When you listen generously to people they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the first time. 

~ Rachel Naomi Remen

Appreciation is the vessel for future blessings.  

~ Michael Berg

 

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.  

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Extend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries -- all living sentient creatures. 

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Gratitude is the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos. When we offer thanks to God or to another human being, gratitude gifts us with renewal, reflection, reconnection.  

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. 

~ Willie Nelson

In the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. 

~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by its own fullness, not by its reception. 

~ Harold Loukes

Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence. 

~ David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart

If the past is unredeemable, and the future unpredictable, what more practical course is open than to safeguard the present by constant remembrance of the divine? 

~ Paul Brunton, Notebooks

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. 

~ Duke Ellington

Every act of love is a work of peace no matter how small.   

~ Mother Teresa

It takes a person of great heart to see...the wisdom the elders have to offer, and so serve them out of gratitude for the life they have passed on to us. 

~ Ken Nerburn

That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. 

~ Simone de Beauvoir

No one has ever become poor by giving.  

~ Anne Frank

The foundation of greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment, instead of pursuing the idea of greatness. 

~ Eckhart Tolle

Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and sometimes, our brokenness. Wholeness is a natural radiance of Love, and Love demands that we allow the destruction of our old self for the sake of the new. 

Jalaja Bonheim, Aphrodite's Daughters

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

~ Margaret Mead

One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?"

~ Rachel Carson

To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. 

~ William Blake

A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace. 

~ David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

Don't be concerned about being disloyal to your pain by being joyous. 

~ Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent. 

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had. 

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Claiming your own blessedness always leads to a deep desire to bless others. 

~ Henri Nouwen

In our relationships we need to uphold that aspect of the person which is the real person and the soul beyond their own self-doubt. 

~ Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.  

~ Rachel Carson

Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light. 

~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Gratitude is the intention to count-your-blessings every day, every minute, while avoiding, whenever possible, the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances. 

~ Timothy Miller, How To Want What You Have

The burden which is well borne becomes light. 

~ Ovid

Within us is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, the eternal One. 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone -- that is pure hope, rooted in the heart. 

~ David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. 

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you. 

~ Maori proverb

A friend is a gift you give yourself. 

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.  

~ Indian Proverb

Treat everyone you meet as if he or she were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do so with no thought of reward. Your life will never be the same. 

~ Og Mandino

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.  

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth. 

~ Joan Halifax, Being with Dying

O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.  

~ Henry David Thoreau

Beauty seen makes the one who sees it more beautiful. 

~ David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart

Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life reveals just the opposite: that letting go is the real path to freedom. 

~ Sogyal Rinpoche, Glimpse After Glimpse

The more alert we become to the blessing that flows into us through everything we touch, the more our own touch will bring blessing. 

~ David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart

Religion isn’t about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness. 

~ Karen Armstrong

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. 

~ Joanna Macy

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.  

~ Marion Wright Edelman

Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.  

~ Elizabeth Harrison

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most complete prayer. 

~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

I have reached a point in my life where I understand the pain and the challenges; and my attitude is one of standing up with open arms to meet them all.  

~ Myrlie Evers

 And Joy is Everywhere

It is in the Earth's green covering of grass;
In the blue serenity of the Sky;
In the reckless exuberance of Spring;
In the Living flesh that animates our bodily frame;
In the perfect poise of the Human figure, noble and upright;
In Living;
In the exercise of all our powers;
In the acquisition of Knowledge;
In fighting evils... 

Joy is there Everywhere. 

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. 

 ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

When people begin to meditate, they often say that their thoughts are running riot and have become wilder than ever before. But I reassure them that this is a good sign. Far from meaning that your thoughts have become wilder, it shows that you have become quieter, and you are finally aware of just how noisy your thoughts have always been. Don’t be disheartened or give up. Whatever arises, just keep being present, keep returning to the breath, even in the midst of all the confusion. 

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe -- to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it -- is a wonder beyond words. 

~ Joanna Macy

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.  

~ Johannes A. Gaertner

To this day I believe we are here on earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom. 

~ Rosa Parks

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words. 

~ Donna Roberts

Look into your hand. The fingers are like five brothers and sisters from the same family. Suppose we are a family of five. If you remember that if one person suffers, you all suffer, you have the wisdom of nondiscrimination. If the other person is happy, you are also happy. Happiness is not an individual matter. 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within. 

