Seek Action or Acceptance Rather than Fear

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded,
but the fear of pain or death.
- Epictetus

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.

- Publilius Syrus

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.
These are part of scenery, not the seer,
who is immune to any form of change.
This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
- Deepak Chopra

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
- Henry Van Dyke

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

- Felix Frankfurter

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

There can be no happiness when one lives in fear.
Whatever the future holds, fear will not improve tomorrow,
and it will destroy your happiness today.
Action is empowering, fear is disempowering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: My Thoughts about Fear (particularly recommended)

A Life Without Fear

Choose to be Courageous

Beyond Fear
    

Honor Everyone's Personal Choices

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.

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

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

Love is stronger than justice.
- Sting

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

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

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

The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13

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

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

Further reading: Arguing

Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Disagreement
   

Courage is Never Giving Up

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

We must build dikes of courage
to hold back the flood of fear.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
- Anonymous

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Photo was taken in the aftermath of 9/11 2001 in New York City

Further reading: Draw from Suffering

Gather Strength

Hard Times

To Overcome Fear
    

Patience and Gentleness

A person who is a master of patience is master of everything else.
- George Savile [paraphrase]

A tree that is unbending, is easily broken.
- Lao Tzu

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
- Saint Francis de Sales

Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is...
The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds.
- Dan Millman

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

Do not attempt to conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
- Lao Tzu

Read the Aesop fable The Oak and the Reeds

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

The River of Life

Enjoy the Journey 
     

Something to Contemplate...

I remind you, as I often do, that these daily emails are intended to inspire deep thinking about the subject matter, and not to dictate answers intended to satisfy everyone's individual needs and perspectives.

The world is perfect.
It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

The world is perfect.
As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious.
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes.
A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
- Byron Katie

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's arms,
Is already Perfect!
- Hafiz

If you want something to be different than it is,
you might as well teach a cat to bark.
Wanting something to be different than it is, is hopeless.
- Byron Katie

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What does it mean to say "the world is perfect" when clearly the world is full of suffering?
For someone who believes that God is both omnipotent (infinitely powerful) and omnibenevolent (infinitely good), the world MUST be perfect because an omnipotent omnibenevolent God would by definition create a perfect world -- and if we mortals do not see this world as perfect, it must be our own failure of perception (for example, accomplishing God's longer term goal for the world). See the Wikipedia article on the "Problem of Evil" for more on this.

For those who don't believe there is a God (or believe in multiple gods), the world is "perfect" simply because this is the way it is. We can change the world over time, but at this exact instant, the world is as it is, and the "perfect" way for it to be right now. This viewpoint eliminates the suffering associated with demanding that the world be different than it is. Read more at Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you.
     

 

Strength Comes from Struggle

Today's affirmation:
I gather strength from life's storms.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Strength comes from struggle.
When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser,
then your thinking shifts from 'I can't do this' to 'I must do this.
- Toni Sorenson

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Being defeated is often a temporary condition.
Giving up is what makes it permanent.
- Marilyn vos Savant

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

If I could tell the world just one thing
it would be we're all okay,
and not to worry cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair,
I will gather myself around my faith.
Light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

Further reading: Serenity Rather than Fear

Tested by Storms

Calm During Storms
      

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
      

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
       

Never persist in trying to set people right

 

We cause ourselves untold misery whenever we believe
others to be imperfect and try to change them.
You have no ability whatsoever to change anyone other than yourself.
You can only cause yourself great suffering if you try.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The true secret of giving advice is,
after you have honestly given it,
to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not,
and never persist in trying to set people right.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Unsolicited Advice Is Always Meddling.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Read my thoughts on meddling in the affairs of others.

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

Advice is seldom welcome,
and those who "need" it the most, like it the least.
- Lord Chesterfield

Further reading: The Problem with Advice

Live and Let Live

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Don't Take It Personally
          

Fear is Disempowering

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded,
but the fear of pain or death.
- Epictetus

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.

- Publilius Syrus

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.
These are part of scenery, not the seer,
who is immune to any form of change.
This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
- Deepak Chopra

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
- Henry Van Dyke

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

- Felix Frankfurter

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

There can be no happiness when one lives in fear.
Whatever the future holds, fear will not improve tomorrow,
and it will destroy your happiness today.
Action is empowering, fear is disempowering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: My Thoughts about Fear

A Life Without Fear

Choose to be Courageous

Beyond Fear

    

Choose For Yourself! and let others choose their own way

 

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.

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

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

Love is stronger than justice.

