Love isn't love until you give it away.
- Michael W. Smith

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.
That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.
- Emily Kimbrough

Who, being loved, is poor?
- Oscar Wilde 

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

True love never comes with conditions.
Become a source of unconditional love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Coping with Heartbreak

This is my wish for you...

Feeling Used and Left Out

What is Love?
      

Break the Chains and Soar

Let today be a day to soar -
soar your spirits, soar your joy,
soar your belief in yourself.
Let all aspects of your life soar.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Protect your vision.
Prevail over adversity.
Persevere in the midst of turmoil.
Passionately act upon your convictions.
Purposely walk into the day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

We are strange beings, we seem
to go free, but we go in chains -
chains of training, custom, convention,
association, environment -
in a word, Circumstance -
and against these bonds
the strongest of us struggle in vain.
- Mark Twain

Today's affirmation:
I soar on eagle wings,
high above the madness of the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Soar, It's Your Natural State

Fly Life on Free Wings

No Limits on Your Life
     

The Small Pleasures of Life

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

To love. To be loved.
To never forget your own insignificance.
To never get used to the unspeakable violence
and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated
or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power.
Above all, to watch. To try to understand.
To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
- Arundhati Roy

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength;
loving someone deeply gives you courage.
- Lao Tzu

The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.
A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being
that places harmony in one's life.
- Peace Pilgrim

Further reading:  Live Gently

Beyond Understanding

Compassion, Kindness, Humility

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Inner Mystery of Life

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
- Oscar Wilde

To know the whole world is nothing
when it is compared to knowing your own inner mystery of life.
- Osho

Many men go fishing all of their lives
without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
- Henry David Thoreau

The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

Further reading: The Mystery of Life

Wonder and Mystery

Experience Life with Reverence

Beyond Answers
      

All are Your Brothers and Sisters

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)

An individual has not started living
until he can rise above the narrow confines
of his individualistic concerns
to the broader concerns of all humanity.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere.
Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth.
You must give some time to your fellow man.
For remember, you don't live in a world all your own.
Your brothers are here too.
- Albert Schweitzer

Today's affirmation:
All people are my heart-felt brothers and sisters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Let Me Sow Love

Share Yourself Deeply

Feeding the Hungry

Love and Miracles
      

Foolish Consistency

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Note that the problem isn't with "consistency," but with "foolish consistency."
What makes a habitual action "foolish?" Ask yourself whether it serves you, or whether you serve it.

Progress is impossible without change,
and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
- George Bernard Shaw

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past,
threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
- Maya Angelou

When what you are doing is frustrating you, STOP.
Pause to consider the true importance of the task.
Reflect on whether there is a better plan for reaching your goal.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beginning Today, Make Fresh Choices

No Need to Conform

Our Habits

Your Whole Toolkit
      

Make Time Your Friend

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
- Leonardo da Vinci

There is only one time that is important - NOW!
It is the most important time because
it is the only time that we have any power.
- Leo Tolstoy

You will never find time for anything.
If you want time you must make it.
- Charles Buxton

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

We must use time creatively.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
- The Buddha

Don't fight against time.
Develop a comfort and friendship with time.
Time enjoyed is never time wasted.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: Time is my friend.

Further reading: Make Time For Yourself

Your Relationship with Time

Master of Patience

Everything Happens In Its Own Time

Your To-Do List
        

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2017

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Today, fear again grips America - in public and in private. Remember FDR's words and focus with courage on the job at hand - the job of living joyfully regardless of external circumstances.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself
the means of inspiration and survival.
- Winston Churchill

This world of ours... must avoid becoming
a community of dreadful fear and hate,
and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Further reading: You Need Courage

Serenity rather than Fear

Revenge Never Ends
     

Learning Who You Are

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

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

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

Further reading: What Is Success?

What You Become

A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist
    

Action Conquers Fear

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.
- W. Clement Stone

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence.
Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.
Perhaps the action you take will be successful;
perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow.
But any action is better than no action at all.
- Norman Vincent Peale

To overcome a fear, here's all you have to do:
realize the fear is there,
and do the action you fear anyway.
- Peter McWilliams

Action is our greatest weapon against fear.
Left to molder, fear grows upon itself,
but in the face of action,
fear is left in the dust.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Take Action Today

Wanting is Not Enough

Only Today
      

Keep Your Wits About You

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...
- Rudyard Kipling

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it...
that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
- Dale Carnegie

A sublime faith in human imbecility has seldom led
those who cherish it astray.
- Henry Ellis

Trust yourself. Only you can live your life.
Only you can taste your victories.
Only you can suffer the sting of your defeats.
Make your own choices, and accept your own consequences -
for better or worse.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Have Confidence in Yourself

Feeling Tired?

Stand Tall and Proud

Blaze Your Own Trail
      

Natural Miracles

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.
- Rumi

Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
- Matthew 7:7

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Miracles are the natural way of the Universe -
our only job is to move our doubting minds aside
and let the miracles flow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: More about "A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect"

Recognizing Our Abundance

Life Really Is Good

Gratitude for THIS Moment
     

Too Much Caution is Not Prudent

The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me
- Psalm 23

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
- Alfred Adler

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
- Bertrand Russell

There is beauty and serenity in the eye of the storm.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whatever the challenges that actually confront any of us on a given day,
the potential threats are always far greater.
There are always an array of catastrophes overhanging our lives -
wars, terrorists, hurricanes, earthquakes, escaped murderers,
child molesters, and maybe a runaway asteroid.
In comparison with what "could" happen, our lives are rather serene.

Rather than worrying about the continuous stream of potential threats,
let us give thanks for our blessing of living in the eye-of-the-storm -
our protected refuge from the terrors
of fearsome dangers just outside our lives.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Too Much Caution is Not Prudent.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I walk today's march with courage.
I create today as my celebration of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Serenity in Times of Crisis

Life is Not Fearsome

The Storm of Life
      

Anger: Its Own Punishment

Once you recognize that greed, jealousy, and aggression
are symptoms of fear, you can begin to respond to negative people
with compassion, rather than with anger.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You will not be punished for your anger,
you will be punished by your anger.
- the Buddha

Whenever you are angry, be assured that
it is not only a present evil,
but that you have increased a habit.
- Epictetus

I have never met an aggressive person
who wasn't a fearful person.
- John Bradshaw

Further reading: Stop Anger Before It Stops You

Finding Peace in Forgiveness

Never Let Anyone Get Your Goat

Creatures of Emotion

Ending Your Anger