There Is One Body And One Spirit

Be completely humble and gentle;
be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit.
- Ephesians 4:2-4

The highest revelation is that God is in every man.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity
are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

When the vast cathedral of our being
becomes a sanctuary for all creation,
we become the face of God.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Give Thanks for the Love

Perspective on Diversity

Again Tomorrow
       

Be Selective

Be Selective.
Choose to do a few things really well,
and let others do the rest.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

By letting it go, it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try,
The world is beyond the winning.
- Lao Tzu

Be - don't try to become.
Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.
- Osho

Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
- Lin Yutang

The things of this world exist;
they are; you can't refuse them.
- Lao Tzu

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about
God while one is peeling potatoes.
Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
- Alan Watts

Further reading: Stillness

Gratitude for THIS Moment

Paradox

Stay Adaptable
    

Stay Alert and Pay Attention

Stay Alert, and doors will open.
You can never know when and where a magic door will open for you,
so pay attention, stay watchful, and never give up hope.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.
- Albert Einstein

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.
If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Not what we experience,
but how we perceive what we experience,
determines our fate.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Further reading: The Door Will Be Opened To You

Pay Attention

What We Perceive
        

Be Willing To Try New Thinking

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Do What You Know Is Right

Embrace Change

Make Decisions

Try Being Outrageous
       

Every Day Is A New Beginning

Every day brings new choices.
- Martha Beck

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches,
letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.
- Pauline R. Kezer

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

Another Sunrise, Another New Beginning.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Every day is a new beginning -
a day for a new plan and new action.
If today, in conscious awareness, you choose
the same plan as yesterday, you are wise.
If you choose a different plan, you are equally wise.
Whatever you choose, choose with intention.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Let Go of Your Attachment to Your Plans

Begin Today in a New Way

Your Life has Just Begun

Unlimited Opportunity
      

All Of Humanity Are Our Brothers And Sisters

Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not.
- Bono

We must learn to live together as brothers
or perish together as fools.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never succumb to the notion that others are less important
based on their place of birth.
All of humanity are our brothers and sisters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The manifest universe is the body of God ...
all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.
- Ernest Holmes

Further reading: Unity in One Body and One Spirit

Respect the Right to be Different

All Brothers and Sisters
      

Forgive Yourself and Others

Live life with no regrets and no resentments.
Whatever happened in the past,
forgive yourself and others. Choose love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
I forgive myself and others for that
which is done (and better left undone)
and also that which is not done (and better if done).
I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt.
I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, "It might have been."
- John Greenleaf Whittier

Further reading: Never Second Guess Yourself

Learn To Get Over regrets And Resentments 

Forgiveness Releases the Past
    

Leaving Footprints On Hearts

Let us be kind;
The way is long and lonely,
And human hearts are asking for this blessing only --
That we be kind.
We cannot know the grief that men may borrow,
We cannot see the souls storm-swept by sorrow,
But love can shine upon the way to-day, to-morrow --
Let us be kind.
- W. Lomax Childress

Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people stay for awhile, and move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to a new understanding,
leave footprints on our hearts,
and we are never, ever the same.
- Flavia Weedn

Life is unlimited.
Your world expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that you contribute.
Money that is spent or given away returns multiplied.
The more love that is given, the more love returns.
The more a helping hand is given, the more hands
are strengthened and empowered to help.
We can help each other to all be winners.
We can all have food, and jobs, and love, and happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us
to be what we know we could be.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Further reading: Teach by Example

Act on Your Principles

Build Strength to Help Others
      

Your Light Rekindled

At times our own light goes out
and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude
of those who have lighted the flame within us.
- Albert Schweitzer

A true friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.
- Anonymous

Friends share our pain and touch our wounds
with a gentle and tender hand.
- Henri Nouwen

A friend is someone who won't stop
until he finds you and brings you home.
- Fraser Sr. in the movie Due South

Be thankful to those who have offered us challenges, rather than easy answers.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: I gratefully accept the light and pay it forward.

