Halloween 2019 - Play as a Child

Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child,
to whom all of life is a grand adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
- Mark Twain

Become more and more innocent,
less knowledgeable and more childlike.
Take life as fun - because that's precisely what it is!
- Osho

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

Today is your day to laugh at life.
Laugh loud - laugh often.
Laugh at what's funny - laugh at what's sad.
Laugh at me - laugh at you - laugh at life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy

Cherish the Whimsey

Sense of Humor

Play Day

Your Day to Dance Lightly with Life (complete poem)
     

Mistakes are just Bumps in the Road

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce

I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.
- Jack Welch

The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- Elbert Hubbard

It's better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong
than to agonize at length and be right too late.
- Marilyn Moats Kennedy

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the
human condition there is no shame in being wrong,
only in failing to correct our mistakes.
- George Soros

If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right,
you'll probably never do much of anything.
- Win Borden

Sometimes you get the results you wanted,
sometimes you don't.
What matters is that you did your best.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth
- not going all the way and not starting.
- The Buddha

Mistakes Always Precede Success.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Fear of Striking Out

Never Second Guess Yourself

Make a Decision
       

Be Alert to New Opportunities

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

When God closes a door, he opens a window.
- Anonymous

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

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

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
- Milton Berle

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate:
he who loves finds the door open.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Every wall is a door.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Learn from Failure

Another Door

Follow Your Bliss
    

Just be your own great self, not "better" or "worse" than anyone else

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities.
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers
you cannot be successful or happy.
- Norman Vincent Peale

If you have no confidence in self,
you are twice defeated in the race of life.
With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Confidence isn’t thinking you are better than others,
it’s realizing that you have no reason to compare yourself to anyone else.
-Maryam Hasnaa

If you don't have confidence, you'll always find a way not to win.
- Carl Lewis

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
- Samuel Johnson

With realization of one's own potential and
self-confidence in one's ability,
one can build a better world.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Confidence is half of victory.
- Yiddish Proverb

Just be your own great self, not "better" or "worse" than anyone else.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ignore Your Critics

Believe In Yourself

My Wish

Make Your Dreams Come True
        

To Do Good Is My Religion

We can never be the better for our religion
if our neighbor is the worse for it.
- Anonymous

The world is my country,
all mankind are my brethren,
and to do good is my religion.
- Thomas Paine, One of the Founding Fathers of the United States and author of "Rights of Man" (1792)

More people have been slaughtered in the name of religion
than for any other single reason.
That, my friends, that is true perversion.
- Harvey Milk

We must be ready to learn from one another,
not claiming that we alone possess all truth
and that somehow we have a corner on God.
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Religion is a blessing when, and only when,
it provides a focus for a compassionate community
to minister to its members and to the world at large.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: True Religion is about Helping Others

Everything is God

A Common Denominator of All Religions...
    

Great Achievements Build a Monument

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime,
and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The three controlling desires of every normal man seem to be:
First, to live. Not merely to exist.
Second, to be a man among men.
Third, to do that which will endure.
- James Hulme Canfield

The way you get meaning into your life
is to devote yourself to loving others.
Devote yourself to your community around you,
and devote yourself to creating something
that gives you purpose and meaning.
- Mitch Albom

Death comes to all,
but great achievements build a monument
which shall endure until the sun grows cold.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Your Legacy - Making a Difference

Earning a Good Name

A Truly Successful Life

The Seeds You Plant

Our Grandchildren's Planet
     

Felt With The Heart

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

Do all things with love.
- Og Mandino

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The heart is always right -
if there's a question of choosing between the mind and the heart -
because mind is a creation of the society.
It has been educated.
You have been given it by the society, not by existence.
The heart is unpolluted.
- Osho

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

Further reading: Choose to Follow Your Heart

Love One Another

Give of Yourself

The Brick - a story of brotherly love
    

The Value Of A True Friend

A true friend is the one who walks in when others walk out.
- Walter Winchell

It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
- Marlene Dietrich

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is someone who understands my past,
believes in my future,
and accepts me just the way I am.
- Anonymous

In true friendship, one can express
anything and everything without feeling ashamed
or afraid of being rejected.
- Aparna Chatterjee

A true friend is a source of strength and hope.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Our Loved Ones

