Be Gentle, Be Generous

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize.
The first is gentleness;
the second is frugality;
the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others.
Be gentle and you can be bold;
be frugal and you can be generous;
avoid putting yourself before others
and you can become a leader among men.
- Lao Tzu

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity
are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: Again Tomorrow

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Perspective on Diversity

Give Thanks for the Love
       

Renew Your Connection With Nature

The primal rhythmic power
and resonant sound of waves on the shore
are like the earth's heartbeat,
and become our connection with the body of nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everything has rhythm. everything dances.
- Maya Angelou

To discover joy is to return
to a state of oneness with the universe.
- Peggy Jenkins

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
- John Lubbock

Further reading: The Beat of the Universe

Set Your Rhythm

Today is Your Day

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
    

Think of Yourself as a Citizen of the World

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Color of skin, languages, religions, and traditions
are all part of the magnificence of humanity.
Honor diversity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community,
loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation,
and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind.
The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.
- Thomas Cochrane

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

All things share the same breath

War

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Natural Web
     

Choose Peaceful Cooperation

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
- Bertrand Russell

Ideologies separate us.
Dreams and anguish bring us together.
- Eugene Ionesco

There is only one way... to get anybody to do anything.
And that is by making the other person want to do it.
- Dale Carnegie

Communication leads to community, that is,
to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.
- Rollo May

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men
is primarily based on mutual trust
and only secondarily on institutions
such as courts of justice and police.
- Albert Einstein

Further reading: Evolving Toward Cooperation

Progress of the Human Mind

Stand Together
      

Diverse Individuals in a Universe of Oneness

Try a new perspective on diversity.
Across the country and around the world,
we are all one.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity
are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

It is not our differences that divide us.
It is our inability to recognize, accept,
and celebrate those differences.
- Audre Lorde

In Republics, the great danger is that the majority
may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
- James Madison

Further reading: Oneness

Empathy

Don't Categorize People

Apples and Oranges
     

Commune With Your Inner Silence

Everything is God
- don Miguel Ruiz

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

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself,
and know that everything in life has purpose.
There are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Don't seek God in temples.
He is close to you.
He is within you.
Only you should surrender to Him
and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.
- Leo Tolstoy

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

Surrender to a Higher Power is a central tenet of 12-step programs,
and is the key to recovering from depression, worry, and fear as well.

Today's affirmation:
When I see Spirit in everything, Peace is at hand.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Breath by Breath

How to Cope With Life

How to Forgive and Move On

Alcoholism in a Relationship - When to Stay, When to Leave
      

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
      

We are Called to be of Service to the Least of These

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)

There are moments when the heart is generous,
and then it knows that for better or worse our lives are woven together here,
one with one another and with the place and all the living things.
- Wendell Berry

Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Jesus (Mathew 22:39)

A person's religion is what they do and say all day, seven days a week -
not what they say and do at 10 am on Sunday.
Our religion is defined by how we choose to treat the Least of These.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Feed the Hungry

To Be a Faithful Follower of Jesus

We Belong to Each Other

What is Your Religion?
   

Our Children's Planet

 

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him,
that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men,
and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.
- Albert Schweitzer

This land, this water, this air, this planet -
this is our legacy to our young.
- Paul Tsongas

People must feel that the natural world is important
and valuable and beautiful and wonderful
and an amazement and a pleasure.
- David Attenborough

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow,
we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology.
We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created,
not just as it looked when we got through with it.
- Lyndon B. Johnson

Be gentle with the earth.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Further reading: Our Future is the World's Children

One Planet, One People, One Destiny

Legacy to Future Generations

Reverence for Our Earth
      

Dedicate Yourself to Justice, Peace and Good Will Toward All

 

There is no way to peace; peace IS the way.
- A. J. Muste

The hope of a secure and livable world
lies with disciplined nonconformists
who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

May the peace which passes all understanding be among you and remain with you always.
- Paraphrase of the blessing that concludes the Episcopal communion service

We all share unity with each other
and with the one Creator Spirit.
We are one.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Further reading: Be a Bringer of Peace

Support Each Other

Peacemakers

Become Centered, Breathe
      

It only takes a few caring people to change the world

 

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist.
I am willing to fight for peace.
Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
- Albert Einstein

Peace is not the refusal to defend oneself and one's community.
Peace is the commitment never to attack anyone.
and mostly, Peace is an internal sense of tranquility, regardless of external circumstances.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world.
For, indeed, that's all who ever have.
- Margaret Mead

Today's affirmation:
I am at Peace with myself,
my family, my community, and the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Do God's Work

World Peace

Thoughts of Peace

Choose Peace

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
     

Take time to understand, and to appreciate

It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside
of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
- Aeschylus

Could a greater miracle take place
than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
- Henry David Thoreau

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
- Philo

We are all different - and we are all one.
Take time to understand, and to appreciate.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Before you criticize anyone,
walk a mile in their shoes.
- Anonymous [gender-neutral update]

The more we care for the happiness of others,
the greater is our own sense of well-being.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Understanding is a two-way street.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

We will never have true civilization until we have
learned to recognize the rights of others.
- Will Rogers

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: The Art of Listening

Opportunity for Kindness

Of all the keys to happiness, Service to Others is the big one

Open Your Mind
      

Value Honesty and Integrity

To be a person of honor is to live with honesty and integrity of action and thought.

