The gift below is a help for both the beginning and end of any day. It starts with good advice for ending a day well, even if it went badly. It ends with the line of hope that no matter how today went, tomorrow is a new day. From Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Finish each day and be done with it…You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely.”
“It is a test of a good religion whether you can make a joke about it.”
G. K. Chesterton
“Think me not unkind and rude that I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of the wood to fetch his word to men.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If your view is basic badness, you see it wherever you go. If your view is basic goodness, you see it wherever you go.”
Pema Chodron from her interview with Bill Moyers on the PBS special: Faith and Reason
“When our heart is full of love, then we are creating more love, peace, and joy in the world. When we send the energy of love and compassion to another person, it doesn’t matter if they know we are sending it. The important thing is that the energy is there and the heart of love is there and is being sent out into the world. When love and compassion are present in us, and we send them outward, then that is truly prayer.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, from his book, The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
Ben Franklin
“Our personal attempts to live humanely in this world are never wasted.”
Pema Chodron, from her book, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times.
“The intention to open the heart and mind is what’s essential. If we do good deeds with an attitude of superiority or outrage, we simply add more aggression to the planet. …When we practice generosity we become intimate with our grasping. When we practice the discipline of not causing harm we see our rigidity and self-righteousness. Our practice is to work with guidelines of compassionate conduct with the flexible mind…seeing things without “shoulds” or “should nots.” We aren’t drawing upon a code of conduct and condemning everyone who doesn’t comply. If we draw a line down the center of a room and tell those in it to put themselves in the category of “virtuous” or “nonvirtuous,” are we truly more liberated because we choose “virtuous”? More likely we’re just more arrogant and proud. Bodhisattvas are to be found among thieves and prostitutes and murderers.”
Pema Chodron, from her book: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
“We always have a choice, Pema Chödrön teaches: We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us and make us increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder.”
From the Shambala Publications website description of her book: The Places That Scare You-A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Soul Mosaic 