It's Not That Simple

The contradictions are what make human behavior
so maddening and yet so fascinating,
all at the same time.
- Joan D. Vinge

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

I think wholeness is God's design for us;
and that often amounts to embracing contradictions.
- Bono

It's one of life's great paradoxes ...
Accepting with gratitude whatever life throws at us
is critical to happiness.
Yet without a goal and commitment, life lose much of its value.
The best we can do in the face of this paradox
is to play to win, but be cheerful in defeat
and ready to play again.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We all have free will, but only within the harsh constraints of predestination.
Within the limits placed upon our lives by the circumstances of our genes,
our place and condition of birth, the parenting we receive, and other events beyond our control,
we are defined by the free will we can still exercise.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

The Golden Rule is Not Always Golden

Yin-Yang

Managing Your Wayward Mind

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan

Life is Really Simple

Balance in All Things

The Basics
   

You Need Courage

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man,
but he is brave five minutes longer.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do.
There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker

Further reading: Courage and Intent

Circumstance Reveals a Person's Nature

Life of Storms

Choose To Be Fearless
   

Live Fully and Joyfully

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

How much do you engage yourself in what's truly real
and important in life? That's the individual question.
- Ted Danson

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau

Today's affirmation:
I live every moment, and I live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live Every Moment, Joyfully

A Life Without Fear

Enjoy Life

Life in Bold Colors
    

Highest and Innermost God

The highest God and the innermost God is one God.
- Ernest Holmes

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky,
you look in you.
- Alan Watts

You are within God.
God is within you.
- Peace Pilgrim

When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room,
remember, never to say that you are alone,
for you are not alone, but God is within.
- Epictetus

To be at one with God is to be at peace...
peace is to be found only within,
and unless one finds it there
he will never find it at all.
Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one's own soul.
- Ralph W. Trine

Further reading: Quiet Time

Becoming Love

Being an Open Channel

Good Works
   

Beware of False Knowledge

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Further reading: Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.

The Danger of Assumptions

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind
    

The Hero Revealed

Hard times don't create heroes.
It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed.
- Bob Riley

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength
which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
- Marcus Aurelius

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.
- Oprah Winfrey

A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself
or something other than himself.
- Joseph Campbell

Some days call for courage,
and ask those who would otherwise lead ordinary lives to become heroes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of

The Quiet Voice of Courage

Gather Strength

How Hard?

Choosing a Joyful Life
    

Co-Creation, Not Possession

Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran

Love is the absence of judgment.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

The best relationship is one in which
your love for each other
exceeds your need for each other.
- Anonymous

True love is a process of co-creation
in which neither feels ownership or superiority.
Jealousy is a highly destructive force
for love and relationships.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love Allows Freedom

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Possession Is Not Love

Celebrating Your Differences
    

Stop Opposing Reality

Dwell in stillness.
Observe without reacting and without judging.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
- Byron Katie

 Be still and know who you are.
- Kirtana

Life is simple.
Everything happens for you, not to you.
Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late.
You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.
- Byron Katie

Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is,
and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- Aldous Huxley

You're either attaching to your thoughts or you're inquiring. There is no other choice.
- Byron Katie

Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

Breath by Breath

Live in the Present

Cherish This Moment

Cease Striving
   

Grin Your Smile

Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy;
dash the last trace of your self-consciousness;
and cavort your most uninhibited play.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The burden of the self is lightened when I laugh at myself.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
- e. e. cummings

Laugh at yourself and at life.
Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity,
but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain,
cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective
that seemingly terrible defeat and worry
with laughter at your predicaments,
thus freeing your mind to think clearly
toward the solution that is certain to come.
Never take yourself too seriously.
- Og Mandino

Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child,
to whom all of life is a grand adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Lighten Up, Be Happy

The Need for Humor

Laughter

Not Too Serious
    

Arguments Create Unhappiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Further reading: Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Arguing

Disagreement
   

Compassion, Kindness, Humility

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another.
- Colossians 3:12

The only way you can serve God is by serving other people.
- Rick Warren

Let us touch the dying, the poor,
the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received
and let us not be ashamed
or slow to do the humble work.
- Mother Teresa

If you are going to be spiritually curious,
you better not get cluttered up with too many material things.
- Mary Oliver

Religion is a blessing when, and only when,
it provides a focus for a compassionate community
to minister to its members and to the world at large.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Love One Another

Doing God's Work

True Religion is about Helping Others

Peace

A Common Denominator of All Religions...
    

