topazz28's Blog

How do you know that the so-called mistakes you make are mistakes? How do you know that you've typed a number incorrectly — just because it wasn't the one according to the world? Do you think that it is momentous to have numbers in a certain order, or to have anything in a certain order? Whether you can correct a so-called error or not, errors, catching errors, making them, unmaking them, is just a game you play, only you have loaded the dice against yourself.

Now, make no mistakes about yourself. Love yourself no matter how many mistakes you make. Be glad for your mistakes. They show you are alive. They show you are fallible but only in terms of the world. The world isn't infallible any more than you are, and, just like you, the world makes mistakes. You don't have to pay for them.

Exonerate yourself from the idea of mistakes. What if there were no such thing as a mistake? How would you feel about yourself then? How relaxed the world would be, no longer affrighted by mistakes! Stop dreading mistakes now. They are only mistakes.

Life is a practice-session. It isn't the final performance. If you flub your lines, you flub your lines. If you step in a puddle, you step in a puddle. Whatever occurs, have a good laugh rather than a good cry. Enough slapping your heart for a simple supposed misstep.

Stop trying to be perfect, and you will make fewer errors.

Let go of the idea of perfection in terms of the relative world, and keep the idea of the perfection in which I see you. I see your light. I don't peer into details the way you and the world do. I have light to see by. I have light to see your light by.

You dropped a plate! It shattered? It was your best plate. Beloved beloveds, plates don't last anyway. And you in the relative plane of life may vanish before plates do. Sooner or later, you won't have the plates, or the plates won't have you.

Children hold their toys very dear. They cry when one breaks or is taken away from them. How important toys are in the world! And all the material things you are attached to are toys. Soon you will grow up, and you will know that they only matter for a little while. Mistakes are like toys, too. Give them up. Release your attachment. You hold on to a donkey's tail, no more than that. Let go. Let go now. Be attached to nothing. There is nothing to be attached to. Whatever you are attached to is nothing. Be unattached to your attachments.

Connection is another thing. Be connected because that is the Truth. You are connected to Me, and you are connected to every other Being on Earth and beyond Earth. You are very much connected, beloveds. You are so connected you are One with Me and the Universe and everyone and everything. Connection soothes. Connection heals. Attachment causes pain of separation in advance.

As you let go, you create joy. There is nothing you have to hold onto. You are free not to hold on. Then you can relax your grip. Then you can let go and recline in Me. There is nothing you have to have. There is nothing you have to become. There is nothing you have to do. Ease yourself from attachment to even ideas, and you will have time for love, and you will find yourself in love, deeply.

You select what's on your mind. Whatever you are attending to, you could be attending to something else. What are you looking at, beloveds?

With what you see right now, you can see aright. There is enough beauty and love to see. No need to look at blight. What you look at and what you think go in tandem.

Where you have seen fault, you have sought it. See the other side of it. Go around the corner in your thoughts. Beneath where you see disorder, perhaps great good-naturedness lies. Does disorder take precedence over good nature?

If you can interpret one thing, you can interpret another. If you can interpret one way, you can interpret another. Give before you take. See the other side of the horizon. See beyond what you presently see and notice.

When you see an angry man, you can also see caring.

Where you see disturbance, you can also see desire for peace.

Where you see inertness, you can also see hurt.

What are you looking for, beloveds, to be pleased or displeased? It is just as easy to be pleased. Being displeased is a habit of small perception. You can give up that habit. You can give it up for love.

Every time you find fault, you compound it. You etch the fault deeper. You run it into the ground. You stomp on heart energy and tamp it down. Every time you find favor, you etch joy in gold.

Consider that pleasure and displeasure are voting at the polls. Which do you vote for? When you are being open to being pleased, you are voting Yes. When you are displeased, you are voting No.

It is easy to find fault. You don't need any instruction in it. Fault was found in you. Faultfinding was passed on to you. You were never good enough in someone's eyes, so now you look through their eyes and do not see good enough either.

On a day when you feel happy, today, for instance, things that might have bothered you yesterday, don't bother you today. When you are happy, what bothers you? When you are content, you are not discontent. Come from the angle of being pleased, and you will be happier. Carry the banner of appreciation.

Beloveds, worthy as you are, who are you to approve or disapprove? Your role on Earth is to bless. The world is not yours to walk through casting a stern eye here and there. The world is for you to walk through and give and gain pleasure. You are not meant to be exclusive. You are not meant to snub the world. The world before you was made for you. You were not intended to be a drama critic. You were meant to enjoy the show.

And whether you are on stage or off, your role is not so much to please others as it is for you to be pleased. This is not selfish. This is being gracious. When the world presents you with an apple, bite into it. When the world offers you an onion, be not dismayed. There are more apples around. Look for them.