Happy Friends, Happy You

Staying Positive Around Negative People

The World's Future Lies In ALL The World's Children

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
- Victor Hugo

It takes a village to raise a child.
- Nigerian proverb

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
- Nelson Mandela

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
- Frederick Douglass

Education is the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.
- Abraham Lincoln

Our worst crime is abandoning the children...
Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot.
- Gabriela Mistral

Further reading: The Test is How We Care for Society's Children

Honor the Children

Feed the Children

Teach by Example

God's Children
    

Fear Will Not Improve Tomorrow

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded,
but the fear of pain or death.
- Epictetus

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.
- Publilius Syrus

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
- Henry Van Dyke

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.
These are part of scenery, not the seer,
who is immune to any form of change.
This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
- Deepak Chopra

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.
- Felix Frankfurter

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

Further reading: Beyond Fear

A Life Without Fear

My Thoughts about Fear

Choose to be Courageous
    

Training the Mind in How to Think

The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
- Malcolm Forbes

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
- Margaret Mead

The principle goal of education in the schools
should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things,
not simply repeating what other generations have done.
- Jean Piaget

The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts
but the training of the mind to think.
- Albert Einstein

The function of education is to teach one
to think intensively and to think critically.
Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The wise man doesn't give the right answers,
he poses the right questions.
- Claude Levi-Strauss

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

The Nature of Learning

Welfare of Our Children

Teaching by Example
      

Be wary of what humans do in God's name

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

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

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

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

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

I don't doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God.
It's religion I'm doubting.
- Bono

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

Further reading: Know that You have been Blessed

Thank You Prayer

Heaven on Earth

Where there is Great Love
    

Earn Your Place in this World

Do your little bit of good where you are;
it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
- Desmond Tutu

Merely to avoid harming others is not enough.
Earn your place in this world by doing good.
Be a pillar of goodness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

No man or woman can be strong, gentle,
pure, and good, without the world being better for it,
and without someone being helped and comforted by
the very existence of that goodness.
- Phillips Brooks

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
- William Shakespeare

Further reading: Pay It Forward

Integrity

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable
      

Contentment in Ourselves

It is not our circumstances
that create our discontent or contentment.
It is us.
- Vivian Greene

We Create Our Own Joy or Our Own Sorrow.
-Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Fortify yourself with contentment,
for it is an impregnable fortress.
- Epictetus

True humility is contentment.
- Henri Frederic Amiel

Further reading: Live Content

Rejoice

A Life of Abundance

True Riches
      

Change is the Great Adventure of Life

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
- Gail Sheehy

Change always comes bearing gifts.
- Price Pritchett

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

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

The nature of life is constant change, yet we fight against it. Why do we fight change? Humans are creatures of habit and instinctively fear the unknown.

Affirmation: Change is the Great Adventure of Life. I welcome change.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Accept Change

Success Tip: Drive Change

Take Action - Now

Better Alternatives to Complaining

How to Change the World
      

Quiet and Creative

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

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

Make an empty space in any corner of your mind,
and creativity will instantly fill it.
- Dee Hock

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

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Discovery through New Eyes

Seek Your Own Wisdom

Welcome Inquiry, Discovery, and New Vistas

Scientific Thinking
        

We Live in a World Ruled by Emotions

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

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

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

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.

Further reading: Master of My Emotions

Choose the World You Live In

There are Only Fear and Love

Learning To Live Together
     

Look for New Opportunities

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail.
It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
- Charles Kettering

When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
- Vince Lombardi

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

Circumstances don't defeat you -
you defeat yourself when you give up.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All good things end - and new good things begin.

Further reading: Don't Give Up

Learning from Failure

Finding A Way

The Quiet Voice of Courage
    

Appreciation is the Highest Form of Prayer

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

There Is Peace In A Life Of Constant Gratitude.
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
       

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
- Paul Tournier

Camouflage is a game we all like to play,
but our secrets are as surely revealed by what we want to seem to be
as by what we want to conceal.
- Russell Lynes

Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence
you have not already tested.
- Elizabeth I

If you reveal your secrets to the wind,
you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
- Khalil Gibran

Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other,
not because they want to share what they know but because
they need the company of the like-minded, the fellow afflicted.
- Don DeLillo

