Face Circumstances, Don't Hide From Them

 

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

Have NO EXPECTATIONS.
Life will not meet your expectations.
Choose joy anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Calm During Storms

Beyond Your Worries

When It's Darkest

Choose Joy Anyway
     

Comparison Causes Suffering

 

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.
- Douglas Horton

Expectations Diminish Joy.
- Anonymous

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Comparisons are odious.
- Old English Saying
Read more about this...

Further reading: Rejoice for What You Have

We have Already Arrived

Comparison - Cause of Unhappiness

Appreciating Our Lives
   

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
      

Examine, Inquire, Don't Make Assumptions

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain (attributed)

If you would be a real seeker after truth,

it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.

- Rene Descartes

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
- Wim Wenders

About most subjects, there is not "The Truth."
There is merely one's personal truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth
- don Miguel Ruiz

Examine, inquire.
Look into the nature of things.
Search out the grounds of your opinions,
the for and against.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe,
and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

- Frances Wright

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
- 1997 Comedy Movie "Men In Black"

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Illusion of Knowledge

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Expectations

Truth isn't True

Assumptions
     

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
     

Break from the Pack

 

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Make Decisions

Embrace Change

Do What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous
       

Your own thinking comes back at you

 

The world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
- Earl Nightingale

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself -
your own thinking coming back at you.
- Byron Katie

A person experiences life as
something separated from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this self-imposed prison,
and through compassion,
to find the reality of Oneness.
- Albert Einstein

Life is for each of us
a solitary cell
whose walls are mirrors.
- Eugene O'Neill (paraphrase)

Once we are destined to live out our lives
in the prison of our mind,
our duty is to furnish it well.
- Peter Ustinov

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

Life is a Mirror

s Being a Reflection

How We See Things
    

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 
        

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
     

Learning to dance in the rain

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

Have NO EXPECTATIONS.
Life will not meet your expectations.
Choose joy anyway.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Calm During Storms

Beyond Your Worries

When It's Darkest

Choose Joy Anyway
     

Comparison is a Source of Suffering

People generally complain about only two things:
when they have less than yesterday,
and when they have less than their neighbor.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.
- Douglas Horton

Expectations Diminish Joy.
- Anonymous

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession
as they torment us with their loss.
- Epicurus

Comparisons are odious.
- Old English Saying
Read more about this...

Further reading: Rejoice for What You Have

We have Already Arrived

Comparison - Cause of Unhappiness

Appreciating Our Lives
   

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
      

Examine, Inquire, Don't Assume

 

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain (attributed)

If you would be a real seeker after truth,

it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.

- Rene Descartes

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
- Wim Wenders

About most subjects, there is not "The Truth."
There is merely one's personal truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth
- don Miguel Ruiz

Examine, inquire.
Look into the nature of things.
Search out the grounds of your opinions,
the for and against.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe,
and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

- Frances Wright

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
- 1997 Comedy Movie "Men In Black"

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Illusion of Knowledge

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Expectations

Truth isn't True

Assumptions
     

"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
     

Most Difficult Act of Heroism

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

The opposite of courage in our society
is not cowardice, it is conformity.
- Rollo May

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Today's affirmation
I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart.
I renounce all assumptions and expectations.
I thoughtfully consider all possibilities.
I CHOOSE with courage, awareness, consciousness, and compassion toward all.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Make Decisions

Embrace Change

Do What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous
       

Prisoner of Our Own Mind

The world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
- Earl Nightingale

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself -
your own thinking coming back at you.
- Byron Katie

A person experiences life as
something separated from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this self-imposed prison,
and through compassion,
to find the reality of Oneness.
- Albert Einstein

Life is for each of us
a solitary cell
whose walls are mirrors.
- Eugene O'Neill (paraphrase)

Once we are destined to live out our lives
in the prison of our mind,
our duty is to furnish it well.
- Peter Ustinov

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

Life is a Mirror

Being a Reflection

How We See Things
    

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 
        

Have No Expectations

 

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