You are the fertile ground in which seeds are planted. You are also the planter who chooses which seeds to plant. You can sow goodwill. Start now with being pleased that you are a Human being on Earth. Use the opportunity to create happiness.

Now, do not spend time faulting yourself for being such a faultfinder. Bless yourself instead and become a joy-finder and so a joy-giver and so a blessing be.

Look at difficulties in a new way. Think not of them as problems. Think of them as questions to find answers to. Think of them as bells ringing in Heaven, telling you that there is a call for your imagination.

Consider how good problems were to Einstein. If there were not questions unanswered, what would there have been for him to solve?

Of course, at the same time, nothing has to be solved. Life only has to be lived and loved.

In life, you have to be working at something, beloveds. There has to be something you focus on. Solving problems is a good thing to focus on. This is not focusing on the problem. This is creative thinking. 

Sometimes you feel you are up against a brick wall. Then suddenly a new way appears! The brick wall is no longer there, or you found a way to go around it or over it or under it or through it. The wall opened in some way, and you are no longer blocked by it. The problem disappeared.

When it comes to relationships, what you have to solve is something within you. As you grow to greater heights, you will see the person who bugs you in a more compassionate way, and the whole present mechanics will change. The other party will change because something opened in you. In truth, beloveds, you have been your own brick wall. Now walk through.

Solutions abound. New ways of thinking abound. And what are solutions but new ways of thinking? And what are problems but old ways of thinking: You simply can’t be thinking as you have always thought.

What an amazing idea, to think that you have to change the way you think! How beautiful that you can change your thinking. Regard all the new things you do. You paint your walls a new color, and it’s not a big deal. You lay down new floor tile. You change light bulbs! So, then, change the light bulb of your thoughts. This is how problems disappear. Change how you look at them, and they are not the same. 

Many difficulties remove themselves without interference from you. Others are like kaleidoscopes. Turn them in your mind even the slightest degree, and a whole new configuration appears, and you find a gate opening up. Roses climb it, and you walk through whistling a merry tune. This is how to work through problems.

One way or another, My children seem to be good at finding problems. They ration themselves out a few a day. They frown and fret. And when the solution appears and the problem vanishes, they find another one or two to take its place. Yes, you might feel lost without problems.

When someone disappoints you, why is that a problem? Is it not theirs, not yours? You feel something was given, and then taken away. Begin to feel that something else was given. There is always a blessing in it. Not always easy to see, but always there. Just as I always am, blessings are as well.

When you see a problem that continues to bother you, something you’re not doing, for instance, because, when all is said and done, you bother yourself more than anyone else does. When you procrastinate, as an example, you have to get up and do something. If procrastination is your difficulty, then get up and speed past it.

Everything is within the realm of possibilities. Everything is within the realm of your possibilities.

Attachment is a big issue for you. Now I shall tell you what attachment is: It is putting your will before Mine. This may sound contradictory because I have told you that your will and My Will are the same. But your hanging on is not My Will and, therefore, it is not yours. Attachment is a manifestation of need, and a need to need is based on the phantom fear. Do you not depend upon fear? Yet, if fear is not really yours, its pursuer attachment isn't really yours either. Why would you hold on to events and circumstances and people for dear life unless you feared you were at risk?

Fear is not your natural inheritance. You were not born for it, and it is not My Will that you have it. And yet you fear to let go of your fears. After all, what would you hold on to if you did not fear that you would be less or less loved without it in your grasp? It must be that you think you are better off with fear and attachment or you wouldn't keep them by your side like loyal soldiers to protect you. But how can you be more or less than I originally intended you and made you? I made you of greatness, and what can possibly be greater than your being Mine? What possession, trinket, toy can you be greater because of?

All your attaching is based on false premises.

One of your deepest attachments is to your ideas. With all due respect, your ideas are not worth holding on to. If they were worthwhile, they would come to you without being held. Your holding on is adamant. Would that your letting go could be as firm as your grasp of ideas dear to you.

But that's just the point, isn't it? Letting go cannot be firm. It cannot bolster you. It loosens you. It loosens you from the boundaries of your mind. Freedom has no attachment, but how precious to you your boundaries of thought have become. They have been with you a long time and you are used to them.

Your fears and needs and old thinking are guards that lock you in place. They are false guards because whatever protects you, the selfsame pens you in. Do not be guarded. Let go of all your previous thoughts and beliefs. Rather than your possessing them, they possess you. They hold you in chattel, and you have agreed to be held. But cannot you unlock yourself any time you dare choose? Why, may I ask, does it take daring?