Further reading: Pass the Word

Integrity

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Secrets of Happy Couples
      

Honor and love all of your unique self

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Really rejoice in being yourself.
Have your own drumbeat.
- Kim Cattrall

Everyone should carefully observe
which way his heart draws him,
and then choose that way with all his strength.
- Hasidic Proverb

Today's affirmation:
I am a unique expression of the universal fabric of creation.
I celebrate both my uniqueness and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Mile in Their Moccasins

First-Rate Self

Accepting Our Friends' Uniqueness
      

Become The Change That You Have Been Hoping For

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
- Harold Wilson

Drive Change, don't wait for change to drive you.
The nature of life is constant change.
The world is not the same today as it was yesterday,
and it will be different still tomorrow.
We can be victims of that change, or we can proactively drive change.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Change is the essential process of all existence.
- The character Spock on the TV series Star Trek

Further reading: Take Action - Now

Think Big, Act Big

Only Today
    

Choose Unconditional Forgiveness

Give yourself the gift of forgiving others,
not because THEY deserve it,
but because YOU deserve the serenity and joy
that comes from releasing resentment and anger.
Unconditional forgiveness is the path to your own inner peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today, I say yes to forgiving.
I commit to being for-giving love and for-giving compassion in all areas of my life.
– Sheri Rosenthal

A wise man will make haste to forgive,
because he knows the true value of time,
and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
- Samuel Johnson

I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Further reading: Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

Forgiveness is our gift to ourselves

Stop Anger Before it Stops You

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
      

Soar Your Spirits, Soar Your Joy

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

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

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

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

Further reading: Fly Life on Free Wings

Soar, It's Your Natural State

No Limits on Your Life
     

Rejoice in Opportunity

A world in upheaval is the breaking of the old sod -
the revealing of rich fresh soil ready for new planting.
Rejoice in the opportunity to sow a new crop.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past
have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when
we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed 

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Expectations/Demands

Welcome Newness
     

"Thank You God" is the Perfect Prayer

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

However much or little you have,
"Thank You" is always a more powerful prayer than, "I need more."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whoever does not regard what he has
as most ample wealth, is unhappy,
though he be master of the world.
- Epictetus

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say "thank you?"
- William Arthur Ward

Further reading: The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude for Small Miracles

Zero-Based Gratitude

Unanswered Prayers
      

Change Your Tactics, Not Your Goals

Stay committed to your decisions,
but stay flexible in your approach.
- Tony Robbins

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
- Stephen Hawking

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu

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

Sometimes success requires persistence and hard work. Sometimes an ingenious new approach is needed. Or it may be time for a whole new beginning. Think, and choose wisely whether to try harder or to try something new.

The very nature of the world is constant change. You set a goal and create a plan to achieve it; then the assumptions on which you based your plan change - they always do. The challenge is to retain your goals while adapting your tactics. Relax and stay flexible in order to reach your goals and maintain your happiness.

The phrase "tilting at windmills" (from the fictional character Don Quixote - shown in today's picture) epitomizes the hopelessness of a determined but inflexible approach. Far better to change your tactics than to fail - however nobly.

Further reading: Stay Adaptable

Multiple Ways to Your Goal

Begin Anew Today

How to Surmount Obstacles
      

Forgiveness is Cleansing

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

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

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

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

Forgiveness is not a whitewashing of the past.
Forgiveness is declaring a new beginning to create space for a joyful present and future.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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: Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

How to get over regrets and resentments

Find Peace in Forgiveness

Forgiveness is Essential to a Great Relationship

Burned by Your Own Anger
      

Choose Discovery and Adventure

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

Choose what lies in the shadows to be a matter
for discovery and adventure, rather than fear.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

Today's affirmation:
I release the familiar that I may better discover my inspiring future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Curious - Adventurous

Impulse to Soar

Understand More, Fear Less
    

Trust Your Own Inner Guidance

Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.
- Jonas Salk

Trust in yourself.
Your perceptions are often far more accurate
than you are willing to believe.
- Claudia Black

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you
that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and don't give up.
- Rachel Corrie

Further reading: The Symphony of Your Life

Confidence is Half of Victory

Uncharted Territory
      

Mutual Respect is Essential to a Good Relationship

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

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

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

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

Further reading: A Loving Relationship

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Celebrating Your Differences

Say It Out Loud