Definitions: (1) keeping within reasonable bounds; temperate; sober; steady; avoiding excesses and extremes; (2) mild; calm; gentle; nonviolent; (3) to lessen the intensity or severity

Too Far: Being austere for too long.

Sayings:
• Meden agan (Greek); Ne quid nimis (Latin): “Nothing in excess”
• Be moderate in prosperity, prudent in adversity. — Periander (~635-585 BC) Ruler of Corinth

Quote:
• Be moderate in everything, including moderation. — Horace Porter (1837–1921) American soldier and diplomat
• A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation. — Jean-Baptiste Poquelin [aka Moliere] (1622-1673) French playwright

Divine Definitions: (1) The personification of all true, beautiful, and good qualities; God; (2) The greatest of all excellent qualities; the source of all positive qualities; (3) Charitable; (4) Endowed with admirably balanced qualities; (5) God’s benevolent concern for His creation; (5) The absolute capacity to give and draw intense interest or affection

Comments:
• God is Love. Love is God’s way. Love is the desire to do good for others. Love is genuine and unselfish. Love is best when shared. Love is the greatest thing in the universe and it can be attached to any person. Love is dynamic. Love is alive. Love is best understood in relationships.
• From our point of view, there are many qualities. To God there is only one: Absolute Love. If we parse absolute love, we will discover all of the positive qualities we recognize, and project the probability of many more. Yet in Him they fit together perfectly. He self-limits and balances every quality with every other quality. He is the ideal harmony of love.

LOVE
Human Definitions: (1) a deep affection for another person, idea, or ideal; to hold dear; cherish; (2) to feel a lover’s passion, devotion, or tenderness; (3) one who is well-beloved; (4) the heart of all true, beautiful, and good qualities; (5) ability to give and draw intense interest or affection; charitable; (6) the ability to elicit great pleasure

Compatible Qualities: caring, friendship, honesty, respect, trust

Consequential Quality: self-forgetfulness
Love is blind. When you are doing something you love to do, or are with someone you love, you are in a state of bliss that is oblivious to all ills. When you are in love, you think not of yourself; your joy lies in thinking of ways to delight, comfort, and interest your loved one.
     At play one is enveloped in the excitement, interest, and concentration on the goal.

Too Far: smothering love

Music: “All You Need Is Love” {1967}
(Love, love, love)
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
(Love, love, love)
No one you can save that can’t be saved
(Love, love, love)
Nothing you can do
But you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
— John Winston Lennon (1940-1980) Revolutionary artist; The Beatles (1960-1970)

Sayings:
• Amor vincit omnia (Latin): “Love conquers all things.”
• Namaste (Hindi): “The God in me honors the God in you.”
• Aloha oe (Hawaiian): “Love to you”; “Greetings”; “Farewell”

Poetry:
Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
It is to be all made of sighs and tears;
It is to be all made of faith and service;
It is to be all made of fantasy;
All made of passion, and all made of wishes;
All adoration, duty, and observance;
All humbleness, all patience, and impatience;
All purity, all trial, all obeisance.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616) As You Like It {1623}

Quotes:
• A single human unloved can set the universe afire. — Frank Patrick Herbert Jr. (1920-1986) EYE, Death to a City {1985}
• This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. — Jesus of Nazareth (7 BC-30 AD) The Bible, John 15:12
• That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil. — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher
• If you love, you are welcome in the universe; if you are loved, you are at home here. — Frank Smith Pittman (1935-2012) American psychiatrist
• You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required. — Mikha’il Na’ima (1889-1988) Lebanese poet
• If I have prophesy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith as to move mountains, yet do not have love, I am nothing. Love is patient and kind and rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. There abides faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love, yet keep zealously seeking all of the spiritual gifts. — The Bible, Corinthians 13:2–13; 14:1

Affirmation: I am deliberately and joyously radiating divine love to myself, my friends, and all the world.

Inspiration: God provided the universe with the original patterns of truth, beauty, and goodness out of the unified reality of love. It is like the splitting of white light into a rainbow. Truth, beauty, and goodness are equivalent to the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. Further diffusion and mixing of these basics create all of the possibilities of colors and qualities.