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

Appreciating Friends

Give Love and Comfort
      

Let Your Spark Blaze

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
- Soren Kierkegaard

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
- Jack London

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.
- Henry Miller

As far as we can discern,
the sole purpose of human existence
is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
- Carl Jung

Further reading: You Can Create Your Own Inspired Future

Discover New Worlds

Be Passionate

Fully Living Your God-Given Life
      

Be Your True Self

Be simply yourself and don't compare or compete.
- Lao Tzu

No amount of self-improvement can make up
for a lack of self-acceptance.
- Anonymous

Believe in yourself, and trust your own wisdom
rather than being swayed by the opinions of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The whole world can gossip about you,
and if you don't take it personally you are immune.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Today's affirmation:
I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Deal with Rejection

How to Love Yourself

Need For Approval
              

Each Of Us Has A Song

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

Indifferent to whether your mood is grumpy or cheerful,
Nature always sings her passionate song of joyful celebration.
You can never stop the happy song of life,
so join the celebration -
sing along, dance, make love,
smile your biggest smile, and cheer on God's music.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Sing like no one's listening,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like its heaven on earth.
- Mark Twain

We thought that we had the answers,
it was the questions we had wrong.
- Bono

Further reading: Soar Your Spirit

Answers

Profound Questions

What We Expect to See

The Mysterious
          

Accept the Challenge

Be curious; be adventurous; live life full-out.
Accept the challenge, and reach for the brass ring.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A mind that is stretched by a new experience
can never go back to its old dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive.
One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things,
because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
- Walt Disney

Further reading: Keep Moving

Learn from Failure

Be Boldly Decisive

Follow Your Bliss
      

Rising To Challenges

Overcome obstacles - grow and bloom anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Do not pray for easy lives.
Pray to be stronger men.
- John F. Kennedy

We must free ourselves of the hope
that the sea will ever rest.
We must learn to sail in high winds.
- Aristotle Onassis

When life is too easy for us, we must beware
or we may not be ready to meet the blows
which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

You can't soar without a headwind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: We Must Sail, Not Drift

Life Is As Hard As You Think It Is

Serenity rather than Fear

Opportunity within Crisis
      

St. Patrick's Day 2019

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
a moonbeam to charm you,
a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.
Laughter to you.
Faithful friends near you.
And whenever you pray,
Heaven to hear you.
- Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.
- Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
- Irish Blessing

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.
- Traditional Irish Blessing

Further reading: Learn to be Happier in Life

Celebrate the Small Miracles of Life

Words of Comfort on the Death of a Loved One
   

Thoughts on the Catastrophe in Christchurch New Zealand

Tolerance is the first principle of community;
it is the spirit which conserves
the best that all men think.
- Helen Keller

We will never have true civilization until we have
learned to recognize the rights of others.
- Will Rogers

Do to others as you would have them do to you.
- Luke 6:31 (the "Golden Rule")

When the rights of any group, no matter how small, no matter how marginal,
are violated, your liberty, your freedom is put at risk.
Let there never be a day when we cast about in horror
and have to ask the question, "How did it ever come to this?"
- Thomas Childers

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

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Other People's Opinions

Categorizing People

Different and yet the Same
       

Love Life, Today

Start living now.
Stop saving the good china
for that special occasion.
Stop withholding your love
until that special person materializes.
Every day you are alive is a special occasion.
Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.
- Mary Manin Morrissey

Life isn't about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.
- George Bernard Shaw

I have found that if you love life,
life will love you back.
- Arthur Rubinstein

Let your light shine. Fulfill the promise that is within you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life is a Song

A Happy Life

Being Fully Present in TODAY
      

Soar Beyond Limit

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

There are no great limits to growth because there are
no limits of human intelligence,
imagination, and wonder.
- Ronald Reagan

May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity.
May your heart sing sweet lullabies of timelessness.
May your spirit soar throughout the vast cathedral of your being.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Regain Your Dreams

Soar Your Spirit

The Edge

Choose Your Life Purpose
     

Be Open To Joy

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.
- John Barrymore

Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find.
- Charles Kuralt

Half the joy of life is in little things taken on the run...
but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open
that nothing worth our while shall escape us.
- Victor Cherbuliez

Further reading: Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Life is Beautiful

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

How To Be Happy In Life

What we enjoy constitutes our abundance
     

That One Life Has Breathed Easier...

