Consider Doing Something New

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.
- Henri de Lubac

Life is defined more by its risks than by its samenesses.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history
to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.
- Edith Wharton

Repetition can be a choice, but often it isn't.
The athlete or pianist who practices the same routine
day after day, year after year, has their eye on a goal.
The unending repetition is a conscious choice
in the pursuit of a life dream.
But what about the sameness of most lives?
Observe the morning commute, the after-work drink,
the Sunday football game or religious service -
how many of those people are consciously following their dream,
training their mind, body, and spirit through that daily repetition?
And how many are mindlessly slogging through each day
out of habit and boredom?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Curious - Adventurous

The Myth of Security

The Power of Courage
           

Enjoy the Day You Have Been Given

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar,
and the lightnings blaze around us,
it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post.
- Luther Martin

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm,
you'll never enjoy the sunshine.
- Morris West

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
- Lord Byron

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm -
a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

Zero-Based Gratitude

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life
      

Your Life is Not Defined by Age

Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt

And in the end, it's not
the years in your life that count,
it's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

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

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job,
tell 'em, Certainly I Can. -
and get busy and find out how to do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt

You are only as old as you think you are.
- Anonymous

What is age but a number.
What you can dream, you can become, at any age.
Live your best life, not your age.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Growing Up Without Growing Old

Never Too Late

Ways to Stay Young
     

Seek Mastery of Life

A happy life consists not in the absence,
but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

Only one who devotes himself to a cause
with his whole strength and soul
can be a true master.
For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
- Albert Einstein

Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts.
If you don't control what you think,
you can't control what you do.
Simply, self-discipline enables you
to think first and act afterward.
- Napoleon Hill

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day
to be and to do what really matters most.
- Stephen Covey

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Master of My Emotions

Live Your Inspired Life

Master of My Fate

Laugh at Life
           

Keep Close to Nature's Heart

 

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt,
head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body,
but the soul.
- Alfred Austin

The goal of life is
to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.
- Joseph Campbell

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
- Standing Bear

Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away, once in awhile,
and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.
Wash your spirit clean.
- John Muir

Further reading: Renew Yourself

Set Your Rhythm

All Life

Nature's Messengers

Our Children's Earth
   

Honor the Truth

 

When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.
- George Bernard Shaw

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
- Soren Kierkegaard

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
- Oscar Wilde

By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.
- George Carlin

Can you let go of words and ideas,
attitudes and expectations?
If so, then the Tao will loom into view.
- Lao Tzu

Further reading: Life is a Riddle

Accept that Life is Complex and Contradictory
    

Never Take Life for Granted

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

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
           

Nobody Promised That Life Would Be Fair

 

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?
- Sydney Harris

Adversity can crush our spirit - or strengthen it - it is our choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What if we just acted like everything was easy?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Whenever you say or even think, "This is hard,"
that task or challenge becomes difficult.
Dread it, and it becomes terrifying.

When you choose to move past fear -
fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of "looking bad," fear of losing respect -
life becomes much lighter, and most any task becomes possible - perhaps even enjoyable.
Most any challenge can become an adventure of discovery.

The secret to a great life is recognizing that life was never intended to be fair.
Life simply isn't "fair," and that's okay.
The joy of life comes from playing the game of life as best we can,
focusing far more on the love and good example we can contribute
to other lives than on demanding money, stuff, love, or appreciation.
Service becomes a source of joy when it is not viewed as a duty.

Life Is Not "Fair," But It Can Still Be Joyful.
Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Do Not Rail Against Life

Strength In Hard Times

Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of
      

We are all one - the web of life

 

All things share the same breath -
the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit
with all the life it supports.
- Attributed to Chief Seattle
but actually written in 1972 by screenwriter Ted Perry

Let children walk with Nature,
let them see the beautiful blendings
and communions of death and life,
their joyous inseparable unity,
as taught in woods and meadows,
plains and mountains and streams
of our blessed star,
and they will learn that death
is stingless indeed,
and as beautiful as life.
- John Muir

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
- William Shakespeare

When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
- John Muir

We are all one - the web of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Natural Web

All Life

All Brothers and Sisters

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
     

Practice Simplicity

 

Appreciate Simplicity, for Simplicity is the Path to Joy.