This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples;
no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;
the philosophy is kindness.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Honor, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Choice,
Vision, Action, Celebration, Unity -
The Values of an Inspired Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's project:
Meaningful and joyful lives are lived by adhering to one's personal value system - one's principles. Today, write your six to eight most important values on an index card, and refer to that card as you go about your life today.

Further reading: What We Are Made Of

Do What You Know Is Right

Secret of Happiness

Things Divine
     

Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love

 

Never succumb to the notion that others are less important
based on their place of birth.
All of humanity are our brothers and sisters.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind,
because oneness is the secret of everything.

- Swami Vivekananda

The reason why the world lacks unity,
and lies broken and in heaps,
is because man is disunited with himself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good,
falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.
- Peace Pilgrim

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
- Francois Fenelon

Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

Few are the giants of the soul that actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Winston Churchill

Drop the sword - for there is but one flesh to wound,
and it is the one flesh of all humankind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: One Great Dewdrop

The Beat of the Universe

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation
      

All things are bound together. All things connect.

 

When you experience the unity of life,
you see your own Self in all beings,
and all beings in your own Self.
- The Buddha (paraphrase)

Simply see that you are at the center of the universe,

and accept all things and beings
as parts of your infinite body.
When you perceive that an act done to another
is done to yourself,
you have understood the great truth.
- Lao Tzu

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
- generally attributed to Chief Seattle

but actually written by Ted Perry in 1972

We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
Therefore, everything one does as an individual affects the whole.
All thoughts, words, images, prayers, blessings, and deeds
are listened to by all that is.
- Serge Kahili King

Further reading: Everything is God

Sharing the Same Breath

One With Spirit and All Creation

All Brothers and Sisters
   

Take a Long Walk in Silence

If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet,
you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
- Alan Watts

There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery
that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it,
and fills it with noble inclinations.
- Washington Irving

In Silence, You Understand Yourself and the Universe.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Few people know how to take a walk.
The qualifications are endurance,
plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature,
good humor, vast curiosity, good speech,
good silence and nothing too much.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Music is the silence between the notes.
- Claude Debussy

Today's affirmation:
I am a Unique Expression
of the Universal Fabric of Creation.
I celebrate both my uniqueness
and my connection with all that is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Stillness of the Mind

Quiet Time

Breath by Breath
     

 

Gentleness, Self-Sacrifice and Generosity

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize.
The first is gentleness;
the second is frugality;
the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others.
Be gentle and you can be bold;
be frugal and you can be generous;
avoid putting yourself before others
and you can become a leader among men.
- Lao Tzu

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity
are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: Again Tomorrow

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Perspective on Diversity

Give Thanks for the Love
       

Earth's Heartbeat, Our Connection with Nature

 

The primal rhythmic power
and resonant sound of waves on the shore
are like the earth's heartbeat,
and become our connection with the body of nature.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Everything has rhythm. everything dances.
- Maya Angelou

To discover joy is to return
to a state of oneness with the universe.
- Peggy Jenkins

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
- John Lubbock

Further reading: The Beat of the Universe

Set Your Rhythm

Today is Your Day

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
    

Develop a World Perspective

 

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Color of skin, languages, religions, and traditions
are all part of the magnificence of humanity.
Honor diversity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Loyalty to the family must be merged into loyalty to the community,
loyalty to the community into loyalty to the nation,
and loyalty to the nation into loyalty to mankind.
The citizen of the future must be a citizen of the world.
- Thomas Cochrane

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

Further reading: We are All Brothers and Sisters

All things share the same breath

War

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Natural Web
     

Identify and Focus-On Shared Goals

 

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
- Bertrand Russell

Ideologies separate us.
Dreams and anguish bring us together.
- Eugene Ionesco

There is only one way... to get anybody to do anything.
And that is by making the other person want to do it.
- Dale Carnegie

Communication leads to community, that is,
to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.
- Rollo May

Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men
is primarily based on mutual trust
and only secondarily on institutions
such as courts of justice and police.
- Albert Einstein

Further reading: Evolving Toward Cooperation

Progress of the Human Mind

Stand Together