To leave the world a bit better ...
to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Bessie A. Stanley (commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

True success is bringing joy to yourself and to others.
Success is measured in lives bettered, not in money or power.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Anyone who proposes to do good
must not expect people to roll stones out of his way,
but must accept his lot calmly,
even if they roll a few stones upon it.
- Albert Schweitzer

We do not need to proselytize
either by our speech or by our writing.
We can only do so really with our lives.
Let our lives be open books for all to study.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

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: Pay It Forward

Stand Together

Turn Crisis into Progress

March On
    

Be Open To Beauty

Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

Not what we experience,
but how we perceive what we experience,
determines our fate.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The perception of beauty is a moral test.
- 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: Beauty is Everywhere

You are Beautiful

Seeking

Natural Goodness

Beauty is Whatever Gives Joy

Perspective
       

When Life Looks Darkest...

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Most people give up just when
they're about to achieve success.
They quit on the one yard line.
They give up at the last minute of the game,
one foot from a winning touch down.
- Ross Perot

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.
Strong convictions precede great actions.
- Louisa May Alcott

Life was meant to be lived,
and curiosity must be kept alive.
One must never, for whatever reason,
turn his back on life.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Further reading: Our Own Light Frightens Us

Rising Again

Dark Days

Again Tomorrow
     

Raise Your Sails and Have Faith

God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.
- Saint Augustine

This is the day which the Lord has made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
- Psalms 118:24

Our faith gives us knowledge of something better.
- E. F. Schumacher

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

The winds of grace are always blowing;
all we need to do is raise our sails.
- Anonymous

Further reading: The True Measure of a Successful Life

Faith in the Goodness of Humanity

Simply Do Your Best

The Edge of All You Know
    

There Are No Straight Paths In Life

Life is not always as it seems.
What you have wished for is not always best.
What you have feared may become a blessing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Zig as Life Zigs and Zag as Life Zags.
Stay Adaptable, Stay Joyful
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

Today's affirmation:
I choose to adapt to the circumstances in which I find myself.
I choose to be flexible in my dealings with those around me.
I understand that my way is not the only way -
that inner peace comes from respecting the ways of others,
and that, if I am open, I may gain great insights and happiness
from the ideas and traditions of others.

Further reading: There is a Way

Be Flexible

Enjoy the Journey

Go With the Flow
      

Step Back, Gain Perspective

Put some distance between yourself
and whatever is concerning you.
Distance in space or time
always creates a new perspective.
Take time to contemplate -
away from the opinions and influence of others -
what you really want
and what you believe to be important in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Take a step back,
evaluate what is important,
and enjoy life.
- Teri Garr

At some point everything gets a little stale
and you have to step away from it.
- Les Claypool

Laughter gives us distance.
It allows us to step back from an event,
deal with it and then move on.
- Bob Newhart

Winners have the ability to step back
from the canvas of their lives
like an artist gaining perspective.
- Denis Waitley

Further reading: Appreciate the Commonplace

Through the Eyes of Another

Kick Back

Perspective on Diversity
   

There is a Sacredness in Tears

There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness,
but of power.
They speak more eloquently
than ten thousand tongues.
They are messengers of
overwhelming grief ...
and unspeakable love.
- Washington Irving

Tears are the summer showers to the soul.
- Alfred Austin

The dew of compassion is a tear.
- Lord Byron

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.
- Natalie Clifford Barney

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart,
don't know how to laugh either
- Golda Meir

The bitterest tears shed over graves
are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Are you holding back long-suppressed emotions? Let your feelings flow, right now.

