New Year's Day 2026

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best.
- William Arthur Ward

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
- Oprah Winfrey

Don't Wait!
Start on your dreams, your impulses,
your longings, your special occasions today.
Because this is your moment.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Another Sunrise, Another New Beginning.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

Further Reading: Have a Happy New Year - All Year Long

The Main Thing

The First Day
    

 

Happy New Year's Eve 2025/2026

Cheer for endings -- whether goals have been met or not --
whether the ending is tidy or ragged.
Without endings, there would be neither the opportunity
nor the incentive to think new thoughts,
and to begin great new projects.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

At the end of a matter ask,
"What will I learn from this to make me better?"
- Mary Anne Radmacher

It's your life.
Live it with people who are alive.
It tends to be contagious.
- Peter McWilliams

Happiness is like a kiss.
You must share it to enjoy it.
- Bernard Meltzer

Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom.
It should be the first duty of those who are happy
to let others know of their gladness.
- Maurice Maeterlinck

Further reading: Create Completion

Time to Move On

Endings and Beginnings

Focus on Finishing

What's Done is Done
           

Beauty is a Treasure

 

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

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

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

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

Have Eyes for Beauty
      

Pay Attention, Ask WHY

 

I am the owner of my choices.
I am the source for the perspectives I choose to hold...
regardless of how aware I am of why or how I come to possess
that particular perspective.
It takes courage to look into the mirror of our souls, absent excuses.
I will look into that mirror little bits at a time.
SEE and ACT. SEE what I can bear to see and ACT upon what I am able.
This is the heart of a gentle invitation to personal responsibility.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Trust yourself. Only you can live your life.
Only you can taste your victories.
Only you can suffer the sting of your defeats.
Make your own choices, and accept your own consequences -
for better or worse.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To raise new questions, new possibilities,
to regard old problems from a new angle,
requires creative imagination.
- Albert Einstein

Footprints in the sands of time...
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Why are you going there?
Pay attention.
Don't let resentments or pessimism answer for you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There's no reality except the one contained within us.
That's why so many people live an unreal life.
They take images outside them for reality and never
allow the world within them to assert itself.
- Hermann Hesse

Further reading:  Seek the Truth

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Many Answers

Knowing Yourself
    

Understand Your Darknesses

 

Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
- Carl Jung

Fear grows in darkness;
if you think there's a bogeyman around,
turn on the light.
- Dorothy Thompson

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
- Lao Tzu

Knowing your own darkness is the best method
for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
- Carl Jung

Further reading: Categorizing People

Prejudice

Driving Out Darkness
     

Don't Confuse Opinion with Truth

 

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion
is not assurance of its truth.
- Pierre Bayle

There is no truth.
There is only perception.
- Gustave Flaubert

If you wish to see the truth,
then hold no opinion for or against.
- Osho

Having a personal opinion is great.
Believing that one's personal opinion is absolute truth
leads to most of the world's troubles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Even the truth, when believed, is a lie.
You must experience the truth, not believe it.
- Werner Erhard

Further reading: What is "The Truth?"

Not As It Appears

The Work - Four Questions

Art of Seeing
     

Always be Open to Change

 

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Note that the problem isn't with "consistency," but with "foolish consistency."
What makes a habitual action "foolish?" Ask yourself whether it serves you, or whether you serve it.

Progress is impossible without change,
and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
- George Bernard Shaw

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past,
threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
- Maya Angelou

When what you are doing is frustrating you, STOP.
Pause to consider the true importance of the task.
Reflect on whether there is a better plan for reaching your goal.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Beginning Today, Make Fresh Choices

No Need to Conform

Our Habits

Your Whole Toolkit