Many of us think we’re honest. I know I do! But often you’ll find yourself uttering little lies, consciously or not. What does honesty mean to you? How can you live a more honest life? What do you do when you’re met with a dose of honesty?

Honesty is the best policy.
Benjamin Franklin

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson

It has always seemed strange to me… the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
John Steinbeck

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.
Mark Twain

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.
Lao Tzu

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.
Salvador Dali

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx

A sarcastic person has a superiority complex that can be cured only by the honesty of humility.
Lawrence G. Lovasik

The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.
Zig Ziglar

It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
Noel Coward

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.
Bertrand Russell

Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble.
Hugh Prather

Ah, tranquility. We know it when we feel it, but often it seems one step away, like something we’re going to experience on our vacation or maybe this weekend, if we’re lucky. But it can be found in this very moment, if you allow it.

Motion is tranquility.
Stirling Moss

“Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. - Amir”
? Khaled Hosseini

Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which psychoanalysis is powerless to bestow.”
? Sebastian Horsley

“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere” François de la Rochefoucauld

“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.” James Thurber

“It is the just doom of laziness and gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquility” Samuel Johnson

“Tranquility is the old man’s milk” Thomas Jefferson

I have a friend who was feeling really stuck. Her career was going nowhere. Her relationship wasn’t meeting her needs. She didn’t like where she lived. Oh…and her finances were in the dumps. In short, she was at her wit’s end, with an unmistakeable feeling that she had very little room to even make a change. “How can I afford it?” “What if they fire me?” “What if he leaves for good?”

Then she decided to take a trip to California for a week. She didn’t have a lot of money to spend but luckily, she found a great price on an airline ticket and was staying with a good friend.

“Something had to change. And it wasn’t going to be the situation. It had to be me.”

When she came back, all of her problems were still there. But what was different? Her state of mind. She felt as if she expanded her horizons and was more relaxed. She broke it off with the guy she was seeing, “at least for now”. She told her employer that she was looking elsewhere for employment and was offered a small incentive plan. And she began going out more, looking to extend her social network.

“I had to go away to precipitate the change. Life isn’t perfect since I returned. But I feel like I have more power now…I’ve actually been considering moving to California!”

This story is guaranteed to warm your heart, even on a Monday morning. The Sparkle Effect is an innovative, student-run program that helps students across the country create cheerleading and dance teams that include students with disabilities.

And what a great name! Sparkling is what occurs when one is happy and full of spirit. So these gals sparkle all over the place!

As this news report mentions, the priority is “connection over perfection.”

Wow. GOOD STUFF! Pass on the love and “like” them on Facebook.

Yesterday, I felt a bit badly. I had made plans with a group of friends and frankly, I just didn’t want to do it. Instead I wanted to go home, eat dinner and watch a movie, drinking in the quiet of an early Fall evening. Which is exactly what I did.

Sometimes retreating is just what one needs to do to feel centered and calm and ready to take on the world…tomorrow!

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.
Douglas MacArthur

Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.
Norman Mailer

Woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat. - Oscar Wilde

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte

How does life become totally painful? By total retreat. Total noninspection becomes total pain. - L. Ron Hubbard

A good retreat is better than a bad stand.- Irish Saying

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. - Marcus Aurelius

As I prepare to make a long trip, so many feelings pass through me. And surprisingly, not all good. Some feelings are painful, nostalgic…even a little anger (for the things that aren’t working here.) So today we explore the complexity of leaving, in all of its amazing and unusual aspects:

It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”
-John Green, Paper Towns

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.”
- Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

“Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.”
- Donald Miller

“I give you this to take with you:
Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can
begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting.”
- Judith Minty, Letters to My Daughters

“And the danger is that in this move toward new horizons and far directions, that I may lose what I have now, and not find anything except loneliness”
- Sylvia Plath

There are times when the actual experience of leaving something makes you wish desperately that you could stay, and then there are times when the leaving reminds you a hundred times over why exactly you had to leave in the first place.”
- Shauna Niequist

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world. They follow us, like shadows, until we come upon them again, waiting for us in the mist.”
- Ari Berk

“A spiritual pilgrim needs to discern when his or her life is stunted in an old field and find the courage and determination to go to a “new land” that the Lord will show. (Abraham-Journey) …so that you can find the wholeness you seek.”
- Sue Monk Kidd

Break-ups can be one of the most painful experiences in life. We feel cut in two, constantly aching, wondering how our life will ever go back to normal again. I wanted to share with you some advice I got a long time ago that helped me get through the darker phases.

Time is fluid. There is no clear ends and beginnings. People come and people go, then people can come back again. Even if you’ve experienced something as seemingly permanent as a death, most of us, with a little “tuning in”, can feel that loved one around us. Most feel safe in the knowledge that we’ll meet again.

Nothing is etched in stone. Something “final” may only be temporary. The important part is to move through this period with grace and confidence that indeed, it will all work out. If someone is meant to leave your life for a spell, let go of the kite string and watch with peace and some pain as they fly away.

It’s alright because you can always go back to you. You can always return to your self.

“I miss your smile… but I miss mine more.”
- Laurel House

Reading this story, I couldn’t help but wonder what these children and young adults must have experienced, being personally honored by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. They must have felt such pride in their work; a kind of pride that has a ripple effect for years to come.

Honoring our youth for accomplishments such as these have long-lasting effects. How can you honor a youth in your life?

The Dalai Lama marked his most recent visit to the UK by creating an award to honour young people who have helped to transform themselves, their community or the world in a positive way.

At ceremonies in London, Manchester and Edinburgh during a ten-day visit to the UK in June, the Tibetan spiritual leader presented the Youth Compassion Award to three 10–24-year-olds, who were nominated by their local communities as Britain’s most compassionate young people.

The Manchester Youth Compassion award was presented to 15-year-old Sophia Saleem in front of 10,000 people at a dedicated youth event at Manchester Arena called Stand Up and Be the Change. Sophia was given the award for her work leading several anti-bullying campaigns at her school, Levenshulme High. She also spoke at school assemblies and raised hundreds of pounds for Pump Aid, a charity providing clean water in Africa.

After receiving the award, Sophia said: “I was absolutely overwhelmed to be nominated. I was really struck by what the Dalai Lama had to say about personal responsibility and confronting challenges. Meeting him and receiving the award was such a huge honour.”

Read more.

Timothy Ray Brown is believed to be the only person ever to be cured of the AIDS causing virus, HIV.

While many professionals are watching this very particular case with guarded optimism, we can all hope that Timothy Ray Brown is a sign of change to come.

Watch this video and let’s send our prayers and wishes out this morning that this case opens the floodgates of new medical possibilities for this deadly disease.

Only Cured HIV Patient

Here in the US, we celebrate Labor Day today. It’s supposed to be day where we’re free of our jobs and can celebrate a shared “day off.” But do we? If you’re like me, turning that switch to “off” in your minds takes some practice.

Here are a few quick tips.

1. Catch your thoughts. One sure way to dismantle stressful thoughts is simply but stopping them while they’re happening. Then replace it with a gentler thought. Or an imaginative one. Or a warm memory. Thoughts are habitual. Today break the chain.

2. Break free of your schedule. If you wake up in the morning and go right to your computer, try to do something completely different today. Sit outside and drink your coffee. Put on some jazz music. Call a friend. Rigid schedules that never change make for dull people!

3. Engage with the world. One way to celebrate having a day off it sharing it with others. Get out there and share a drink of lemonade or a swim in the pool. People have energy and we can all share each others simply by being around one another. Today, be a little more connected. Ask questions. Listen. Laugh. Compliment. Be part of the human race and share in its glory.