A World in Upheaval...

 

A world in upheaval is the breaking of the old sod -
the revealing of rich fresh soil ready for new planting.
Rejoice in the opportunity to sow a new crop.
Progress Does Not Come Gently.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past
have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Progress Does Not Come Gently.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when
we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed 

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Expectations/Demands

Welcome Newness
     

Thankfulness is a Virtue

 

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank You, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

However much or little you have,
"Thank You" is always a more powerful prayer than, "I need more."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whoever does not regard what he has
as most ample wealth, is unhappy,
though he be master of the world.
- Epictetus

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say "thank you?"
- William Arthur Ward

Further reading: The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude for Small Miracles

Zero-Based Gratitude

Unanswered Prayer
     

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.
     

Compassion Requires Accepting Our Differences

 

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

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

You never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view.
- Harper Lee

Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.
- Theodor Adorno

When we have expectations (demands), we think we know how people SHOULD behave, and we can have no compassion. Only after we accept that another person's uniquely "right" path does not follow our own preconceptions, can we be compassionate.

The essence of compassion is accepting others as unique individuals,
without believing that they are less good for not being carbon copies of ourselves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Condemn None

Empathy

Understanding

Signs of a Compassionate Person

Do What You Can
     

Question every Assumption and Expectation

 

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.
- Stevie Wonder

Question every Assumption and Expectation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is a better thing to weigh and measure priorities
in the illuminating light of your own mission
than to have your activities formed by the
impressions and expectations of others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"You always..." and "you never..." are code phrases for
"you don't meet my expectations, so I am declaring you inadequate and unacceptable."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People see you as an object, not as a person,
and they project a set of expectations onto you.
- Candice Bergen

Other People's Expectations are NOT Your Life's Marching Orders.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

[Your inner] Peace is a choice,
and it has nothing to do with
what other people do or think.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Take time to contemplate -
away from the opinions and influence of others -
what you really want
and what you believe to be important in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choice, Not Obligation

A Choice for Joy

Value Your Self Respect

Criticism and Complaint
      

Freedom Demands Freedom for ALL

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects
and enhances the freedom of others.

- Nelson Mandela

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

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble
and beautiful end of a human being.
- Khalil Gibran

The end does NOT justify the means.
Freedom cannot be gained by sacrificing the freedom of others.
Free speech cannot be gained by limiting the free speech of others.
Human rights cannot be secured by trampling the human rights of others.
Viciousness in others cannot be fought by becoming vicious oneself.
Neither individual nor nation can long survive by meeting hatred with hatred,

injustice with injustice, prejudice with prejudice.

Freedom Demands Freedom for All
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

Further reading: Independence - Liberty - Freedom

Force

Honorable Paths to Noble Goals

    

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
   

Nobody is Self-Made

 

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Life Happens TO Us

 

The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Neither Religion Nor Science Suggests that Life is "Supposed to be Fair"
...
Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Why?" is the most useless question in the universe.
The only question with any meaning is "What?"
Asking "Why is this happening?" can only disempower you.
Asking "What do I want to make of this?" does exactly the opposite.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Nature is relentless and unchangeable,
and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons
and actions are understandable to man or not.
- Galileo Galilei

Further reading: My thoughts on "Life is not supposed to be fair."

You Are Not A Victim

Choose What You Emphasize

Complaining Only Makes You Miserable

Break Your Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering 
        

Mastery

 

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
            

Expect Nothing

 

When you expect nothing,
you can receive everything as a marvelous gift.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Expect nothing.
Live frugally on surprise.
- Alice Walker

Expectation is the root of all heartache.
- William Shakespeare

It is important to expect nothing,
to take every experience,
including the negative ones,
as merely steps on the path,
and to proceed.
- Ram Dass

Mostly, it is human to dislike surprises -
often with great intensity.
Be open to new ways;
sometimes newness just knocks on our door;
welcome it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose Joy Anyway

Know the Difference

Cheer for Endings
     

Rejoice in Unexpected Opportunity

 

A world in upheaval is the breaking of the old sod -
the revealing of rich fresh soil ready for new planting.
Rejoice in the opportunity to sow a new crop.
Progress Does Not Come Gently.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past
have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Progress Does Not Come Gently.
 - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.
- Roberto Assagioli

We will only understand the miracle of life fully when
we allow the unexpected to happen.
- Paulo Coelho

Further reading: Knowledge is Soon Changed 

Appreciate the Unexpected

Assumptions

Expectations/Demands

Welcome Newness
     

Thanks Be For Life

 

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank You, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

However much or little you have,
"Thank You" is always a more powerful prayer than, "I need more."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Whoever does not regard what he has
as most ample wealth, is unhappy,
though he be master of the world.
- Epictetus

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say "thank you?"
- William Arthur Ward

Further reading: The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude for Small Miracles

Zero-Based Gratitude

Unanswered Prayer
     

The Nature and the Meaning of Life...