Practice simplicity by letting go of the non-essential things in your life
to make space for what really matters to you.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.
It sings because it has a song.
- Chinese Proverb

We thought that we had the answers,
it was the questions we had wrong.
- Bono

Sing like no one's listening,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like its heaven on earth.
- Mark Twain

Indifferent to whether your mood is grumpy or cheerful,
Nature always sings her passionate song of joyful celebration.
You can never stop the happy song of life,
so join the celebration -
sing along, dance, make love,
smile your biggest smile, and cheer on Nature's music.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What We Expect to See

Soar Your Spirit

Profound Questions

The Mysterious

Answers
     

Take a Chance, Follow Your Dream

 

Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.
- Henri de Lubac

Life is defined more by its risks than by its samenesses.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history
to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.
- Edith Wharton

Repetition can be a choice, but often it isn't.
The athlete or pianist who practices the same routine
day after day, year after year, has their eye on a goal.
The unending repetition is a conscious choice
in the pursuit of a life dream.
But what about the sameness of most lives?
Observe the morning commute, the after-work drink,
the Sunday football game or religious service -
how many of those people are consciously following their dream,
training their mind, body, and spirit through that daily repetition?
And how many are mindlessly slogging through each day
out of habit and boredom?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Curious - Adventurous

The Myth of Security

The Power of Courage
           

Stand Firm

 

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

When the tempest rages, when the thunders roar,
and the lightnings blaze around us,
it is then that the truly brave man stands firm at his post.
- Luther Martin

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm,
you'll never enjoy the sunshine.
- Morris West

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
- Lord Byron

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm -
a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

Zero-Based Gratitude

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life
      

Live your best life, not your age

 

Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt

And in the end, it's not
the years in your life that count,
it's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

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

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job,
tell 'em, Certainly I Can. -
and get busy and find out how to do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt

You are only as old as you think you are.
- Anonymous

What is age but a number.
What you can dream, you can become, at any age.
Live your best life, not your age.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Growing Up Without Growing Old

Never Too Late

Ways to Stay Young
     

Be a True Master of Life

 

A happy life consists not in the absence,
but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

Only one who devotes himself to a cause
with his whole strength and soul
can be a true master.
For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
- Albert Einstein

Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts.
If you don't control what you think,
you can't control what you do.
Simply, self-discipline enables you
to think first and act afterward.
- Napoleon Hill

How different our lives are when we
really know what is deeply important to us,
and keeping that picture in mind,
we manage ourselves each day
to be and to do what really matters most.
- Stephen Covey

Further reading: How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Master of My Emotions

Live Your Inspired Life

Master of My Fate

Laugh at Life
            

Match your nature with Nature

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt,
head in the sun, heart with nature.
To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body,
but the soul.
- Alfred Austin

The goal of life is
to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.
- Joseph Campbell

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
- Standing Bear

Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away, once in awhile,
and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.
Wash your spirit clean.
- John Muir

Further reading: Renew Yourself

Set Your Rhythm

All Life

Nature's Messengers

Our Children's Earth
   

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple

 

When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.
- George Bernard Shaw

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
- Soren Kierkegaard

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
- Oscar Wilde

By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.
- George Carlin

Can you let go of words and ideas,
attitudes and expectations?
If so, then the Tao will loom into view.
- Lao Tzu

Further reading: Life is a Riddle

Accept that Life is Complex and Contradictory
    

We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Find Joy In It

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

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
           

WHY Would Anyone "Expect" Life to be Fair?

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, Compared to what?
- Sydney Harris

Adversity can crush our spirit - or strengthen it - it is our choice.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What if we just acted like everything was easy?
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Whenever you say or even think, "This is hard,"
that task or challenge becomes difficult.
Dread it, and it becomes terrifying.

When you choose to move past fear -
fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of "looking bad," fear of losing respect -
life becomes much lighter, and most any task becomes possible - perhaps even enjoyable.
Most any challenge can become an adventure of discovery.

The secret to a great life is recognizing that life was never intended to be fair.
Life simply isn't "fair," and that's okay.
The joy of life comes from playing the game of life as best we can,
focusing far more on the love and good example we can contribute
to other lives than on demanding money, stuff, love, or appreciation.
Service becomes a source of joy when it is not viewed as a duty.

Life Is Not "Fair," But It Can Still Be Joyful.
Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Do Not Rail Against Life

Strength In Hard Times

Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of