Chapter 5, Page 31, Book 15

A well kept garden filled with flowers
Has no room left for weeds to share;
The mind keeps out unworthy thoughts
When loveliness is dwelling there.

Leona Bold Martin

May 31st - love in mind

A life without love is like a year without summer.

 Swedish Proverb

 The challenges we face only have the power we give them. None of us are born with a guidebook that provides explicit rules for thought and behavior that will enable us to navigate life successfully. 

Life is full of unjust situations that create a great deal of pain for you, especially in your relationship with other people. You will experience some hurt and pain, but you don't have to allow these experiences to destroy your happiness. You can't always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond to it.

Choose to learn from the hurtful experiences instead of wasting your pain by allowing them to make you bitter. One way to do this is to overcome evil with good by making sure you don't hurt others. It's a good place to start!

Life is a growth stage we're all going through.

Want to see a miracle? Plant a word of love heart deep in a person’s life. Nurture it with a smile and a prayer, and watch what happens!

Max Lucado

 I remember love is all there is and love grows as I pray for others.

Chapter 5, Page 30, Book 15

The rose speaks of love silently,
in a language known only to the heart.

 Author Unknown

May 30th - love is a lanquage

I do believe that love is a language we all understand.  Words are not always necessary, but an article I read gave a list  of charming words to use when we want to express our love by complimenting  or praising someone.  

Word #1.  Wondrous

It sounds and means the same thing that wonderful does, except it has a bit of a twist. It’s not used all that often, which makes it sound extra special

Word #2.  Breathtaking

This one is for special occasions. You don’t want to overuse it, and make it appear meaningless. When you see someone adorned in their best clothes, ready to head to an important event, telling them they’re breathtaking will give them extra confidence. It may be just the boost they need .

Word #3 Elegant 

Calling someone beautiful doesn’t always do their appearance justice, but calling someone elegant makes them think that they look like royalty. It suggests that they’re not only classy, but gorgeous as well

Word # 4 Stunning

Since this word is not used often, it hasn't lost its kick. That's why you should only use it when you really mean it. Just like the rest of the words listed, you don't want it to lose its meaning.

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. 

Stephen King

Everyone loves to be praised, so we should give out compliments as much as we can. Just make sure that they're always genuine. 

Love is something that really doesn’t need fancy words, but they are very nice to hear once in awhile.  

The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor. 

Samuel Butler

Chapter 5, Page 29, Book 15

A little more patience,
a little more charity for all,
a little more devotion,
a little more love;
with less bowing down to the past,
and a silent ignoring of pretended authority;
brave looking forward to the future
with more faith in our fellows,
and the race will be ripe
for a great burst of light and life.

Elbert Hubbard

May 29th - a little more love never hurts

With a A little help, a little love, a little time, we each can all make a difference!   It's always possible to love a little more.

Love a little more than what is necessary, work a little harder than what is required, be a little kinder than what is usual, give a little bit more than what you feel you can afford, stand in prayer a little longer than what you intended and be a little more patient than what you feel you can handle….it is that little extra effort sparked by sincerity in the heart that makes your ordinary self extraordinary

Since you can't run out of love by loving,  and you can only get better at it, here are few reasons to love a little more each day. 

It gives our life a meaning.  Through loving others your life becomes more meaningful, so in the end of the day it's win win for everyone

Love because it feels just so good and clearly there are so many people who need the feeling of being loved

It attracts more good things because loving helps you to notice all the things you can be grateful for in your life and gratitude is the basis of growth. Once you appreciate the gifts in your life, you keep finding more.

Everyone can do it. You can be broke, ugly, sleepy,  or single, but you can still chose to love 

There are thousands of ways to do it. Expressing our love is such a creative thing. We can choose simply sending positive thoughts towards someone or to cook a dinner for your friend.

 The most common ways that people express love are through words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, quality time and physical touch. We can all make the effort to expand upon these endlessly and have fun doing it.