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.
     

Celebrate Our Differences

As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect
the uniqueness of others.
- Robert H. Schuller

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
- M. Scott Peck

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

You never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view.
- Harper Lee

Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.
- Theodor Adorno

When we have expectations (demands), we think we know how people SHOULD behave, and we can have no compassion. Only after we accept that another person's uniquely "right" path does not follow our own preconceptions, we can be compassionate.

The essence of compassion is accepting others as unique individuals,
without believing that they are less good for not being carbon copies of ourselves.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Condemn None

Empathy

Understanding

Signs of a Compassionate Person

Do What You Can
     

Other People's Expectations are NOT Your Life's Marching Orders

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.
- Stevie Wonder

Question every Assumption and Expectation.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It is a better thing to weigh and measure priorities
in the illuminating light of your own mission
than to have your activities formed by the
impressions and expectations of others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

"You always..." and "you never..." are code phrases for
"you don't meet my expectations, so I am declaring you inadequate and unacceptable."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

People see you as an object, not as a person,
and they project a set of expectations onto you.
- Candice Bergen

Other People's Expectations are NOT Your Life's Marching Orders.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

[Your inner] Peace is a choice,
and it has nothing to do with
what other people do or think.
- Gerald Jampolsky

Take time to contemplate -
away from the opinions and influence of others -
what you really want
and what you believe to be important in your life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choice, Not Obligation

A Choice for Joy

Value Your Self Respect

Criticism and Complaint
      

How did it ever come to this?

 

To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects
and enhances the freedom of others.

- Nelson Mandela

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

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble
and beautiful end of a human being.
- Khalil Gibran

The end does NOT justify the means.
Freedom cannot be gained by sacrificing the freedom of others.
Free speech cannot be gained by limiting the free speech of others.
Human rights cannot be secured by trampling the human rights of others.
Viciousness in others cannot be fought by becoming vicious oneself.
Neither individual nor nation can long survive by meeting hatred with hatred,

injustice with injustice, prejudice with prejudice.

Freedom Demands Freedom for All
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

Further reading: Independence - Liberty - Freedom

Force

Honorable Paths to Noble Goals

    

Make Your Own Choices, But Don't Impose Your Choices on 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
   

"Self-Made" is a Fallacy

Your talent is God's gift to you.
- Leo Buscaglia

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Ingratitude often hides behind a mask of independence or self-sufficiency.
An assertion of being "self-made" is a rejection of God, one's ancestors, and society.
Your Genes, Place of Birth, and Upbringing are God's Gift to You.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Those who have succeeded at anything
and don't mention luck
are kidding themselves.
- Larry King

If I have seen further, it is
by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings,
which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation
with any race or nation known to history,
but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.
- Kelly Millar

Success is a result of hard work,
plus being blessed with good genes, food,
a good country, an opportunity for education,
and much more which we never "earned"
or "deserved," and for which we owe
everlasting gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Debt to Those Who are Kind

Appreciating Our Blessings

Give Thanks

Gratitude for This Food
     

Neither Religion Nor Science Suggests that Life is "Supposed to be Fair"

The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Neither Religion Nor Science Suggests that Life is "Supposed to be Fair"
...
Life is NOT "Supposed to be Fair."
Know that there is no single way that life is "supposed" to be.
Demanding that life meet our expectations
is a sure fire recipe for a miserable existence.
Life is a game with no rules.
Life just happens to us regardless of our best intentions.
Our only path to happiness lies in being open
to receiving whatever life throws at us -
with Gratitude. Have NO Expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"Why?" is the most useless question in the universe.
The only question with any meaning is "What?"
Asking "Why is this happening?" can only disempower you.
Asking "What do I want to make of this?" does exactly the opposite.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Nature is relentless and unchangeable,
and it is indifferent as to whether its hidden reasons
and actions are understandable to man or not.
- Galileo Galilei

Further reading: My thoughts on "Life is not supposed to be fair."

You Are Not A Victim

Choose What You Emphasize

Complaining Only Makes You Miserable

Break Your Cycle of Self-Inflicted Suffering