Overcome Obstacles with Gentleness and Time

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
- Saint Francis de Sales

A tree that is unbending, is easily broken.
- Lao Tzu

Read the Aesop fable The Oak and the Reeds

Do not attempt to conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
- Lao Tzu

Resistance creates suffering.
Stress happens when your mind resists what is...
The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds.
- Dan Millman

A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.
- George Savile

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

The River of Life

Enjoy the Journey
    

Learning Who You Are

All men should strive to learn before they die,
what they are running from, and to, and why.
- James Thurber

We tell lies when we are afraid...
afraid of what we don't know,
afraid of what others will think,
afraid of what will be found out about us.
But every time we tell a lie,
the thing that we fear grows stronger.
- Williams Tad

The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you,
it is when you don't understand yourself.
- Anonymous

A good question is never answered.
It is not a bolt to be tightened into place
but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed
toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
- John Ciardi

Further reading: Where Are You Going?

A Truly Successful Life

Eyes on the Heavens

To Serve
      

Facing Our Fear of the Unknown

We all have a fear of the unknown.
What one does with that fear will make all the difference in the world.
- Lillian Russell

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

Have no fear of moving into the unknown.
Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you,
therefore no harm can befall you;
all is very, very well.
Do this in complete faith and confidence.
- Pope John Paul II

Fear of the unknown is
the greatest fear of humankind,
and death the greatest unknown.
Acknowledging these doubts and fears
is a powerful beginning.
It is liberating to say,
"Yes, I don't know, and yes, I am afraid."
Beyond that, the path to happiness
lies in living in the moment -
enjoying what you are doing today.
You don't need a reason to be happy,
just a choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Edge of All You Know

 Choose to Soar

Spread Your Wings

A Life Without Fear
      

Never Hate Anyone

You have heard that it was said,
"Love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I tell you: Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
- Jesus (Matthew 5:43-44)

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

That which you hate to be done to you,
do not do to another.
- Ancient Egyptian Proverb
[Most ancient cultures independently created their own version of "The Golden Rule."]

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

Further reading: Keep the Golden Rule

More Understanding, Less Hate

Allow Love to Conquer Hate

Three Wise Monkeys

Judge Not
       

Awake from Your Dream

As you awaken,
may your dreams greet you by name,
and may you answer, "Yes!"
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Happiness is a choice.
You grieve, you stomp your feet,
you pick yourself up and choose to be happy.
- Lucy Lawless

There are as many pillows of illusion
as flakes in a snow-storm.
We wake from one dream into another dream.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky;
then I awoke.
Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly,
or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
- Zhuangzi

Further reading: The Quiet Voice of Courage

Choose Your Attitude

Honor Your Heart
       

True Love Does Not Judge

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

Love is the absence of judgment.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Love is saying "I feel differently," instead of "You're wrong."
- Anonymous

Know the power and the peace of saying,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We all hate it when someone tells us we're wrong. "Them's fightin' words." So we end up hating the person who said that we were wrong.

There are two great reasons for never saying, "You're wrong," to someone you love...

First, it opens the door to anger and hatred. Why do that to someone you love?

Second, virtually everything is a matter of perspective and opinion. Whether the subject is politics, religion, sex, the kids' homework, or anything else, there really isn't a "right" way, just the way you prefer.

Further reading: The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Acceptance Makes a Great Relationship Even Better

You Can't Make Them Change

Drawing Inspiration Out Of Suffering

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

Being defeated is often a temporary condition.
Giving up is what makes it permanent.
- Marilyn vos Savant

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

If I could tell the world just one thing
it would be we're all okay,
and not to worry cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair,
I will gather myself around my faith.
Light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

Today's affirmation:
I gather strength from life's storms.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Tested by Storms

Serenity rather than Fear

Calm During Storms
      

Appreciating Beauty

Beauty is whatever gives joy.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay

We can only be said to be truly alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder

Choose to See Beauty and Joy:
Much in life can be seen as ugly or beautiful - it's our choice.
Why would we choose to see any part of life as ugly?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Even from the darkest night songs of beauty can be born.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