 Think of your fellow man 

 Lend him a helping hand 

 Put a little love in your heart…

by Jackie DeShannon, Randy Myers, and Jimmy Holiday. 

Love, Live and Laugh a little more

Chapter 5, Page 28, Book 15

The look of love. Is in your eyes. 

A look your smile can't disguise. 

The look of love . Is saying so much more than. 

Just words could every say.

by Burt Bacharach and Hal David

May 28th - the look of love

What does love look like?

It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

Saint Augustine

If you were to put a face on love, what would you see? I know what love looks like, It's in everything I see.

When a man is in love with a woman, what does that look like? Those two are in love. How about when a couple has a little baby, and the love that they feel for that little one? How about the love that a child has for a pet? How about the love that some people have for food? These are all the many different faces of love.

Love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear. 

When you see love, you know love

Chapter 5, Page 27, Book 15

Any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person’s nature.

Truman Capote

May 27th - friend or foe?

When you have a loving nature it means that you are, by nature, loving. Naturally coming across as warm and caring toward other people, loving easily. It's a good thing.

I’ve know several people that act like they love you and come across as being very friendly but then gossip about you behind your back.  It really hurts when you find out that they aren’t the person you thought they were.  Suddenly what you thought was a caring relationship fades into the past.  

 We are naturally hopeful, loving, playful, energetic, funny, giving, cooperative and flexible.  I do not think it is natural to be hateful, spiteful or greedy.  These things go right against our grain, against our nature.   I think a lot of that has to do with influences outside our nature.

Anytime we do something that naturally makes us feel good, we thrive. We have as great a need to be loving towards others, as we do to receive love. It’s simply how we’re made.

But you know as well as I that humans are not perfect.  We’ve all made mistakes and need forgiveness.  Perfection is not a part of who we are.  Still and all I do believe that love is a natural and beautiful thing.

Love is the most beautiful thing to have, hardest thing to earn and most painful thing to lose.

Unknown

Chapter 5, Page 26, Book 15

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good

Luke 6:45

May 26th - love is good

If you wish to be loved, appreciated and respected, then offer your love, appreciation and respect.

 Ralph Marston

Love is the answer when we’re floundering in the midst of our questions, worries, and concerns.  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to do most anything when you do it with a friend? A friend sticks by your side and brings motivation, accountability and cheers of enthusiasm.

When you do things with a friend, you have someone who shares your victories. You can both celebrate and be proud of your accomplishments.

Friends are the people we love and we take the time to be with one another.  It’s wonderful to have one that will stick together with us through thick and thin.

I feel like I can do most anything with a little help from a friend.

Chapter 5, Page 25, Book 15

A Prayer for Our Nation
Helen Steiner Rice

God bless America
and keep us safe and free -
Safe from all our enemies,
wherever they may be...
Teach us to walk humbly
and closer in Thy ways,
Give us faith and courage
and put purpose in our days,
Make each one of us aware
that each must do his part,
For in the individual
is where peace must have its start -
For a better world to live in
where all are safe and free
Must start with faith and hope and love
deep in the heart of me. 

May 25th - love remembers

Memorial Day

Our freedom has never been free

it is sometimes won by men and women who sometimes pay the ultimate price

Today we recognize one of the most sacred American holidays, Memorial Day, a day dedicated to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy to this day. You and I are able to live our lives freely because of these brave men and women, and for that we will remain forever grateful.

 Americans are asked to stop whatever they are doing at 3 p.m. local time to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom. We pause to reflect upon our blessings as a nation and the high cost of those blessings for many.

On this Memorial Day, let us pray for peace.  

 And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me and I'll proudly stand next to him to defend her still today, 'cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land, God bless the USA. 

