Have Gratitude for the Small Joys

 

The best portion of a good man's life
is his little, nameless, unremembered
acts of kindness and of love.
- William Wordsworth

A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.
- Anonymous

Miracles happen everyday,
change your perception of what a miracle is
and you'll see them all around you.
- Jon Bon Jovi

Our "Rainbows and Butterflies" are the small miracles of our life -
the little things that are so easy to overlook,
yet so awe inspiring when we take a moment
to notice and to pay attention.
Give thanks for the rainbows, for the butterflies,
for all God's creatures - large and small,
for the bright blue sky and the soft fog and the gentle rain,
for the tree veiled in the season's first frost,
for the baby's laugh,
for the touch of a hand and the whispered "I love you."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Everything is a Miracle

Appreciate Your Blessings

Appreciate Today

Have Gratitude for All Life
       

Is Hypocrisy the Greatest Vice?

 

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
- Matthew 7:5

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy.
- William Hazlitt

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are all hypocrites.
We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others.
- José Emilio Pacheco

Judge not, that ye be not judged.
- Matthew 7:1

He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.
- Jesus of Nazareth (John 8:7)

Further reading: The Essence of Jesus' Teaching

Grant That I May Radiate
      

Beware of the Illusion of Knowledge

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

The Danger of Assumptions

Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.
    

 

Choose Habitual Excellence

 

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
- Will Durant (commonly attributed to Aristotle)

Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise,
risking more than others think is safe,
dreaming more than others think is practical,
and expecting more than others think is possible.
- Anonymous

Excellence is not a destination to be arrived at,
but a path of continual attention and improvement.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
While I choose never to be dissatisfied or unhappy
with my current level of knowledge or accomplishment,
I constantly seek excellence in all domains that truly matter to me.

Further reading: Creating Your Future

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life - 5 Secrets For Breaking Your Bad Habits

Choice

Play to win, but be a good loser
     

The True Measure of a Person is How Kind They are to All Others

 

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone
who can do him absolutely no good.
- Samuel Johnson

To measure the man, measure his heart.
- Malcolm S. Forbes

Don't let anyone else take the measure
of your worth and capabilities.
Always stand proud in who you are.
- Margaret Spellings

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
- Anonymous

Further reading: This Above All, to Thine Own Self Be True

The Paradox Of Living In The Moment

Fear of the Unknown

My thoughts on "safety" versus living full-out
     

Learning Leads To Growth

 

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

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

We are not afraid to follow truth
wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson

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

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

Knowledge is Soon Changed

Open Minds

Reason
    

YOUR Life, YOUR Choices

 

Don't compromise yourself.
You are all you've got.
- Janis Joplin

It all depends on how we look at things,
and not on how things are in themselves.
The least of things with a meaning
is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
- Carl Jung

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
- Henry David Thoreau

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable,
you disconnect yourself from what you truly want,
and all that is left is compromise.
- Robert Fritz

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
- Steve Jobs

In matters of style, swim with the current;
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- attributed to Thomas Jefferson

The Meaning of a Thing is Not Measured by its Size.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your To-Do List

Question Your Questions

Choose Your Priorities

Your Relationship with Time

The Main Thing
     

Our Free Will is Constrained, and Precious

 

Our circumstances define the playing field, not the outcome.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life consists not in holding good cards
but in playing those you hold well.
- Josh Billings

Customs form us all.
Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed beliefs,
are consequences of our place of birth.
- Aaron Hill
Yet within these quite extreme constraints, progress, success, and happiness are still possible.

You play the hand you're dealt.
I think the game's worthwhile.
- Christopher Reeve

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams,
whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about.
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch,
the country of our birth,
or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die;
nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live.
- Joseph Epstein

Our Free Will is Highly Constrained,
Which Makes the Free Will that We Do Have Even More Precious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We all have free will, but only within the harsh constraints of predestination.
Within the limits placed upon our lives by the circumstances of our genes,
our place and condition of birth, the parenting we receive,
and other events beyond our control,
we are defined by the free will we can still exercise.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Make Your Dreams Come True

Do What You Can Do

Choose to Soar
    

Touch Your Inner Silence

 

Everything is God
- don Miguel Ruiz

To be at one with God is to be at peace...
peace is to be found only within,
and unless one finds it there,
he will never find it at all.
Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one's own soul.
- Ralph W. Trine

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself,
and know that everything in life has purpose.
There are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Don't seek God in temples.
He is close to you.
He is within you.
Only you should surrender to Him
and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.
- Leo Tolstoy

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky,
you look in you.
- Alan Watts

Surrender to a Higher Power is a central tenet of 12-step programs,
and is the key to recovering from depression, worry, and fear as well.

Today's affirmation:
When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Breath by Breath

How to Cope With Life

How to Forgive and Move On

Alcoholism in a Relationship - When to Stay, When to Leave
      

CREATE Your Own Future

 

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

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

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

Further reading: Hold Fast to Your Dreams

Be a Dreamer, In Action

Faith in a Great Future

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

Worry Helps Nothing. Action is What Makes Things Better.

 

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
- Winston Churchill

Worry is the Darkest Cloud over Our Happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You can't change the past,
but you can ruin the present
by worrying about the future.
- Anonymous

How much pain they have cost us,
the evils which have never happened.
- Thomas Jefferson

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
- Swedish Proverb

Worry Helps Nothing, Action Does. Choose Action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Worry, Frustration and Resentment

Beyond Your Worries

Master of My Emotions

Fear of Suffering
      

Is LOVE the Truest Meaning of Life?

 

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

Love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us.
Love is not a mere sentiment.
Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

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

Further reading: The Power of Unconditional Love

What Does Love Look Like?

Giving Love and Comfort
     

Felt with the Heart

 

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

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

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

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: Wonder and Mystery

The Mystery of Life

Beyond Answers

Experience Life with Reverence
      

Approach Life with Perspective, Understanding, and Patience

 

Begin with your own inner peace.
Then use that inner peace
as a platform from which
to approach the outer world
with perspective, understanding, and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is those who have a deep and real inner life
who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life.
- Evelyn Underhill

We're so engaged in doing things
to achieve purposes of outer value
that we forget the inner value,
the rapture that is associated
with being alive, is what it is all about.
- Joseph Campbell

The outer conditions of a person's life will always
be found to reflect their inner beliefs.
- James Lane Allen

Further reading: Master of My Emotions

What Really Matters

Your Attitude is Your Window

Renewal

Mastering Time

Life Really Is Good
      

Choose to interact peacefully with everyone

 

Peace doesn't just happen.
Peace must be "made,"
and it's hard work to make Peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Peace is not an absence of war,
it is a virtue, a state of mind,
a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
- Baruch Spinoza

It is not enough to say we must not wage war.
It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

The world has always been in an uproar, and it always will be.
Choose Peace. Choose to live with Peace.
Choose to interact peacefully with everyone -
especially those whose instinct is not to be peaceful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Peacemakers

Love All, Judge None

Hatred vs. Love
     

Comparison Causes Suffering

 

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.
- Douglas Horton

Expectations Diminish Joy.
- Anonymous

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Comparisons are odious.
- Old English Saying
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Further reading: Rejoice for What You Have

We have Already Arrived

Comparison - Cause of Unhappiness

Appreciating Our Lives