Honor Everyone's Personal Choices

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.

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

Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
- A Course In Miracles

Love is stronger than justice.
- Sting

We cling to our own point of view,
as though everything depended on it.
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
- Zhuangzi

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.
- George Clooney

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
- Dale Carnegie

You prove your worth with your actions,
not with your mouth.
- Jean Paul

The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13

What we have to do...
is to find a way to celebrate our diversity
and debate our differences
without fracturing our communities.
- Hillary Clinton

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
- Booth Tarkington

Further reading: Arguing

Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Disagreement
   

Beauty Occurs Where You Least Expect It

It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
- Amelia Barr

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

See beauty in unexpected places.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
- Aristotle

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
- Bill Moyers

There is beauty and adventure in the commonplace
for those with eyes to see beyond.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Prepare to See Unexpected Beauty

Things Divine

Simple Joys

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now
  

We humans are but one thread within the web of life

When you experience the unity of life,
you see your own Self in all beings,
and all beings in your own Self.
- The Buddha (paraphrase)

Simply see that you are at the center of the universe,
and accept all things and beings
as parts of your infinite body.
When you perceive that an act done to another
is done to yourself,
you have understood the great truth.
- Lao Tzu

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
- generally attributed to Chief Seattle
but actually written by Ted Perry in 1972

We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
Therefore, everything one does as an individual affects the whole.
All thoughts, words, images, prayers, blessings, and deeds
are listened to by all that is.
- Serge Kahili King

Further reading: Everything is God

Sharing the Same Breath

One With Spirit and All Creation

All Brothers and Sisters
   

Look Deeply Into Nature

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head,
and knows not that it brings abundance
to drive away the hunger.
- Saint Basil

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- Albert Einstein

Water is the driving force of all nature.
- Leonardo da Vinci

When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.
- Benjamin Franklin

Give thanks for the rain in your life
which waters the flowers of your soul.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
- Khalil Gibran

Further reading: Gratitude for Our Blessings

The true meaning of life

Natural World

The World We Leave Our Children

Watering
      

PLEASE: Register to Vote - and Vote! Help Your Family and Friends to Register

PLEASE: Register to Vote - and Vote! EVERY Year! In EVERY Election!
In many ways, our future is determined as much by local school boards and city councils as by federal officials.

And make sure all your family and friends are registered also!
[ONE in FOUR adult American citizens are not yet Registered to VOTE!
College students and other younger adults are the most likely not to be Registered.]

Voting for the kind of America you believe in
is one of the greatest gifts you can give your grandchildren. 
Make a difference.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold
is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
- Thomas Jefferson

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you.
- Thomas Jefferson

Bad politicians are sent to Washington [and state and local government] by good people who don't vote.
- William E. Simon 

Voting is an expression of three key life principles -
CHOICE, INTENT, and ACTION.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: You Are What You Do

Either Accept It, or Change It

Walk Your Path

True Measure of a Successful Life
     

It takes no courage to defend popular speech

I disapprove of what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Unknown, but commonly attributed to Voltaire

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects
and enhances the freedom of others.
- Nelson Mandela

Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech.
Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.
- Neal Boortz

Without free speech, no search for truth is possible.
- Charles Bradlaugh

Support Freedom of Speech, Especially for Those You Dislike.
...
The whole point of Freedom-of-Speech
is supporting the right of others
to say things you find personally offensive.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game.
Free speech is life itself.
- Salman Rushdie

It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.
- Leo McKern

We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.
- Boyle Roche (hopefully said satirically)

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

Further reading: Independence - Liberty - Freedom

Point of View

Our Bond of Humanity
         

Soar Above the Madness of the World

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