Lee Greenwood

Chapter 5, Page 24, Book 15

For you and I have a guardian angel 

On high, with nothing to do 

 But to give to you and to give to me 

 Love forever true…

Cole Porter

May 24th - guard love

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

George Sand

 If you focus on what you love, you can't help but be consumed by love. Guarding your heart requires guarding what you see and how you hear.  Focus refers to how you invest your attention.

 If you let down your guard, you can lose your temper, character, confidence, peace, focus and faith. So it is very important to guard your heart.   Keep your eyes focused on what is right, and look straight ahead to what is good.

Instead of focusing on how much you are loved, focus on making sure that you love others. Smile at others, include others, talk to people even when you don’t think you have something to say. It’s so easy to be quiet and look good; it’s so much harder to try to bring out the best in others.

I found this list of ways to be kinder than you have to be

Saying kind things to others when you’d rather just say, Hi.

Biting your tongue when you want to ridicule, criticize, or even tease.

Telling people to have a wonderful day… and meaning it.

Asking how their day was, then listening and actually caring.

Allowing others to think differently than you do.

Complimenting people for the sake of seeing them smile.

Doing little things that you know will make someone else happy.

Remember: The ultimate guardian of your heart is LOVE

Chapter 5, Page 23, Book 15

Live, Laugh and Love !

May 23rd - There is loving magic in a smile

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. 

Smiling, saying something funny, witty,  and humorous is a real plus for all sorts of love relationships. Loving with laughter sometimes is especially good for helping people under stress to lighten their load

A good loving laughter break often helps people approach a difficulty from a new and better angle seeing solutions they were blinded to previously.   Humor helps us cope.

We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.

Agnes Repplier

Our laughter spans age, gender, language and culture. As humans we make each other laugh and we emotionally respond to laughter in others. It goes without saying that our laughing is contagious.  

Laughter is a mutually shared moment in time.

 A spark of kindness starts a fire of love. 

Author Unknown

Keep Laughing – It’s Powerful Stuff

May today be filled with sunshine and smiles, laughter and love

Chapter 5, Page 22, Book 15

It is love that shapes us. Love or the lack there of. Love and its awesome power. Molds us, holds us together,. And makes us into what we are.

May 22nd - love is the mold

Love takes many forms. It is an ifinite emotion that can never fully be contained. You can not make yourself stop loving someone. You can not choose who you fall in love with, You can love many people at the same time, but most of all, you can never stop reaching for it.

 Ashley Young 

What we love, we will pursue. What we pursue we will, to some extent, acquire or attain. In that, we are shaped and fashioned by what it takes to get what we love. That’s why musicians are usually pretty easy to spot. The same goes for artists, starving or otherwise. They have been shaped and fashioned by their love, and their pursuit of it

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love most. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We usually use the word ‘want’ or ‘need’ when we pursue something, but quite often we love that thing, or what we love what we believe that attaining or possessing that thing will bring us. Those who love power will pursue it. That is where it can be a detriment.

It’s good to take some time, think it through, and pursue what you love. Anticipate what it will do to you, as it shapes and fashions you, and plan accordingly. Live the life you want, live the life you plan. Follow your dreams.

Our lives are marked forever by those we meet.

 May you be blessed with good friends.

 Our lives are marked forever by our friendship and the love we experience. 

May you learn to be a good friend to yourself. 

Our lives are marked forever by the quarrels and the reconciliations. 

May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth and forgiveness. 

Chapter 5, Page 21, Book 15

If love is the treasure, laughter is the key.

Yakov Smirnoff

May 21st - love is a treasure

Scavenger hunts are a treasure hunt game where you get clues that tell you where to go next. As you solve each clue and arrive at the destination, you receive another clue for the next step and slowly get closer to your prize. Of course, everyone is competing to find the prize, but the journey is the most fun. People love figuring out the clues along the way!

Treasure the love you have received above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished.
Og Mandin

Imagine what would happen if a couple knew on their wedding day how life would turn out for themselves and their children and grandchildren. The weight of that knowledge would derail the natural growth of love between them. They would be deprived of the process of deepening their love for each other, coming to know each other better, and hashing out important decisions together.