Reflections:
• In this day and age when people say “I love you,” what some mean is “I appreciate what you do for me” or “I really like the pleasure you give me.” Although those are facets of love, this is one reason why romantic love fails: the desire to be loved without the balancing need to love another selflessly in return.
• One of the characteristics of love is that it can be experienced and viewed on so many different levels. The highest level, the most spiritual level, is the intense desire to do good to, and for, other people. But not just people. All life is included. The universe is included; even the creature giving love to the Creator.
• The question “What is the purpose of life?” is one we seek until we realize the answer is “To love.” But then, that’s the enlightenment-type of answer. Although it is the simple and basic answer, it is the ultimate answer. It doesn’t tell you what it means. So, then the next questions are: “What is love?” and “How do I love?” These open a Pandora’s box. The diversity is expressed in the concepts of all of the underlying positive qualities making up the nature and value of love. Each positive quality can be traced to its source: love. Each positive quality emanates and is connected to its familial qualities.
     Love’s components can be felt and observed. You can experience goodness, truth, and beauty. If you focus on the truth aspects, you recognize justice, faith, wisdom, and courage. If you focus on the beautiful aspects, you will appreciate joy, symmetry, humor, and relaxation. If you focus on goodness, you will feel grace, generosity, kindness, and nobility.
     Each quality begets other qualities, and needs other qualities to fulfill itself.

Observations:
• Love is contagious.
• Divine love does not ignore or even transform the negative – it utterly destroys, evaporates, and obliterates it.

Comments:
• Love is infinite. As you approach what seems like the culmination of love, you are experiencing a relative state of perfection. You can plateau on this level, but there will always be greater heights and more valuable connections of understanding, being, and growing.
• The key to true love is not receiving love but is in giving love. The more you give love, the more you understand it; the more you appreciate it, and the more you have of it.
• When you love someone, even their simplest and most innocent mannerisms and traits are appreciated with fondness.
• When two people love each other, they each strive to be the person the other is in love with. There is a strong desire to live up to the loving image held up to you by your lover. If you appreciate yourself as being as wonderful as they say you are, you are becoming that ideal being. Love lifts both the loved and the lover beyond themselves.

Suggestions:
• Do everything with love.
• Love should not be reserved only for those who love you. Those with a love deficit need love the most.

How to Live This Quality Today:
• In order to experience love, you must love someone, including yourself. Go out of your way to do something pleasing to yourself or another – physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.
• Acts you can do to or for someone you love:
    ◦ Say “I’m sorry.”
    ◦ Say “I love you.”
    ◦ Say, “Thank you.”
    ◦ Write a love letter.
    ◦ Be warm and tender.
    ◦ Take a walk together.
    ◦ Show your appreciation.
    ◦ Prepare a romantic dinner.
    ◦ Sit close together and touch.
    ◦ Give your special friend flowers.
    ◦ Find agreement on important topics.
    ◦ Talk to each other, revealing yourself.
    ◦ Be interested in the affairs of the other.
    ◦ Give the other support and encouragement.
    ◦ Let your lover know you are thinking about him or her.
    ◦ Be free with your hugs and cuddles, kisses and snuggles.

Color: red

Symbols: 1) Venus; 2) the heart; 3) the hearth; 4) tulips; 5) the number five

Fictional Figure: Beauty and the Beast {1740} traditional fairy tale illustrating the triumph of love over externals. Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (1685-1755) — French author

Mythological Figures:
1) Eros, the Greek god of love
2) Kama, the Hindu god of love
3) Cupid, the Roman god of love
4) Astarte, the Greek goddess of love and fertility
5) Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty
6) Freya, the Scandinavian goddess of love and beauty
7) Anteros, in Greek mythology, the god of mutual love
8) Ashtoreth, the Phoenician goddess of love and fertility
9) Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, fruitful goodness, and the evening star

Definitions: (1) mental illumination; enlightenment; knowledge; (2) free from care; cheerful; happy; (3) extremely beautiful; ravishing; animate; bright; (4) nimble, buoyant, lively; (5) having a shining nature, character, or personality; (6) willing to show the way; (7) Emitting health; glowing; (8) Diffusion of mental knowledge; elucidating; (9) Emanating spiritual knowledge; enlightening

Synonyms: delicate, easy, gentle, light-footed, radiant, shimmery, unencumbered

Saying: A candle’s light is best seen in the dark.