Seek Your Own Wisdom

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise;
rather, seek what they sought.
- Matsuo Basho

No one saves us but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.
- The Buddha

Travelers, there is no path.
Paths are made by walking.
- Antonio Machado

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Quotations are dead unless a spur for inquiry.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Know Yourself

The Wisdom of Lao Tzu

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Accepting the Fear of Change
    

Appreciate Your Blessings

Thank you, God, for this good life
and forgive us if we do not love it enough.
- Garrison Keillor

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge
that the whole country isn't in flames,
that there are people in the country besides politicians,
entertainers, and criminals.
- Charles Kuralt

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
- Tecumseh

I thank you God for this most amazing day,
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and for the blue dream of sky
and for everything which is natural,
which is infinite, which is yes.
- e. e. cummings

Further reading: Give Thanks and Celebrate

Thankful and Content

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Gratitude for THIS Moment
    

Calm and Without Panic

If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs...
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.
- Rudyard Kipling

A good head and a good heart
are always a formidable combination.
- Nelson Mandela

I believe the ability to think is blessed.
If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it.
The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.
- Richard Pryor

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic;
it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.
- Vannevar Bush

Further reading: Have Confidence in Yourself

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Life of Storms
   

Soar, It's Your Natural State

One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.
- Helen Keller

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable...
we must be content to creep along the ground,
and never soar.
- John Henry Newman

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar,
and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
- Carl Sandburg

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain

In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth,
God is pleased when we're pleased.
He wills that we be as free as birds to soar
and sing our maker's praise without anxiety.
- Aiden Wilson Tozer

Soar - it's your natural state.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Life Lived to the Edge

Let Your Heart Soar

Spread Your Wings

The Edge
    

Wonder and Innocence

Bringing a childlike wonder
and a beginner's mind to life
maximizes both success and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Children are born innocent.
Before they are domesticated they live in the moment,
love without fear, and don't even think about the opinions of others.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Become more and more innocent,
less knowledgeable and more childlike.
Take life as fun -
because that's precisely what it is!
- Osho

Innocence isn't ever lost completely;
we just need to maintain our goodness to regain it.
- Jewel

A newborn does not have worry, or stress, or anger, because they have not yet learned those things. Consider what life would be like if you could forget all the past resentments and perceived offenses that color your thinking and your emotions. Buddhists call that state "beginner mind" - an opening to experience life without the jaundiced filter of past disappointments.

Further reading:  Growing Up - Staying Young

Reverence

Natural Web
    

The Dance of Life

Dance Lightly With Life:
Today is your day to
dance lightly with life,
sing wild songs of adventure,
soar your spirit,
unfurl your joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life may not be the party we hoped for,
but while we are here we might as well dance.
- Anonymous

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor.
It's to enjoy each step along the way.
- Wayne Dyer

Dance like no one is watching,
love like you'll never be hurt.
Sing like no one is listening.
Live life like it's heaven on earth.
- Anonymous (various attributions and alternate phrasings)

Further reading: Appreciate Today

Finding Joy in Our Troubled Lives

Choose to Love Life

Not Too Serious

Today is Your Day (long form of my poem)
    

Nature Speaks God's Truth

Listen for my stories in the whispers of the wind.
Listen to the truth in the gurgling of a mountain brook.
Nature remembers the truth. Be still and listen.
Listen to your heart’s guidance.
- Susan Gregg

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books,
but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.
- Joseph Smith, Jr.

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
- Juvenal

When the solution is simple, God is answering.
- Albert Einstein

Those who find beauty in all of nature
will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself.
- L. Wolfe Gilbert

Nature Speaks God's Truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Spend Time In Nature

The Wisdom of Patience

Beyond Answers

Secrets of Water
    

Give the World Your Best

Simply do your best, and you will avoid
self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Success comes from knowing that
you did your best to become the best
that you are capable of becoming.
- John Wooden

Give the world the best you have
and it may never be enough.
Give the world your best anyway.
- Kent Keith (frequently attributed to Mother Teresa)

Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it.
- Sam Ewing

Today's affirmation:
I will do my best...
and then relax in the knowing
that I have done all I could.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Play to Win, but be a Good Loser

Ignore Your Critics

DO IT

Take Charge of Your Life
    

Life Without Stress

The life of inner peace,
being harmonious and without stress,
is the easiest type of existence.
- Norman Vincent Peale

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

The greatest weapon against stress
is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- William James

Whenever you feel you must hurry,
ask yourself whether the busy-ness is fulfilling your purpose in life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Feeling Overwhelmed?

Clarity

Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living

Living in Peace
    

Looking for the Open Door

When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail.
It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
- Charles Kettering

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
- Vince Lombardi

Circumstances don't defeat you -
you defeat yourself when you give up.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All good things end - and new good things begin.

Further reading: Learning from Failure

Don't Give Up

The Quiet Voice of Courage

Finding A Way