It’s the same for most anything we do in life, we need to look for the clues along the way, the little things that grow into the big things we treasure.

Love is a Treasure,
which can never pay.
The only way to keep it,
is to give away.

As always, grow in love! And laugh often.

Chapter 5, Page 20, Book 15

Joy is the happiness of love--love aware of its own inner happiness. Pleasure comes from without, and joy comes from within, and it is, therefore, within reach of everyone in the world.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

May 20th - love and joy

Love - THE FEELING - is a fruit of love, the verb. 

Stephen Covey

Keep Calm and Carry On

With so much going on in our lives and in the world, love is something that can often take the back burner in our lives. No matter what may happen it is important for all of us to keep in mind the things that truly matter.  The way we carry on is determined by our attitude and a good attitude is what counts and carries us through many down times.

I’ve found that faith makes things possible even when our hearts may be unsettled. When we have faith, we can let out that breath we've been holding. We can relax.

Laughter is a another wonderful way to help release all that tension we build up. A good laugh can sometimes help calm me. 

When our nerves are frayed and our hearts unsettled, reaching out and doing something for someone else is a great way to forget what is ailing us too.

We just have to carry on no matter what. 

If you want to have the time of your life, change how you use the time in your life.

 Tim Fargo

Chapter 5, Page 19, Book 15

There are the NOWS, WAS’S, and GONNA-BE’S. A NOW is the most precious thing you can have, because a NOW goes by with the speed of light. Let’s say you’re having a beautiful NOW that you want to hold on to forever. No matter how much you want to hold on to it, it’s going to be a WAS. A lot of people get stuck in and can’t let go of the WAS’S. Those WAS’S get heavy, and they start to decay into SHOULDA-COULDAS. And they never have time for the new NOW.

 Sid Caesar

May 19th - Love now

Many dream of someday when they can spend more time doing what they love or being with those they love. The truth is that life is to short to put off anything we love.  There is always enough time if we make the time to do what we love and time to spend with the people we love.  We need to put those things on the calendar and follow through.  

Live in the moment and you get a momentous life

In the end, you will not regret the things you have done nearly as much as the things you have left undone.  It’s always better to be left with a few 'oh wells’, than a bunch of 'what ifs’.

Someday Syndrome has three different varieties: Someday My Ship Will Come In, I’ll Get Around To It Someday, and I Might Need It Someday.

Someday you will want to look back at your life and say, I can’t believe I did that! instead of, Gosh, I wish I would have…

It’s important to live for today, not for tomorrow, not for when we think we’ll have it all together. The time to find our happiness not ‘someday', but now.

 Someday is not a day of the week. 

Author Unknown

Chapter 5, Page 18, Book 15

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well. 

Vincent van Gogh

May 18th - Love much

The way to know life is to love many things

I do love many things and am interested in many things.  Because there is so much I love to do there are somedays its very hard to choose what I will do.  There are times too that when my family members are around it’s hard to know who I’ll hug first.  Group hugs are wonderful but so are individual hugs.  I think I need more arms.  So much to do and so many to love.

I can truthfully say that the more I find to love, the more there is to love. It’s important to be inclusive, to make lots of friends and to have many hobbies. When we were young we were taught to be good at many things, not just math, but English, too. Not just football, but baseball as well, so that we’re never boxed too tightly into one corner. So that we don’t just have one thing and then nothing to fall back on.

We were taught that it’s better to spread ourselves thin, to have many things so that there is always something to catch us. We’re taught that if we love things enough, they will keep us afloat.

Life without something to love is not living.  As we get older, we know that to love something so much, a career, a person, a dream, a challenge, is to surrender to it, knowing it’s the thing we love. It’s the thing that gives us life.

Love is many things, but it is never deceitful. Nothing toxic comes from genuine love. What is done in love is done well. Remember that.