Rumi: Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
- Rumi (Persian poet 1207-1273)

Vision - Creation - Art?

Vision - Creation - Art? Each of us is an artist, but many are repressed artists. There is something of ourselves that cannot be expressed in words. Perhaps that something can be expressed in form or color, dance or music. If only with crayons or a tin drum, let that something that cannot be said move your hands or your body today.

Affirmations of an Inspired Life - Young-Adult Version

For the young adults in your life, this is a plain-spoken version of Eight Points of An Inspired Life - Keys to Happiness

1. I'm OK
2. I've Always Been OK
3. I Like Myself
4. I Think For Myself
5. I Have a Great Future
6. I Can Do Anything - Starting Right Now
7. This is Fun
8. Thank God

1. I'm OK - I'm alive and I have myself. My happiness does not depend on owning things, having money, or pleasing other people.

2. I've Always Been OK - Whenever I have been unhappy, it was because I blamed someone else, or myself, for something that happened. As soon as I stop blaming, and start forgiving everyone - others and myself - for everything, I begin to feel better about my past.

3. I Like Myself - I always do my best. Sometimes my best doesn't seem to be good enough, and I feel angry or afraid, or seem to have failed at what I tried. That's OK. My best is always good enough. I'm proud of myself and I like myself.

4. I Think For Myself - I CHOOSE to lead a happier life by gathering all the facts and making my own decisions. I choose NOT to "follow the crowd," and I choose NOT to just do what my friends do without thinking for myself.

5. I Have a Great Future - I welcome God into my mind and into my dreams. Whatever future I believe in, I can have, with God on my side.

6. I Can Do Anything - Starting Right Now. I have my dream, I have God, and I choose to move in the direction of my goal, even when I am afraid or unsure. Whenever I fall, I stand up, brush myself off, and keep moving toward my goal.

7. This is Fun - Life is like a party game. The rules of the game of life have never been clear, and they keep changing during the game. Forget winning or losing, and just have fun.

8. Thank God - I thank God for everything, and I trust God with my life.

Edward R. Murrow: Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
- Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) was a TV and Radio Journalist. Murrow had a long and illustrious career of bold and impartial investigative news reporting. His single most important contribution was a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy, and the end of “McCarthyism” - the greatest assault on the Bill of Rights (and the fifth amendment in particular) that America has ever endured.

Cloud Animals - Be a Child Again

Cloud Animals - Be a Child Again. I remember warm summer afternoons, laying in the shade of a maple tree in the back yard of my Connecticut home watching the clouds for hours. As those clouds formed dragons and foxes, clowns and angels, I traveled across space and time.

When was the last time you let your imagination run completely unchecked? Unfetter your inner child and let her or him run wild today.