VOTE

Is there an election today where you live? If so, please vote. Even if today's election is only for a state representative, or mayor, or the school board, it is vitally important, and your vote matters.

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.
- R. Buckminster Fuller

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone,
and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
- John Quincy Adams

In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to
remember seven generations in the past and
consider seven generations in the future
when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

You cannot escape the responsibility
of tomorrow by evading it today.
- Abraham Lincoln

Nothing is more important in our national life
than the welfare of our children.
- Harry S. Truman

Voting is an expression of three key life principles -
CHOICE, INTENT, and ACTION.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

What kind of world do you want to leave your great-grandchildren?
What can you do today to help create that world?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Civic Responsibility

For Our Children

Passing the Torch

Taking Responsibility

Taking Action

Leaving a Legacy

Children

Feeling Depressed?

If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labor.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.
- Og Mandino

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

Try to make at least one person happy every day.
If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word.
If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought.
Count up, if you can, the treasure of happiness
that you would dispense in a week, in a year, in a lifetime!
- Lawrence G. Lovasik

When you feel worried and depressed,
consciously form a smile on your face and act upbeat
until the happy feeling becomes genuine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Our Challenge

Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living

Appreciating Your Blessings

Feeling Sorry for Yourself?

Love in My Heart

Feeling Down? Help Someone Else

Encouragement

Worry

Sad?

Accentuate the Positive

Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.
- Johnny Mercer



Count your blessings - not your troubles.
- Dale Carnegie

Positive thinking will let you do everything
better than negative thinking will.
- Zig Ziglar

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
- Winston Churchill

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

Our lives are defined not by the challenges we encounter,
but by how we respond to those challenges.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To stay positive, think positive, act positive, and believe positive.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  How to Think Positive

The Bright Side

Choose Your Attitude 

See the Good in Life

Be the Melody

Positivity

Stay Positive

Positive Attitude

Step Up To The Plate

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.
- Carl Jung

Whenever you're scared of something,
don't let that define you.
We all feel it, but step up.
- Vince Vaughn

There comes a time in each person's life,
when the choice is to step up to the plate,
or to admit to a lack of commitment to one's principles.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

If you don't like the way the world is,
you change it.
You have an obligation to change it.
You just do it one step at a time.
- Marian Wright Edelman

There are a hundred valid reasons why something can't be done,
but only one reason, Commitment, why it can.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Participate in Life

Take Action

Do What You Can Do

Begin Today

Drive Change

Action

Courage

Change

Live Softly

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water,
yet nothing can resist it.
- 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

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

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Be gentle first with yourself -
if you wish to be gentle with others.
- Lama Yeshe

Advice is like snow - the softer it falls,
the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Today's affirmation:
I Resist the Temptation to Judge Others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Oak and the Reeds - a fable by Aesop

Aesop: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail

Tread Lightly

Be Gentle with Yourself

Gentleness

Christmas