Peaceful Thoughts

ORIGINAL, MOUSE-DRAWN MINI MANDALAS by CAROLINE HOFSTEDE
(mouse-over each to find the wisdom hidden within)

Acts of Kindness

The best portion of a good man's life are his little, nameless, unremembered acts of
kindness and love.
—William Wordsworth

Affirmation

My creativity leads me to
truth and love.
—Caroline Hofstede

Balance

Periods of wholesome laziness,
after days of energetic effort,
will wonderfully tone up
the mind and body.
—Greenville Kleiser

Butterfly Lady

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
—Maya Angelou

Change

When the winds of change blow,
some people build walls and
others build windmills.
—Chinese proverb

Compassion

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy,
practice compassion.
—Dalai Lama

Creation

Giving birth and being born
brings us into the essence of creation, where the human spirit is courageous and bold and the body,
a miracle of wisdom.
—Harriette Hartigan

Cultivation

No thought,
no reflection, no analysis,
no cultivation, no intention;
Let it settle itself.
—The six precepts of Tilpa

Dreams

Dreams express
what your soul is telling you.
—Eleni Gabre-Madhin

Dreamcatcher

Sleep, baby sleep,
whispers spirit of the woods
as big sister weaves a dream net
on a little willow hoop.
—Audrey Osofsky

Easter

Easter is meant to be a symbol of
hope, renewal, and new life.
—Janine di Giovanni

Emergence

Everyone has inside of him
a piece of good news.
The good news is that you
don't know how great you can be!
—Anne Frank

Endless Inspiration

Change your thoughts, and you change your world.
—Norman Vincent Peale

Endless Love

Whatever our souls are made of,
his and mine are the same.
—Emily Brontë

Enterprise

Start small and start immediately.
—Cal Newport

Expectations

A master can tell you what he expects of you.
A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
—Patricia Neal

Family

Family is not an important thing.
It's everything.
—Michael J. Fox

Flower of Light

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot
live without love.
—Max Muller

Friendship

Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.
—George Eliot

Ganesha

Oh god with a curved trunk,
the large body whose aura is like a light of many suns, please make my entire work obstacle-free, forever.
—Vakratunda Ganesh Mantra

Gratitude

Gratitude is
the memory of the heart.
—Jean-Baptiste Massieu

Grief

The grief that does not speak,
whispers in the overwrought heart
and bids it to break.
—William Shakespeare

Guardian Angel

All God's angels come to us disguised.
—James Russell Lowell

Happiness

Be. Realize that true happiness
lies within you.
—Og Mandino

Harmony in Friendship

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
—Marcel Proust

Healing Flower

The soul always knows
what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.
—Caroline Myss

Healing Tree

. . . the leaves of the tree
are for the healing of the nations.
—Revelation 22:1-5

Horse & Bird

One reason why birds and horses
are not unhappy is because
they are not trying to impress
other birds and horses.
—Dale Carnegie

Imagine

Imagination is the highest kite
one can fly.
—Lauren Bacall

Inner Child

The secret of genius is to carry
the spirit of the child into old age,
which mean never losing
your enthusiasm
—Aldous Huxley

Journey

The journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step.
—Lao Tzu

Kindness

Be kind whenever possible.
It is always possible.
—The 14th Dalai Lama

Liberation

And the day came when the risk
it took to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the
risk it took to blossom.
—Anaïs Nin

Loneliness

What a lovely surprise to discover
how unlonely being alone can be.
—Ellen Burstyn

Look Within

All the wonders you seek
are within yourself.
—Thomas Browne

Love

Romantic love is the source
of the most intense delights
that life has to offer.
—Bertrand Russell

Love Bond

We are, each of us,
angels with only one wing;
and we can only fly
by embracing one another.
—Lucian de Crescenzo

Luck

It’s hard to detect good luck.
It looks so much like something you’ve earned.
—Frank A. Clark

Marble

Man cannot remake himself
without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.
—Alexis Carrel

Meaningful Moments

Life is not measured by the
number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that
take our breath away.
—Vicki Corona

Messenger

Those who keep
speaking about the sun
while walking under a cloudy sky
are messengers of hope.
—Henri Nouwen

Miracles

The most wonderful thing
about miracles is that
they sometimes happen.
—G. K. Chesterson

New Beginning

The beginning is always today.
—Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Painful

There are wounds
that never show on the body
that are deeper and more hurtful
than anything that bleeds.
—Laurell K. Hamilton

Passion for Freedom

When I discover who I am,
I'll be free.
—Ralph Ellison

Patience

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are
your greatest treasures.
—Lao Tzu

Peace

Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.
—Dalai Lama

Nurture your soul
with positive thoughts and
internal happiness will blossom
before your eyes.
—Melanie Koulouris

Pisces

We Pisceans know how to swim without water.
—Munia Khan

Protection

Leap, and the net will appear.
—John Burroughs

Puzzle

If you are curious,
you'll find the puzzles around you.
If you are determined,
you will solve them.
—Erno Rubik

Rainbows

Today’s teardrops
are tomorrow’s rainbows.
—Ricky Nelson

Reflections

The world you see outside of you
will always be a reflection
of what you have inside of you.
—Cory Booker

Remember

There are memories that
time does not erase.
—Cassandra Clare

Sea Dance

Dance with the waves, move with the sea, let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.
—Christy Ann Martine

Silence

When the wisdom speaks,
be silent.
Do not waste your candle
when the sun is there.
—Mehmet Murat Ildan

Simplicity

Few desires, happy life.
—Moroccan proverb

Snow Angel

The snow is crisp.
The stars are bright.
I spread my arms and I take flight.
—Christy Ann Martine

Source

Everything is full and pure
at its source and precisely there,
not outside.
—Meister Eckhart

Spiritual

Happiness is spiritual,
born of truth and love.
—Mary Baker Eddy

Spring

Spring has returned.
The Earth is like a child
that knows poems.
—Rainer Maria Rilke

Summer

O, Sunlight!
The most precious gold
to be found on Earth.
—Roman Payne

Sunflower

Bring me the sunflower
crazed with the love of light.
—Eugenio Montale

Time

There is no grief
which time does not
lessen and soften.
—Cicero

Travel

Wheresoever you go,
go with all your heart.
—Confucius

Treasures

The greatest treasures
are those invisible to the eye
but found by the heart.
—Judy Garland

Walking Together

If you want to walk fast,
walk alone.
But If you want to walk far,
walk together.
—Ratan Tata

Water

If there is magic on this planet,
it is contained in water.
—Loren Eiseley

Window of Life

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a
caring, sharing person inside.
—Denis Waitley

Winter

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.
—Victor Hugo

Wishing Upon a Star

Sometimes while gazing at the night's sky, I imagine stars looking down making wishes on the brightest of us.
—Richelle E. Goodrich