Quotes:
• Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat. — Caroline Schoeder (?1970-) American aphorist
• We are all facets of the diamond which is God … Each of us reflecting light in our own way. — Linda Ohlson Graham (1947-) American poet
• Only those who live up to the highest light they have find their lives in harmony. Those who act on their highest motivations become a power for good. — Peace Pilgrim [born Mildred Lisette Norman] (1908-1981) Steps Toward Inner Peace {2021}

Symbols: 1) dew; 2) gold; 3) the lamp; 4) the diamond

Mythological Figure: Balder, the beautiful and wise Scandinavian deity of light and peace

Definitions: (1) disposed to be helpful and solicitous; gentle and considerate; good and tenderhearted; friendly; generous; (2) affectionate; loving; agreeable; (3) inclined to offer sympathetic relief; willing to give pleasure; (4) able to put up with abuse; clement; (5) not quick to lash out; forbearing

Synonyms: affable, avuncular, courteous, fair, nice, polite

Aphorism: Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see. — Unknown

Quotes:
• Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness. — Lao-tse (c. 6^th Century BC) Chinese philosopher
• It is kindness that makes one strong and brave. — Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) The Patchwork Girl of Oz {1913}

Symbols: 1) the dolphin; 2) the elephant {Kind, Compassionate, and Loving} (Hindu)

Definitions: (1) having principles of rectitude, honesty, and righteousness; upright; proper; (2) equitable; impartial; fair; (3) the duty of a judge; discriminating, reliable, and reasonable

Saying: Justice is fairness through time.

Motto: Justitia omnibus (Latin): “Justice for all.” — District of Columbia

Maxim: Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

Quotes:
• It is wise to disregard laws when they conflict with justice. — Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) Tik-Tok of Oz {1914}
• The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. — Amenemope (c. 1100 BC) The Wisdom of Amenemope, 3:7 {Found 1888; Published 1922}
• Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. — John Rawls (1921-2002) American philosopher
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) Letter from Birmingham City Jail {1963}
• Appropriate anger can be a force for good. Anger has provoked good and courageous people to come forward and defend the rights of those who are powerless to defend themselves. — Abigail Van Buren [born Pauline Phillips] (1918-2013) The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal with It {1998}

Comments:
• Justice has a lot to do with seeing reality from the other person’s point of view.
• Vengeance has nothing to do with justice.

Observation: The problem with a jury of one’s peers is the redneck jury who sentenced a fourteen-year-old black boy to death because he allegedly spoke flippantly to an older white woman. Then when the jury who tried him were put on trial, their peers declared their actions just. There must also be, at least, fairness to hold justice up.

Symbols: 1) fourteen; 2) the crane; 3) the sword; 4) Lady Justice [blindfolded woman with scales]

Mythological Figure: Astraea, in Greek and Roman mythology, the goddess of justice who became the constellation Virgo

Definitions: (1) closeness with warm friendship developed through long association; very familiar; linked (2) indicative of one’s deepest nature; intrinsic; essential; self-experiential; (3) worthy of entrusting with the closest confidence; communicative; sharing; (4) the essential part of; quintessential

Quotes:
• On a level of simple personal survival, understanding and forgiveness are crucial… whether in an intimate personal relationship or on a global level. — Edward Laurence Albert (1951–2006) American actor
• People didn’t understand that true intimacy did not consist of sexual intercourse, which could be done with strangers and in a state of total alienation; intimacy consisted of talking for hours about what was most important in one’s life. — Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-) Red Mars (1992)

Color: orange-brown

Divine Definitions: (1) The ultimate authority; unchallengeable; (2) Worthy of being believed; reliable; (3) Adept; unable to make a mistake; unfailing; (4) Always accurate; never in error; (5) Dependable; incapable of deception

Idiom: Latin, “Ne plus ultra” <ultimate perfection>

Comment: God’s infallibility is a direct result of a perfect combination of omniscience and absolute wisdom. All of His decisions are determined with a resolute certainty. Everything has been taken into account.

SELFLESS
Human Definitions: (1) a proper concern for one’s own desires with those of others; (2) a healthy regard for one’s own interests yet unselfishly generous

Balancing Quality: Service-minded

Compatible Qualities: With faith, discipline, and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve. — Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) Founder of Pakistan

Comment: True heroes are also self-forgetful and self-effacing. While doing some service, with love, for someone else, your mind and heart are focused on the good you hope the other to receive. The very thought of getting something in return lessens the value.

