It Falls to EACH of Us to Safeguard the Rights of Others

 

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Norman Schwarzkopf

If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse
and you say that you are neutral,
the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
- Desmond Tutu

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble
and beautiful end of a human being.
- Khalil Gibran

Do your little bit of good where you are;
its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
- Desmond Tutu

When the rights of any group, no matter how small, no matter how marginal,
are violated, your liberty, your freedom is put at risk.
Let there never be a day when we cast about in horror
and have to ask the question, "How did it ever come to this?"
- Thomas Childers

Further reading: America's Historic Reverence for Independence

The Freedom of Others

Prison of the Closed Heart

Personal Freedom
      

Tears and Laughter Make Us Human

 

There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness,
but of power.
They speak more eloquently
than ten thousand tongues.
They are messengers of
overwhelming grief ...
and unspeakable love.
- Washington Irving

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart,
don't know how to laugh either
- Golda Meir

The dew of compassion is a tear.
- Lord Byron

Tears are the summer showers to the soul.
- Alfred Austin

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.
- Natalie Clifford Barney

The bitterest tears shed over graves
are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Are you holding back long-suppressed emotions? Let your feelings flow, right now.

While some of us wear our emotions on our sleeve, others keep feelings bottled up for decades. Strike a balance. If you are suffering with unexpressed frustration or grief, let the tears flow. Then find a friend to laugh with. Laughter, however artificial it feels, lightens the saddest moments and bonds us to family and friends.

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Coping With Loss, Grief, and the Fear Of Your Own Mortality

Promise of Rainbows

Missing Those We Love
    

Don't Get Distracted from what is Real

 

The monsters are in your own head.
- Paula Cole

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind.
Much is Not as it Appears to be.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Rattlesnake of the Mind" is a metaphor inspired by the Zen term, "Monkey Mind," which refers to the mind's tendency to invent an unending sequence of creative stories about everything we see and hear.

Life does not consist mainly,
or even largely, of facts or happenings.
It consist mainly of the storm of thoughts
that is forever flowing through one's head.
- Mark Twain

If you want peace, stop fighting.
If you want peace of mind,
stop fighting with your thoughts.
- Peter McWilliams

You are not your mind. You, a Spiritual BEing,
are neither your mind nor your body.
Mind and body are your tools - to use as you choose.
Sometimes your body appears to have a will of its own,
as when it twitches or pains.
Likewise, your mind often appears to have its own will.
That incessant chattering of regret, disappointment, guilt,
shame, foreboding, worry, and fear
is your Rattlesnake Mind striking off on its own.
Know that your mind can be a vicious rattlesnake, and be cautious.
The mind can be tamed, but only with conscious effort and patience.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Still Your Mind

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan
      

Seek Internal Peace

 

Today's affirmation:
I am at peace with myself,
and with all that is.

Each one has to find his peace from within.
And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances
but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.
- Joy Page

We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Luke 1:79

Further reading: Highest and Innermost God

Life Without Stress

Experience This Moment

The Enemy Within
     

First, Seek to Understand

 

Seek first to understand,
then to be understood.
- Stephen Covey

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening
when you'd have preferred to talk.
- Doug Larson

Friends are those rare people who ask how we are
and then wait to hear the answer.
- Anonymous

Most of the successful people I've known are the ones
who do more listening than talking.
- Bernard Baruch

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to reply.
- Stephen R. Covey

Give whatever you are doing
and whoever you are with
the gift of your attention.
- Jim Rohn

Further reading: Pay Attention

Through the Eyes of Another

True Understanding

Be Aware
   

Time Has No Inherent Meaning.

 

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is only one time that is important - NOW!
It is the most important time because
it is the only time that we have any power.
- Leo Tolstoy

Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
- The Buddha

You will never find time for anything.
If you want time you must make it.
- Charles Buxton

We must use time creatively.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Who forces time is pushed back by time;
who yields to time finds time on his side.
- The Talmud

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Don't fight against time.
Develop a comfort and friendship with time.
Time enjoyed is never time wasted.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation: Time is my friend.

Further reading: Your Relationship with Time

Master of Patience

Make Time For Yourself

Everything Happens In Its Own Time

Your To-Do List
        

Be Kind, Do Good Deeds

 

Do your little bit of good where you are;
it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
- Desmond Tutu

Merely to avoid harming others is not enough.
Earn your place in this world by doing good.
Be a pillar of goodness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

No man or woman can be strong, gentle,
pure, and good, without the world being better for it,
and without someone being helped and comforted by
the very existence of that goodness.
- Phillips Brooks

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
- William Shakespeare

Further reading: Pay It Forward

Integrity

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable