Hope for the Future

Every child comes with the message
that God is not yet discouraged of man.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Every tomorrow has two handles.
We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety
or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Further reading: Have a Conversation With God, Today

Unanswered Prayers

How God Works (humorous story)

Hope Quotes

Faith Quotes

Spiritual Quotes

Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

Rabindranath Tagore Quotes

Hope

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
- Anonymous

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
- Albert Einstein

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
- Pearl S. Buck

Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God.
It is a gift only we can give one another.
- Elie Wiesel

Further reading: How to Think Positive

9 Secrets For Getting Un-Stuck

12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

What I Know - What I Don't Know

Five Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Sad for No Apparent Reason

Comforting Quotes

Hope Quotes

Uplifting Quotes

The great gift of Easter is hope - Basil C. Hume

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection,
not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.
- Martin Luther

The great gift of Easter is hope -
Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God,
in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love,
which nothing can shake.
- Basil C. Hume

One who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
- Voltaire

Today, Easter, the most Holy day on the Christian calendar, is a day to celebrate our spiritual natures. We are not just bones and flesh, chemicals and electricity, we are beings of Spirit, one with each other and one with the eternity and infinity of Creation.

Have a blessed and joyful Easter.

Further reading: Love even those who hate you

Have a Conversation With God, Today

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Feel Your Connection With the Infinite - a Meditation

Easter Quotes

Music Quotes

Kindness Quotes

I Love You Quotes

Whatever you can imagine, you can accomplish.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.
- John Muir

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
- Pope John XXIII

Imagine
- John Lennon

Imagine whatever most speaks to your heart.
Whatever you can imagine, you can accomplish.

Further reading: Later is Never

Mary Anne Radmacher: Dare to dream of your great success

Why I Choose to Believe that Others are Never the Cause of My Unhappiness

Appreciate the Unexpected

What`s in a Name?

Motivational Quotes

Your belief will make it so.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
- Anne Frank

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.
- Martha Beck

Your belief will make it so.

Further reading: The Nature of Belief

Attitude is Everything

Unanswered Prayers

Renewal and Rebirth - The Great Cycle

We must learn to live together as brothers - Martin Luther King, Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today's affirmation: I Am One With Spirit and All Creation - I give thanks for the unity of all creation and for EVERYTHING that has brought me to this moment. I release my entire being to the gentle nurture of Spirit.

*** Book of the day: Simply an Inspired Life: Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times & Bad by Jonathan Lockwood Huie and Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: The Eight Points of Simply An Inspired Life

What is Honor? Is there a place for Honor today?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quotes

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.

Blessings

Spiritual Quotes

Unity Quotes

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- although attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, this prayer first appeared (written in French) in 1912

*** Do you need to stop smoking or lose weight? Check out Neuro-VISION.

Further reading: Universal Kindness and Compassion

We are most like God when we forgive

Know that Spirit transcends all cultural differences and embraces all creation.

Spiritual Quotes

Love from the Children of Langkloof South Africa

If you may count every drop of water in the ocean and
count every grain of sand in the sea -
multiply it by a thousand and that's how much I love you.
- George of Langkloof

While it is tempting to reword "grain of sand in the sea" to "grain of sand in the desert" or "grain of sand on all the world's beaches," consider how much more sand lies on the sea bottom than on beaches or deserts.

Read more love letters from the children of Langkloof (scroll down on that page to "some letters from the children")

These love letters were written in response to the efforts of a group of teenage girls from Cincinnati Ohio several years ago working to help rebuild a South African village by the name of Langkloof. As far as I can tell, the project is no longer active, as I did not receive a reply to my emails to the address on their website.

Pope John XXIII: Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
- Pope John XXIII

Be unstoppable. Follow your dreams.

*** Book of the day: Profiles in Courage - John F. Kennedy (Pulitzer Prize winner)

Further reading: The path of the adventurer is a path of joy - jlh

Mark Twain quote: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Throw off the bowlines.

Rabindranath Tagore quote: If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.

ACTION - the sixth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Renewal and Rebirth - The Great Cycle

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The crops were planted, tended, and harvested - now the ground lies fallow, awaiting the new planting. Did the year fail? I think not.

As the year has seasons, everything in life has its own cycles - its own rhythms. There will be a Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn every year. Every creature will be born, reproduce (or not), and die. A tortoise may live a century and a butterfly a few hours, but each has a cycle.

The unpredictable and irregular happenings of life's cycles are an inherent part of their nature. There are droughts and heat waves, injuries occur. The lion eats the zebra - one is nourished, one dies - neither failed.

Careers and relationships also have their cycles of birth, growth, and death - to be followed by rebirth and the renewal of the cycle.

The ending of a job or a relationship may appear as the darkest night, but it is merely the Winter season - the time of renewal and rebirth that precedes the new planting - the beginning of the next great cycle.