Quotes:
• You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. — John Wooden (1910-2010) American basketball coach
• Always do good to others. Be selfless. Mentally remove everything and be free. This is divine life. This is the direct way to salvation. — Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963) Indian Hindu spiritual guru

Definitions: (1) filled with the spirit; (2) to stimulate to service; (3) having an animating effect upon; impelling; (4) inducing or influencing another to some creative or effective effort; (5) persuading by positive means to be good, recognize beauty, and know truth; (4) afflatus <a creative impulse>

Derivation: Latin, “to breathe in”

Quotes:
• The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. — Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970) British polymath [four disciplines]
• Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure that it is the antithesis of self-consciousness. — Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Classical composer

Comment: If you focus on the positive, even in your criticisms of a person or a situation (with tact), you are helping to transform both the situation and the person.
     There are many ways to be treated poorly. And it is easy to feel badly when it happens to you. But if you lash out in anger and frustration, you will only be successful in creating more anger and resistance. In hoping to control an ugly situation, you may be able to box it up but the person or people who have created the negative have not been changed.
     Containment may be necessary as a first resort. Society and the individual do have the right to protect themselves. But force is not the final solution. The final solution is for people to possess the qualities within themselves that will make it impossible to do the negative things they have done before. When inspired with the positive, people tend to act in accordance with their higher qualities.

Color: blue

Symbol: the torch

Definitions: (1) a positive concept of oneself; (2) a realistic understanding of one’s capacity

Observation: It is ironic how often those with a poor self-image usually have a sensitive perception of the values of others: “I’m no good but look at how wonderful so-and-so is.”
     Subjective reality is folded in such a way that the person with a poor self-image cannot see or accept his or her own positive qualities. Consider Marilyn Monroe; her beauty was certainly obvious to an adoring public, and she surely must have been aware of it, but it was not enough. Those who study theatrical art say she was a talented actor, but her lack of self-esteem helped to destroy her.

Structure: The following are from “Anxiety—Recognition and Intervention” The American Journal of Nursing, Barbara C. Schutt R.N., Editor.

Components of a Good Self-Image
• An ability to understand and be understood
• Satisfaction of personal expectations
• Reasonable control of environment
• Satisfaction of personal wants
• Satisfaction of personal goals
• Reasonable control of self
• A sense of productivity
• A sense of usefulness
• A sense of belonging

Threats to a Good Self-Image
• A sense of isolation, alienation, or loneliness
• A sense of insecurity (a threat to identity)
• A sense of helplessness
• Fear

Divine Definitions: (1) Unconditional kindness; unselfishly generous; charitable beyond bounty; beneficent; (2) Gracious and attractive; virtuous; (3) Blameless; unimpeachable; (4) Praiseworthy; desirable; (5) Deserving of respect; honorable; (6) A euphemism for God

Quote: Do good without thought of benefit to the self. Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness. True goodness is like water. It blesses everything and harms nothing. And like water, the true goodness of the Supreme seeks the lowest places, even those levels which others avoid. — Lao-Tse (c. 604-531 BC), Taoism

Comment: Good is not good only in contrast to evil. Evil (even if encompassing stupidity, sin, and iniquity) only makes up a very small portion of the universe – a few dark spots on a pure, clean background. Evil is measurably separate from true Goodness, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. We are certainly selfish, misguided, and immature beings with only a finite amount of information, but that goes along with the fact we have been given the right to choose. And that freewill was given by The One Person who wishes nothing more than to share His infinite goodness.

GOODNESS
Human Definitions: (1) excellence of character, morale, or virtue; (2) showing kindly feelings; benevolence; (3) unselfish; generous; beneficent; (4) deserving of respect; honorable (5) blameless; unimpeachable

Derivation: Sanskrit, “what one clings to;” Old English, “God”

Synonym: praiseworthy

Axiom: If darkness is, then darkness is good. — Mbuti

Quotes:
• Goodness begets goodness; but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness. — Lao-tse (6^th Century BC) Chinese philosopher, Founder of Taoism
• Goodness alone can lead men forward beyond their humanity. — Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480-524) Roman Senator & philosopher
• It is noble to be good and it’s nobler to teach others to be good, and less trouble. — Mark Twain [born Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910) American humorist
• There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns away from Him. — Clive Staples [c. s.] Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British novelist

Reflection: Magnificent beauty can be so compelling that you can feel the goodness therein.

Comment: If you are good to someone, they get the direct benefit of your act of kindness. But does your simple personal goodness also benefit more broadly? When you are practicing goodness to even one other, they will be more likely to live goodness as well. Therefore, your personal benevolent act spreads out. No matter how private your goodness, you are adding to the greater good.

Consideration: The results of being good are usually evident.

Advice: When in doubt, focus on the good, focus on what you know to be correct and true. Ask your heart whether or not you are doing the right thing. Truth and beauty are mutually supporting with goodness. Look to one to measure the others.