We live in a wonderful world that is
full of beauty, charm and adventure.
There is no end to the adventures that we can have
if only we seek them with our eyes open.
- Jawaharlal Nehru

See beauty in the familiar.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beauty and Adventure in the Commonplace

Pay Attention to the Natural World

Having Eyes for Beauty
      

The Creative Power of Our Thoughts

Every thought we think is creating our future.
- Louise L. Hay

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him,
like a shadow that never leaves him.
– The Buddha

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
- Marcus Aurelius

Blessings flow toward gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Well-being is making its way to you at all times.
If you will relax and find a way to allow it,
it will be your experience.
- Abraham (Esther Hicks)

The power of your intention, your intent, your word, is immense. We might ascribe this effect to the power of prayer, to natural forces, or to our will to create our desired outcome. In any case, use this power. Believe in what you do, as well as doing it.

Further reading: The Power of Your Intention

Be an Open Channel

Creating Well-Being

Thinking as Creation
          

Presidents' Day 2018

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

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest,
but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
- John F. Kennedy (35th President of the United States)

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
- George Washington (first President of the United States)

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams (sixth President of the United States)

With self-discipline most anything is possible.
- Theodore Roosevelt (26nd President of the United States)

Nothing is more important in our national life
than the welfare of our children.
- Harry S. Truman (33rd President of the United States)

Further reading: Independence Day

Save Only the Best of the Old Ways

Hold Your Anger

Make a Difference, Vote
      

Compassion, Generosity, Service

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

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

It is in giving that we receive.
- St. Francis of Assisi

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

Kindness is better than piety.
- Yiddish Proverb

Further reading: What Does Love Look Like?

Being of Service

Love Your Neighbor
      

What's Really Important

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day
to be and to do what really matters most
- Stephen Covey

Kindness is more important than wisdom,
and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
- Theodore Isaac Rubin

To live is to choose. But to choose well,
you must know who you are and what you stand for,
where you want to go and why you want to get there.
- Kofi Annan

Be alert. The most important things in life
are seldom the most obvious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Seeds You Plant

All That I May Be

The Purpose of Our Lives
      

To Appreciate People, Spend Time with Them

Travel teaches toleration.
- Benjamin Disraeli

To acquire knowledge, one must study;
but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.
- Marilyn vos Savant

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,
and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things
cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
- Mark Twain

I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.
- Mary Anne Radmacher


Further reading: Dare to dream of your great success

One World

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

The World is My Family
      

Let It Go

Life Is Not Meant to be Serious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry,
and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed
to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas Gandhi

When I look back on all these worries,
I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed
that he had had a lot of trouble in his life,
most of which had never happened.
- Winston Churchill

Further reading: Life Without Stress

I Will Fear No Evil

Treat Trifles as Trifles
       

Like Twin Blooms - Valentine's Day

The greatest lovers are like twin blooms,
each reflecting the passion and the glory of the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Marriage, ultimately, is the practice of becoming passionate friends.
- Harville Hendrix

No partner in a love relationship should feel
that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.
- May Sarton

You are my ground and you are my rainbow.
You are my butterfly and you are my ecstasy.
You are the start of my journeys and always my destination.
You are my home - the place to which I always return.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Loving Relationship

Love and Relationship

Marriage

7 Secrets of Happy Couples
   

Mystery Creates Wonder

Mystery creates wonder,
and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong

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

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

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: Nothing is Certain

Cherish Mystery

Childlike Wonder

Magnificent Mystery

Abraham Lincoln Birthday 2018

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln (16th United States President)

If you look for the bad in people
expecting to find it, you surely will.
- Abraham Lincoln

The probability that we may fail
in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
- Abraham Lincoln

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
- Abraham Lincoln

Further reading: Power Tests Integrity

Plant Flowers

How To Know What To Do
     
 

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
- Jesus (Matthew 5:7,9)

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The Christian gospel is a summons to peace,
calling for justice beyond anger,
mercy beyond justice,
forgiveness beyond mercy,
love beyond forgiveness.
- Wendell Berry

