Forgiving Heals the One Who Forgives

Forgive those who have injured you -
not because they deserve your forgiveness,
but because you can never be happy until
you release your anger and grant forgiveness.
Forgiving is not a gift to someone else -
Forgiving is your gift to yourself - a great gift - the gift of happiness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The remedy for wrongs is to forget them.
- Publilius Syrus

Forgiveness is not always easy.
At times, it feels more painful
than the wound we suffered,
to forgive the one that inflicted it.
And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
- Marianne Williamson

Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.
- Lama Surya Das

Forgiveness ... is the finishing of old business
that allows us to experience the present,
free of contamination from the past.
- Joan Borysenko

The Price of Inner Peace is Forgiveness.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Forgive and Move On

Stop Anger Before it Stops You 

Forgive Others for Your Own Sake

Forgiveness is Essential to a Great Relationship
      

Perspective is a Prerequisite to Wisdom

Perspective is a Prerequisite to Wisdom.
One cannot have wisdom without perspective,
but once gaining perspective, one attains wisdom.
Wisdom is the ability to view every situation
as each person who is in any way affected
by that situation might view it.
Wisdom benefits from having a knowledge of history,
and therefore a historical perspective,
as well from as having the perspective of imagination -
the realm of the what-might-be
inhabited by futurists and science-fiction writers.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves
and our own self-preservation,
we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
- Joseph Campbell

One of the secrets of life is that
all that is really worth the doing
is what we do for others.
- Lewis Carroll

Science investigates; religion interprets.
Science gives man knowledge, which is power;
religion gives man wisdom, which is control.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The best cure for our own self-inflicted suffering
is often service to others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Honor Balance

The ancient Chinese Yin-Yang symbol represents the balance of yin (peacefulness, serenity, acceptance, rest, rejuvenation, roots, tradition) with yang (activity, strength, striving, movement, change, wings, invention, progress). A meaningful and joyful life is to be found in balance.

In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

Manage the remarkable balance between acting
from your heart and close to your gifts
with completing the obligations
that your labor and tasks require of you.
Leverage opportunity AND seize joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.
- Confucius

Maintain a balance between skepticism and faith.
Maintain a beginner mind. Be open to possibility.
Don't give in to skepticism,
but don't give in to fantasy either.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be aware of wonder.
Live a balanced life -
learn some and think some
and draw and paint
and sing and dance
and play and work every day some.
- Robert Fulghum

Further reading: Go With the Flow - Six Ways to Live a Happier Life

Seek Balance in Life

Balance Work and Play
     

Compassion Requires Empathy

 

To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places,
but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing
ourselves in their places.
- Harry Emerson Fosdick (Founding Pastor of New York's Riverside Church)

That which is hateful to you,
do not do to your fellow.
That is the whole Torah;
the rest is the explanation.
- Talmud (Jewish Wisdom)

Do not do to others what would anger you
if done to you by others.
- Isocrates (Ancient Greek)

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

Make A Special Effort To Have Empathy
With Those Who Are Very Different From Yourself.

Know that the true essence of the Golden Rule
is always being compassionate, kind,
generous, and being in service to others.
Compelling others to behave as you wish
them to behave in the name of the
Golden Rule is a corruption of a sacred principle.
Compassion is the universal standard for moral living.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Allowing Others the Right of Free Speech

Social Morality

Make Empathy a Daily Practice

God Calls Us To Help Others
           

Renew Your Love Daily

 

Distance cannot matter - ours is a friendship of the heart.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

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

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

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

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

Our relationships - love and friendship - are at the core of the meaning of our lives. Let today be a day to appreciate your relationships and friendships. Let today also be a day to be clear which connections are committed, and which are merely for temporary convenience.

Further reading:  Appreciate Your Friends

Happy Friends - Happy You

Today's picture features words and calligraphy by my dear friend Mary Anne Radmacher and art by my wife Suze Huie.
     

Celebrate Whimsey

 

Today is your day to practice whimsey,
smile broadly, sing loudly,
paint your rooms in bold colors,
watch wondrous cloud animals parade your story,
search every rabbit hole
for a magical white bunny,
have caviar for breakfast
and oatmeal for dinner,
wear a purple coat with a red hat,
and dance lightly with life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Follow Your Bliss.
- Joseph Campbell
 
You're only given a little spark of madness.
You mustn't lose it.
- Robin Williams

If being good isn't working - try being outrageous.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Follow Your Bliss.
- Joseph Campbell

Who said that life had to be serious?
Imagine, Play, Sing, Turn Cartwheels, Be Unstoppable, Dance Wildly With Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What if we like our outrageous side best?
We "know" that the "right" thing to do is to suck it up,
put the costume and the happy face back in storage for another year,
re-dress in our frown and gray flannel suit,
and trudge back to job, chores, "responsibilities," and "duty."
Stop! Maybe TODAY is the day to put the frown and gray flannel
into that dusty storage locker, and start to LIVE.
Not just today, but EVERY DAY for the rest of your life!
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today: Do something Outrageous - just because you want to.
Take off your shoes and dance on the beach... Play in the mud... Sing at the top of your lungs... and don't care who hears you.
Celebrate today... Celebrate ME... Celebrate Life... Celebrate Rainbows and Butterflies... Celebrate Whimsey...

Further reading: Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Life is too important to be taken seriously

Do Something Crazy

Today is Your Day (my complete poem)
     

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself...

Today, fear again grips America - in public and in private. Remember FDR's words and focus with courage on the job at hand - the job of living joyfully regardless of external circumstances.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself
the means of inspiration and survival.
- Winston Churchill

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

This world of ours... must avoid becoming
a community of dreadful fear and hate,
and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy...
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)

Watch FDR's 1941 "Live in Infamy" Speech

Further reading: Serenity rather than Fear