Happiness

"If you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that had rolled under the radiator, striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day."
-W. Beran Wolfe

Of course, happiness is something that we all want for ourselves and those we love. But happiness is not something that we can pursue. Happiness is something that finds us! When we are expressing ourselves, living a life filled with love, we can't help but feel the happiness that is always around us.
-Lissa Coffey

Heaven

“We must… make the kingdom of God a reality in this world by works of love.”
-Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Heaven. Each of us has our own idea of just what that is. But whatever we think Heaven is, it is an ideal. We can’t point to it on a map, but we can conjure it up in our minds. And we can create a kind of heaven on earth through works of love. Love makes all things possible. We know what love is, and we know how heavenly this world can be when love prevails.
-Lissa Coffey

Home

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. There is no event greater in life than the appearance of new persons about our hearth, except it be the progress of the character which draws them.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

People come and go from our lives. And as we change and grow spiritually, we begin to notice that we draw people to us for special reasons. Maybe we have something to offer a friend that no one else can. Maybe a friend has a gift, or a lesson, for us that we wouldn’t have found on our own. There are no coincidences. It’s all part of our journey to experience these people and events at just the time when we are supposed to. Welcome them!
-Lissa Coffey

Humor

“Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.”
-Joseph Addison (1672-1719) British Essayist

Truly spiritual people are light-hearted and filled with joy! They love a good laugh and are the first to share a smile. These are the kinds of people who brighten our day just by showing up. How much we can learn from this! We’re all connected, so it makes sense that if one person is “up” it helps all of us to rise up. Let’s be the person who shines through the clouds today.
-Lissa Coffey

Happiness

"If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I think there can be no happiness greater than this."
-Kitaro Nishida

If we want to be reminded about what happiness looks like, all we have to do is go to the park and watch a child at play. Here is a great example of being "in the moment!" Innocent, loving, sweet - that's how happiness feels. It is a wonderful thing to be child-like... Children know that there is a lot to be happy about without even thinking about it.
-Lissa Coffey

Happiness

"If you are unhappy, you are too high up in your mind."
-Carl Jung

Happiness is a choice. We can CHOOSE to be happy! If we are not choosing happiness, what are we choosing? Happiness is one of those things that many of us tend to shy away from. Maybe because we are afraid that happiness doesn't last - that if there is "happy" there is bound to be "unhappy" at some point. But it only works that way if our happiness is attached to someTHING or someONE. When we understand that our happiness is inside ourselves, and we can tap into it independently of any situation or scenario, then we can allow ourselves to choose happiness anytime!
-Lissa Coffey

Happiness

"Happiness is a present attitude - not a future condition."
-Hugh Prather

How many times have we heard: "I'll be happy WHEN... I get that new job, new relationship, new car, computer, etc." WHY??? Why are we postponing our happiness? When we live for the future, happiness never comes... because happiness can only be experienced in the present moment. Choose to be happy NOW, because now is the only time there is.
-Lissa Coffey

Happiness

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
-Helen Keller

It is true that no one can make you happy except yourself. So, how do we do this? First, we make a choice to be happy. Then, we express ourselves in a way that helps others. When we see the difference that we can make in the world, when we see that there is something that we can do to make this world a better place, we feel worthwhile - and we can't help but feel happy about our contribution.
-Lissa Coffey

Heaven

“The world to come is not only a hereafter but also a herenow.”
-Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

Heaven is not just “out there” but it is “in here.” Heaven is not just “someday” but it is “now.” We can “get there” but we can also “be here!” Be present in the moment and recognize Heaven all around. Everything we see, touch, experience… it is all such a blessing, it is all such a gift.
-Lissa Coffey

Heaven

“Heaven is always pictured as a community – never as made up of individuals who live in boxes, which they call homes, where they lock themselves in by locking others out.”
-Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

We hear this all the time. We’re all in this together. Heaven is not a lonely place; ideally, it’s a place where everyone lives in harmony. We can create heaven on earth by reaching out to each other, helping one another, supporting, accepting, and loving one another. We can open our doors, and open our hearts, to a new vision of community.
-Lissa Coffey

Heaven

“The kingdom of God is within you.”
-Jesus (A.D. 1st cent.) Luke 17:21

Where is Heaven? Within you. Within me. Within each one of us, right here and right now. We don’t have to look anywhere outside of us to find God’s love. All of God’s possibilities and blessings are at hand – we have but to recognize this divine Truth to make use of it.
-Lissa Coffey

Heaven

“Heaven is neither a place nor a time.”
-Florence Nightingale (1913)

So, what is Heaven? It’s something different to each of us. Maybe it’s the joy that comes from watching your team win the World Series. Maybe it’s the passion you feel when you look into your spouse’s eyes. Maybe it’s the laughter on a family outing, or the sweetness of hot fudge over an ice cream sundae. There is no set definition of Heaven – it’s whatever we feel it is at the moment. And it is always available to us.
-Lissa Coffey

Home

“Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.”
-Brewster Higley (19th cent, 1873?)

