Trust in the Power of the Light

 

Exercise: Write your most worrisome trouble on a piece of paper and feed it to the fire. Send your troubles up in smoke. Breathe deeply and rejoice.

Trust in the Light.
Darkness is not a force -
it is merely the absence of light.
Observe that when a light is brought to a dark place,
the darkness disappears.
Sadness is similar -
when joy is brought to suffering, the sadness disappears.
Open yourself to the Light!
Hold back nothing, Trust in the Light.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All the darkness of the world cannot
extinguish the light of a single candle,
yet one candle can illuminate all the darkness.
- Jewish Hanukah Prayer

I will gather myself around my faith,
for light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

Further reading: Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

A Light from Within

Radiate Light and Love
   

Win-Win is Always the Best Outcome

 

Your mother really did know the secret to a better world:
"Play nicely together. Don't fight."

Compromise is the worst way to address human differences, except for all the others.
(modeled on Churchill's quote "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.")

The alternative to compromise is conflict.

When we seek to discover the best in others,
we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.
- William Arthur Ward

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.
- Jimmy Carter

Most of us think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing --
that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose.
Life becomes a zero-sum game.
... [In contrast,] Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one.
Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks
mutual benefit in all human interactions.
Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.
- Stephen R. Covey

Today's affirmation:
I feel unity with Spirit and with all that is.
My life is richer for sharing my being with all those I meet.
Each experience, however it appears at the time,
highlights and strengthens the fabric of my life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Shared Dream

Helping Others

Our Shared Humanity

Caring for Others
      

Practice Compassion

 

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
- Jesus (Matthew 25:40)

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

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.
It's a relationship between equals.
Only when we know our own darkness well
can we be present with the darkness of others.
Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

Our opportunity is to visualize a kinder world.
To sing glad songs of tomorrow -
imagining a world of love -
of the whole world filled with love.
To offer our hand... often.
To breathe deeply and honor ourselves.
To pause and contemplate... just because.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

For me, an area of moral clarity is:
you're in front of someone who's suffering
and you have the tools at your disposal
to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it,
and you act.
- Paul Farmer

Further reading: Feed the Hungry

Comfort, Rainbows, and Laughter

Accept Others

Compassion, Kindness, Humility
      

Don't Reject Wise Thoughts Based on Who Speaks Them

 

Important ideas can come from unexpected places. We tend to label people - Genius, Idiot, Socialist, Right Wingnut, Freedom Fighter, Terrorist. But it is helpful to remind ourselves to be open to good ideas - whatever their source. It is equally important to avoid accepting any idea merely because we respect that person's other ideas or accomplishments. A further complication is that many quotes are falsely attributed - Thomas Jefferson, for example, didn't say half of what he is quoted as saying.

Here are some unexpected quotes - both important insights from infamous mouths and off-the-wall ideas from honored people...

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt (creator and publisher of Hustler magazine)

What the Larry Flynn quote means to me...
A democratically-elected government is probably necessary to protect Human Rights, but it is not sufficient. Majorities protect their own rights, but not necessarily the rights of minorities.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Not only do wise words come from unexpected mouths, but those people who we consider wise don't always live up to our expectations...

I consider my greatest accomplishment to be lifelong celibacy.
- Isaac Newton (discoverer of the laws of gravitation and motion, famous mathematician, and perhaps the greatest scientist ever)

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
- attributed to Joseph Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany)

Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.
- Karl Marx (German philosopher and political economist whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism)

Spurious Quotations: Here are a couple of great quotes - except that they weren't said by who everybody thinks they were...

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Josh Billings (not Mark Twain)

"Mother Teresa Prayer"
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; ... Forgive them anyway.
- Kent Keith (Mother Teresa kept a copy on the wall of her orphanage)

Further reading: Mother Teresa quotes: Love begins at home

YOU Control Your Attitude

 

The greatest discovery of any generation
is that a human being
can alter his life by
altering his attitude
- William James

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Attitude is Everything.
- Charles Swindoll

Whatever happens to you, your attitude determines the quality of your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What One Emphasizes

How To Be Happy In Life

Choosing a Joyful Life
       

Life Offers No Guarantees

 

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
- Helen Keller

There are no guarantees.
From the viewpoint of fear, none are strong enough.
From the viewpoint of love, none are necessary.
- Emmanuel (Pat Rodegast)

Our only security is our ability to change.
- John Lilly

There is no security on this Earth,
there is only opportunity.
- Douglas MacArthur

Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God,
no matter what the danger.
- Anonymous

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

Those of true faith don't require guaranteed security.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life is magnificent - just as it comes. Life has no need for fancy clothes, or lipstick. Life is no pig. Our life is the greatest gift of all creation. When we are unhappy with life - when we are shocked by the actions of politicians, or corporations, or our "enemies," or our "friends," or even by natural forces, - let us not lash out in anger. But also, let us not try to pretty up life with some lipstick and some party clothes. See life clearly - no rose colored glasses - and then CHOOSE to love life. CHOOSE to be happy, be joyful, be grateful, be forgiving of everyone and of every act we believe has hurt us. Life just "IS." We get to CHOOSE our relationship with life.
Life is all in the perspective we take on it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Let today be a day to look at your life from different and broader perspectives - perhaps a perspective of thankfulness for what you have and a perspective of wonder at your very existence and the magnificence of the world we live in.

Further reading: All Life is a Risk

Courage to Take Action

Risk a Little

Thrown Out of the Nest
           

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself

 

 You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
- Bodhidharma

He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself,
what you're afraid of.
- Linda Evans

How strange that, although we dwell within ourselves,
we seldom know what we truly want
or what we truly believe about important matters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
- Benjamin Spock

Further reading: At the center of your being you have the answer

Be Simply Yourself

Know Thyself

Follow Your Bliss