- Sting

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

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

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

The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13

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

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

Further reading: Arguing

Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Disagreement
   

The Antidote for Fear Is Courage

 

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

We must build dikes of courage
to hold back the flood of fear.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

- Anonymous

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Photo was taken in the aftermath of 9/11 2001 in New York City

Further reading: Draw from Suffering

Gather Strength

Hard Times

To Overcome Fear
    

Learn to Master Patience

 

A person who is a master of patience is master of everything else.
- George Savile [paraphrase]

A tree that is unbending, is easily broken.
- Lao Tzu

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
- Saint Francis de Sales

Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is...
The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds.
- Dan Millman

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

Do not attempt to conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
- Lao Tzu

Read the Aesop fable The Oak and the Reeds

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

The River of Life

Enjoy the Journey 
     

Contemplate Existence...

 

I remind you, as I often do, that these daily emails are intended to inspire deep thinking about the subject matter, and not to dictate answers intended to satisfy everyone's individual needs and perspectives.

The world is perfect.
It's a mess. It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

The world is perfect.
As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious.
Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes.
A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed.
It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
- Byron Katie

Your life within God's arms,
Your dance within God's arms,
Is already Perfect!
- Hafiz

If you want something to be different than it is,
you might as well teach a cat to bark.
Wanting something to be different than it is, is hopeless.
- Byron Katie

It is not our place to know the mind of God.
Spirit knows what is best in the long run -
best for each of us individually,
and best for humanity as a whole.
This is often very difficult to accept
when we see war and disease in the world
and experience physical and emotional suffering
in ourselves, our family, and our friends.
I consider this belief in God's infinite power
and ultimate wisdom to be the true test of faith.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What does it mean to say "the world is perfect" when clearly the world is full of suffering?
For someone who believes that God is both omnipotent (infinitely powerful) and omnibenevolent (infinitely good), the world MUST be perfect because an omnipotent omnibenevolent God would by definition create a perfect world -- and if we mortals do not see this world as perfect, it must be our own failure of perception (for example, accomplishing God's longer term goal for the world). See the Wikipedia article on the "Problem of Evil" for more on this.

For those who don't believe there is a God (or believe in multiple gods), the world is "perfect" simply because this is the way it is. We can change the world over time, but at this exact instant, the world is as it is, and the "perfect" way for it to be right now. This viewpoint eliminates the suffering associated with demanding that the world be different than it is. Read more at Byron Katie - No one can give you freedom but you.
     

Gather Strength from Life's Storms

 

Today's affirmation:
I gather strength from life's storms.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come again.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Being defeated is often a temporary condition.
Giving up is what makes it permanent.
- Marilyn vos Savant

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

If I could tell the world just one thing
it would be we're all okay,
and not to worry cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair,
I will gather myself around my faith.
Light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel

Further reading: Serenity Rather than Fear

Tested by Storms

Calm During Storms
      

To Gain Inner Peace, You Must Forgive

 

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
      

Draw Inspiration 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
       

Resist the Impulse to Meddle

 

We cause ourselves untold misery whenever we believe
others to be imperfect and try to change them.
You have no ability whatsoever to change anyone other than yourself.
You can only cause yourself great suffering if you try.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The true secret of giving advice is,
after you have honestly given it,
to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not,
and never persist in trying to set people right.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Unsolicited Advice Is Always Meddling.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Read my thoughts on meddling in the affairs of others.

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

Advice is seldom welcome,
and those who "need" it the most, like it the least.
- Lord Chesterfield

Further reading: The Problem with Advice

Live and Let Live

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Don't Take It Personally

Fear is Your Worst Enemy

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded,
but the fear of pain or death.
- Epictetus

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.

- Publilius Syrus

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death.
These are part of scenery, not the seer,
who is immune to any form of change.
This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.
- Deepak Chopra

Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
- Henry Van Dyke

Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man.

- Felix Frankfurter

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering
is worse than the suffering itself.
- Paulo Coelho

There can be no happiness when one lives in fear.
Whatever the future holds, fear will not improve tomorrow,
and it will destroy your happiness today.
Action is empowering, fear is disempowering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: My Thoughts about Fear

A Life Without Fear

Choose to be Courageous

Beyond Fear

    

Don't Let Others Make Choices for You, and Don't Make Choices for Others

 

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.

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

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

Love is stronger than justice.

- Sting

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

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

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

The greatest of these is love.
- 1 Corinthians 13:13

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

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

Further reading: Arguing

Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Disagreement