Happiness

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.

~Joyce Brothers

Life as a Blank Canvas

I decided I'd treat this juncture in my life
as a blank canvas,
sketch an intention to achieve some good
and let life paint it in.

- Marc Barasch

Splendor of the Rose

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily

do not rob the little violet of it’s scent

nor the daisy of its simple charm.

If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose,

spring would lose its loveliness.

- Therese of Lisieux

Forgiveness

Evolved people race to see who can forgive first.

- Michael Bernard Beckwith

Create Your Future

Every thought we think is creating our future.

- Louise Hay

Life Force

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over
into imagination and will.
Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms.
You for one.
Me for another.
The Universe has shouted itself alive.
We are one of the shouts.

- Ray Bradbury

Follow Your Inner Guidance

Every time you don't follow your inner guidance,
you feel a loss of energy,
loss of power,
a sense of spiritual deadness.

- Shakti Gawain

Kindness

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing.
Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love.
Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.

- Marc Estrin

Emerging from Suffering

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;

the most massive characters are seared with scars.

- Kahlil Gibran

Do what you can

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
but still I can do something;
and because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do something
that I can do.

- Helen Keller

Outstanding

If you want to stand out,

don't be different;

be outstanding.

- Meredith West

Letting Your Beauty and Light Shine

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most.

We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?'

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us.

And when we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

- Maryanne Williamson (Nelson Mandela used in his 1994 inaugural speech)

Home

Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness.
Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace.

~Vernon G. Baker

Creating Your Future

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths

offered by the present, but a place that is created--

created first in the mind and will,

created next in activity.

The future is not some place we are going to,

but one we are creating.

The paths are not to be found, but made,

and the activity of making them,

changes both the maker and the destination.

- John Schaar

Thoughts

If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve,
it is the thought that is hurting you now.

- James Hillman

Seeing Possibilities

Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb,

a lovely garden in a seed,

and a giant oak in an acorn.

- William Arthur Ward

Grace in Giving

There is nothing forced or self-disciplined
about [generosity] ...
[A generous person] goes out of his way
not because his parents taught him
that's how good [people] behave,
but because he has chosen to be alert
to the circumstances in which he can be supportive.

- Tibor R. Machan

Giving Heart

You have not lived a perfect day

even though you have earned your money,

unless you have done something for someone

who will never be able to repay you.

- Ruth Smeltzer

Be Positive

Gladness is akin to goodness.

The world needs all the help you can give

by way of cheerful, optimistic, inspiring thought

and personal example.

- Grenville Kleiser

Generosity

I don't want to be saved.
I want to be spent.

- Fritz Perls