~ Eckhart Tolle

Compassion is the pillar of world peace.  

~ H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. 

~ Mother Teresa

If you dedicate yourself to service, the doors will open. 

~ Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Alchemical Wisdom

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. 

~ Albert Einstein

I wonder if gratefulness is the bridge from sorrow to joy, spanning the chasm of our anxious striving. Freed from the burden of unbridled desires, we can enjoy what we have, celebrate what we've attained, and appreciate the familiar. For if we can't be happy now, we'll likely not be happy when.  

~ Philip Gulley, Porch Talk

People gain so much hope when they know they are not experiencing something alone.  

~ Joyce Rupp

The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.  

~ Maya Angelou

Be Yourself. 

Life is precious

as it is. 

All the elements

for your happiness are

already here. 

There is no need

to run, strive, search, or struggle. 

Just be. 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses fear. 

~ Upanishads

If you don’t have happiness in the present moment, there is no way to have happiness in the future. 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

When we try to pick anything out by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. 

~ John Muir

When you are motivated by the desire to transcend suffering, to get out of a difficult situation, and to help others to do the same, you become a powerful source of energy that helps you to do what you want to do to transform yourself and to help people.  

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings. 

~ J. Robert Moskin

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. 

~ A.J. Muste

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again. 

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. 

~ Archibald Rutledge

We may forget with whom we laughed, but not with whom we shared tears.  

~ Tanzanian proverb

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.  

~ Gwendolyn Brooks

Envy is the art of counting another's blessings instead of your own.  

~ Harold Coffin

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. 

Jalaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair. 

~ Howard Thurman

Instead of looking for love, give it; constantly renew it in yourself and you will always feel its presence within you. It will always be there smiling at you, gazing on you kindly. 

~ Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. 

~ John Burroughs

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Loss makes artists of us all as we weave new patterns in the fabric of our lives. 

~ Greta W. Crosby

Learn how to see.  Realize that everything connects to everything else. 

~ Leonardo da Vinci 

Let the beauty we love be what we do. 

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

The universe is change; life is your perception of it. 

~ Marcus Aurelius

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. 

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside. 

~ Ramana Maharshi

There is this wave of gratefulness developing ... a new way of being mindful. It is an interactive form of mindfulness. There is a hunger for mindfulness that expresses itself interactively! This gives me great hope. 

~ David Steindl-Rast

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them. 

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Love is so exquisitely elusive. It cannot be bought, cannot be badgered, cannot be hijacked. It is available only in one rare form: as the natural response of a healthy mind and healthy heart. 

~ Eknath Easwaran, Words to Live By

The gratitude that we encounter helps us believe in the goodness of the world, and strengthens us thereby to do what's good. 

~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.  

~ Coretta Scott King

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.~ 

~ Howard Thurman

Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. 

~ Melody Beattie

Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.

~ Tony Judt

To love unconditionally requires no contracts, bargains, or agreements. Love exists in the moment-to-moment flux of life.

        ~ Marion Woodman

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.  

~ Charles Morgan

Every time you express gratitude or compassion for any aspect of yourself or someone else, you breathe life in. 

~ Mariah Fenton Gladis, Tales of a Wounded Healer

There's no vocabulary  

For the love within a family 

love that's lived in

 But not looked at, 

love within the light of which

 All else is seen,

the love within which

All other love finds speech.

This love is silent  

~ T.S. Eliot

 When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other. 

~ Margaret Wheatley

 So what is wisdom? Wisdom is that knowledge that nurtures relationships. Wisdom is that knowledge that looks at us ourselves in ecological terms, that we are as part of an ecosystem, a chain of being, a web of existence. 

~ Deepak Chopra

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. 

~ David Steindl-Rast

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. 

~ Rachel Carson

   

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists

and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.

 Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

 Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

 Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

 Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Celebrate today.  

 ~ Judyth Hill

Looking behind, I am filled with gratitude.  Looking forward, I am filled with vision. Looking upwards, I am filled with strength. Looking within, I discover peace. 

~ Quero Apache Prayer

Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.

~ Jalaluddin Rumi 

What are we to do with this one wild and precious life, but to awake to its wonder and beauty and live each day with gratitude and loving kindness and service each other.

         ~  Mary Oliver