This is where we live; this is our home. Wherever we are, wherever we go, this planet is ours to enjoy and take care of. All of nature calls for us to notice. Whether we sleep under a roof or under a canopy of stars, we live here together – with the animals and trees and all of creation.
-Lissa Coffey

Home

“ A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in its permanence, in its capacity for accretion and solidification, in its quality of representing, in all its details, the personalities of the people who live in it.”
-H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“Home” itself is a very spiritual word – as it contains the primordial sound “om.” And the words associated with home: like “mom” and “father” have the “ah” sound. These words because mantra-like to us in that they represent a kind of security, a peace, a presence. Our homes are a reflection of how we express ourselves, and how we feel about ourselves. Look around and see what your home says about you – and what your home says to you!
-Lissa Coffey

Home

“A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body.”
-Margaret Fuller (1845)

A home is more than a place of shelter. It is a place of comfort, a place of peace. This is where we can take refuge from the world, where we can relax, and where we can grow. A home can be a “safe environment” where we can learn without fear of criticism, and where we can explore and express our feelings. The person, or people, inside that space is what makes a house a home.
-Lissa Coffey

Home

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
-John Howard Payne (1791-1852)

Even after the most marvelous vacation – we usually return and say “it’s so good to be home!” There’s something about the comfort and familiarity about our own personal space that keeps us coming back. Remember Dorothy clicking her heels together in The Wizard of Oz? It doesn’t have to be anything grand or spectacular. Just having our own little defined area makes us feel a part of something bigger. I love what Jimmy and Rosalind Carter have started with Habitat for Humanity. By helping to build homes for families that need them, they’re giving so much more than financial assistance. They’re giving a sense of pride and permanence that is invaluable.
-Lissa Coffey

Humor

“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
-James Thurber (1894-1961) US humorist, illustrator

Do you remember the TV show “My World and Welcome to It?” It starred William Windom as James Thurber. This was many years ago, so it may be that he played a James Thurber “type,” (I was very young and can’t remember the details. ;-) I loved that show! And I loved how the lesson was that there was always something to laugh at, some funny way of looking at something that we might not have thought of. Sometimes when we’re going through something really awful or embarrassing, we’ll look at one another and say: “Someday we’ll look back on this and laugh.” And doesn’t that happen! Some of our funniest moments come out of our most human foibles. We are funny people, and we can enjoy ourselves.
-Lissa Coffey

Humor

“ I think laughter may be a form of courage… As humans we sometimes stand tall and look into the sun and laugh, and I think we are never more brave than when we do that.”
-Linda Ellerbee

We can rise above all of our problems. We are bigger than any of them anyway! When things get rough, we have a choice – we can be devastated and beat down, or we can face it head-on and say:“Okay, here we go again. I can take it. I can learn from this. I am growing and I can handle this!” Having a good sense of humor gets us through a lot. It’s just a different way of looking at things, one that recognizes the power that we have over our problems, not the other way around!
-Lissa Coffey

Humor

“ Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat!”
-Joanne Woodward

Sure, Joanne Woodward can talk – she’s married to Paul Newman! But look what she really values in her husband: his sense of humor. Our sense of humor will take us far in this life. Laughter is like medicine – it keeps us healthy and feeling good. It’s a way of experiencing joy, and a joyful life is a spiritual life, recognizing and appreciating our connection with the Divine.
-Lissa Coffey

Humor

“When humor goes, there goes civilization.”
-Erma Bombeck

We need humor to balance out all the other “stuff” that is going on in the world every day. Where would we be without our ability to laugh at ourselves. Situation comedies have always been popular on TV because they depict “situations” that we’ve all been in and can relate to – but they do it in such a way that we can see how funny the whole thing is! Today look at the world this way: “My Life is a SitCom!” Of course, you are the star of the show! And all your friends are relatives are supporting players. I’ll bet you’ll find lots of punch lines in the script!
-Lissa Coffey

Inspiration

“The most beautiful thing in the world is, precisely, the conjunction of learning and inspiration.”
-Wanda Landowska, in Denise Restout, ed., Landowska on Music (1964)

This is what spiritual growth is all about. When we are inspired to learn we grow so much. Our inspiration is our calling to grow, to bloom. It is a gift; it is a blessing.
-Lissa Coffey