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
- St Francis of Assisi

Further reading: Love All, Judge None

Cherish the Earth

Hatred vs. Love

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
   

Step One: Begin

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu (Chinese Proverb)

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Today... maybe I can take one step
on that profoundly complex path to peace.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Edge of All You Know

The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

Creating a Great Future

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life
       

Celebrate Each to Their Own

I never considered a difference of opinion
in politics, in religion, in philosophy,
as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
- Thomas Jefferson

We may have our private opinions
but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

One of the surest ways to cause
yourself great suffering
is to insist upon being right -
to demand that all others view life
exactly as you view it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Why should it impede your happiness for others to have differing views on politics or religion? for others to paint their houses purple or grow asparagus in place of a grassy lawn? for others to dress, mingle, celebrate, or dine in their own manner?

The path to happiness is to live your life joyfully in your own way, and to support and encourage others to do likewise.

Further reading: Other People's Opinions

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Categorizing People

Different and yet the Same
       

Light a Candle

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
- Chinese proverb often quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
- Aristotle Onassis

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times,
if one only remembers to turn on the light.
- J.K. Rowling

The unknown is like the darkness of a cave -
it can be illuminated by the brief light
of one adventurer's small candle.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Divine Spark

Dark Days

Create Light for Others
   

All Different and yet the Same

We all live with the objective of being happy;
our lives are all different and yet the same.
- Anne Frank

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
- Epictetus
[and freedom is equally the right of others to live as they wish]

Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.
- Theodor Adorno

People are pretty much alike.
It's only that our differences are more susceptible
to definition than our similarities.
- Linda Ellerbee

Further reading: One Human Race

Condemn None
      

Doors Will Open

When you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you
that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.
- Joseph Campbell

If you get to the point where someone is telling you
that you are not great or not good enough,
just follow your heart
and don't let anybody crush your dream.
- Patti LaBelle

I celebrate myself, and sing myself.
- Walt Whitman

Follow that will and that way
which experience confirms to be your own.
- Carl Jung

Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Don't Settle for "Good Enough"

Go Where There is No Path

Choose to Follow Your Heart

Choosing Your Destination
    

God Provides What You Need, Not What You Ask For

Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.
- George Meredith

Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.
- Socrates

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.
- Margaret Atwood
[Consider how often the word "justice" really means "revenge."]

I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
- Jean Ingelow

If God listened to the prayers of men,
all men would quickly have perished:
for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
- Epicurus

God Provides What You Need, Not What You Ask For.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Thank You Prayer

Love even those who hate you

Choose To Be Fearless
      

The Price of Hating Other Human Beings

What I know for sure is that
what you give comes back to you.
- Oprah Winfrey

Life is a reflection of intent.
Love reflects love.
Hate reflects hate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I have decided to stick with love.
Hate is too great a burden to bear.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
- Eldridge Cleaver

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart...
forgiveness saves the expense of anger,
the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
- Hannah More

Further reading: 7 Secrets for a Happy Life

Intentional Living

The Power of Insightful Vision

The Power of Imagination
      

When Life is Difficult

When It’s Darkest, Men See the Stars.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life,
your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Your success and happiness lies in you.
Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you
shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
- Helen Keller

Only when life is difficult, are we challenged to become our greatest selves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Every Day, a New Day

Nothing to look forward to?

Is Hope Futile?
       

Welcome New Ideas

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

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas
as in escaping from old ones.
- John Maynard Keynes

An invasion of armies can be resisted,
but not an idea whose time has come.
- Victor Hugo

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

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

There are no constraints on the human mind,
no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our
progress except those we ourselves erect.
- Ronald Reagan

Incite a riot of new ideas.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choice vs. Conformity

Progress

A Better Plan 

Flexibility
      

Love Requires Constant Renewal

Love that does not renew itself every day
becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.
- Khalil Gibran

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

I love you not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself,
but for what you are making of me.
I love you for that part of me you bring out.
- Roy Croft

Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect.
If it's not based on respect,
nothing that appears to be good will last very long.
- Amy Grant


Further reading: A Loving Relationship

Celebrating Your Differences

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Say It Out Loud