"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."
   Abraham  Lincoln (1809-1865)


 

We don’t always control  the external circumstances of our lives – sometimes something happens unexpectedly.

The one thing we can control is whether or not we choose  to react to it.

When we react, we check out. We’re no longer the one in  charge of ourselves. We become the effect of whatever it is we are reacting to.


It takes a great deal of discipline to remain calm and steadfast in our certainty that everything is for the best, but the more we practice it, the greater we grow our peace within.  -- Yehuda Berg  4-22-13

 From criticism to compliments, we can’t take what others think or do too personally. We can only 
look closely, learn what we need to grow and move on. It takes practice, but when we become immune to the approval and actions of others, we can stop living other people’s lives and start being fully present in our  own. Yehuda Berg - 4-17-13

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say  to me, "Look for the helper. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster".  I remembermy mother's words
and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers.....  so many caring people.    --- Mr. Rodgers

Have you ever noticed how happiness  is  often fleeting? No matter how elated you become, eventually your mind finds
    things to worry about. Sometimes we even create problems where there really are none.

One of the most self-destructive tendencies we have as humans is not allowing ourselves to be happy. This is because 
   there is another voice in  our head, the adversarial force that rushes in the moment we achieve any sense
   of true joy, and whispers in our thoughts all the reasons why we need to be afraid, upset, or stressed.

Our job is to consciously choose a sense of inner peace over that voice of negativity.

A life of happiness lies in your own hands, and more importantly in your own mind. It’s just waiting  for you to choose it.
From Yehuda Berg 4-12-13

“The universe is always speaking to us. ... Sending us  little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities, reminding us to stop,  to look around, to believe in something else, something more.” ~ Nancy  Thayer

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find  the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have  succeeded.” 
                  —Bessie  Anderson Stanley (frequently misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)
 

 “Our deepest fear  is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We  were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”     —Marianne  Williamson