While some of us wear our emotions on our sleeve, others keep feelings bottled up for decades. Strike a balance. If you are suffering with unexpressed frustration or grief, let the tears flow. Then find a friend to laugh with. Laughter, however artificial it feels, lightens the saddest moments and bonds us to family and friends.

Further reading: Coping with Heartbreak

Promise of Rainbows

Coping With Loss, Grief, and the Fear Of Your Own Mortality

Missing Those We Love
    

Choose Joy

What are the proper grounds for joy?
Is it circumstance which will
determine the stature of my spirit?
Ah, no. It is choice. It is always a choice -
in the face of any event - for joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
but we can choose to live in joy.
- Joseph Campbell

Choose with no regret.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Joy is a choice - but it isn't an easy choice.
It is nearly a certainty that some
of your expectations will not be met today.
Choose Joy Anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whatever happens around you, you always have choices about how you respond.
Choose wisely and never regret your choices.

Further reading: Choose to be Peaceful

Fake It 'Til You Make It

Life Really Is Good

Creating Happiness
    

Welcome the Unexpected

Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
- the movie Forrest Gump

The movie character Forrest Gump describing life
as being "like a box of chocolates,"
is such a positive upbeat way of
characterizing the uncertainty of life.
I have no idea what life will give me next,
but whatever it is, it will be sweet.

Sometimes the things you really want sneak in the back door. Notice.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Faith means living with uncertainty -
feeling your way through life,
letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark.
- Dan Millman

Welcome the Unexpected.
Most people think of surprises as being something unpleasant.
Consider moving past this instinctive fear of the unknown
and welcoming the unexpected.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Cherish the uncertainty of life's adventures.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Finding A Way

Addicted to safety?

Appreciate the Unexpected

The Edge of All We Know
     

Healing Moves Us Closer To God

Healing yourself is connected with healing others.
- Yoko Ono

Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before,
but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.
- Ram Dass

Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels,
simply by pouring out love.
Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.
- Sai Baba

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,
places to play in and pray in,
where nature may heal and cheer
and give strength to the body and soul.
- John Muir

Further reading: Create Forgiveness

Allow Healing

A Tool for Healing Your Troubles
     

A Light From Within

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from within.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,
called conscience.
- George Washington

The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Today's affirmation:
I shine my light of love and hope into the darkness of negativity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What Lies Within Us

Create Light

Our Children, Our Conscience

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Conscience - Choices
      

The Value Of Your Life Is In What You Do For Others

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Try not to become a person of success,
but rather try to become a person of value.
- Albert Einstein

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
- Joseph Campbell

Face the facts of being what you are,
for that is what changes what you are.
- Soren Kierkegaard

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do.
It’s a decision about Who You Are.
When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes.
You begin to see life in a new way.
All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities
to do what you came here to do.
- Neale Donald Walsch

It's not in the DOing, it's in the BEing.
Whatever you do or don't do in your lifetime,
your greatest contribution
to current and future generations
will be the happiness and joy
you generated and radiated to those around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Harmony

What We Are]

I have a Dream...

Rattlesnake of the Mind 

Your Answers
    

Listen To Your Soul

There are choirs singing in your head.
If you listen, you will hear the music.
It is the song of angels.
Pay no attention to the sounds of the world.
They are just noises, and even when
added up all together
they have no value, make no sense.
Strain to hear the song of angels.
Listen to the melody within your soul.
- Neale Donald Walsch

From far beyond this life,
I hear the call.
From place beyond all place,
I feel the call.
From time before all time,
I know the call.
From one before all ones,
I am the call.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The happiness of one's own heart alone
cannot satisfy the soul;
one must try to include,
as necessary to one's own happiness,
the happiness of others.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Who will save your soul if you won't save your own?
- Jewel

Further reading: Harmony of the Soul

May Your Every Tomorrow Be Beautiful

Be the Melody

Stillness