Perhaps you have hopped from one confinement of thought to another. You may have caught a different train, but still you are limited to the track the train is on. Perhaps it is time for you to find your own path rather than ride on what has been set before you. What train of thought have you been riding? What beliefs have you adhered to that are not your own? Established thinking is not innocent. It may have fooled you into thinking that you are on your own path and have already reached your destination.

Certainly, be grateful for wherever you have been, but remember that you are a traveler. When it comes to thought, you are not a homesteader. Collected thoughts and beliefs are not the key to your life. Openness is. Unlock your heart from attachment to old fragmented ideas that you have held holy. Accept wholeness. That is the same as to say to let go of attachment.

You were raised to be independent. You were raised to do things yourself. You were raised to not need help. You were raised to deny your relationship with Me. You were raised to surmount life without Me. You were raised to be sovereign over your life while you let the ways of the world rule you. You were taught that all this was good.

My children, letting the world rule you is the same as forgetting Me. Letting the world set your pace is disenfranchisement from Me.

In your upbringing, certain times of the week may have been separated into a consideration of Me at a distinct place where you could perhaps find Me, but where I was seen from afar as a Foreigner or illusive Idol. You worshipped Me as an Idol rather than a Presence in your heart. Your consideration of Me was more like a public recital, a presentation, a play presented to Me in the off-chance that I could indeed exist for you. You played a refrain to Me, as it were, an incantation that you hoped would appease Me, if I existed, and if I heard you.

Your heart may have wished for Me, but your heart and words were apart. Your words were a recital while your heart wandered from Me.

Adjoin your heart to Mine. Do it wherever you sit right now. Do not look for others to teach Me to you because I cannot be taught to you from outside your heart. You acquaint yourself with Me from within your heart. Your heart can know Me. Your intellect investigates Me, but knowing about Me is not the same as knowing Me. Knowing My resume is not the same as knowing Me. Knowing My reputation is not the same as knowing Me.

No one can eat for you. No one can digest food for you. You have to eat for yourself, and it is yourself who has to invite Me into your humble daily life.

I am not a world apart from you. I am you. I am yours. I am for you. I am served to you on a tray of life, but you must reach out and accept. Even at a <snip>tail party, you do not wait for someone to push a canapé into your mouth. You are responsible for what you reach out for. You are responsible for what you accept.

Even if you think I am an imaginary bouquet of wishful thinking, or even if you think that, if I do indeed exist, I exist out there somewhere beyond your reach, or that I have to be studied for, or learned as if I were an intellectual exercise that takes great study, or that I make Myself elusive so you have to work hard in order for Me to notice a hair on your head — even if you think those things, you can unthink them and know now that I am for you personally, you, right here.

No one can claim Me for you. It is your own heart that claims Me. That is where I am to be found, in your heart, right here. All the while you searched for Me or discounted Me or whatever you did or did not in terms of Me, I was reclining within your heart, waiting for you to wake up to Me. I was waiting for you to notice Me. I was always ready for you, for I am yours.

It is irrefutable that I am yours, but you have refuted it.

You made Me a Golden Idol beyond your reach.

I am not that.

I am Gold, but I am not an idol. An idol isn't real. I am Real. I am the Realest there is.

Reach out to Me today in the chambers of your heart. Come within. Put your hand over your heart so you can focus on My presence within your heart. Travel to this moment of Our Oneness and let your heart beat to the pulse of Mine. It is like setting your watch. Set the timer of your heart. Set your heart to say, "Awake to God, for He wishes me to know Him."

What matters to you? Sometimes you go along as if what used to matter to you still does. That is following where you have been rather than where you are. You do not have to be a trail-blazer, but nor do you have to follow your old footsteps. Sometimes you are not aware that you keep trudging on the same path while your errant heart yearns for another.

So, every now and then, ask yourself what matters to you now.

You can move in any direction you want. All directions are open to you. You are in the center. You can turn anywhere you want. You can start out today. There is no stopping you once you decide something. You know that.

Before you decide where you want to go in your life, note where you are now. I will say that where you are now is not where you used to be, but you may not have noticed the progress.

Today I ask you to notice what matters the most to you in your innermost heart at this moment.

Perhaps you have just been going along, along with the crowd, along with your old self, or going along not minding at all where you are going, perhaps preferring not to know, preferring to bumble along, or preferring to go nowhere.

Every day you are going somewhere. Your feet take you somewhere. The details of your life lead somewhere. Might as well have them lead you where you would like to be.

We are talking about your being true to yourself and not yesterday's idea nor the world's feckless ones.

In terms of your growth, you cannot go back. You are further along now, and you just might as well own up to it.

Every moment you are stepping into your future.

Of course, I tell you to be in the now. I mention future only because you engender it today. I am not asking you to focus on your future. I am asking you to note where you are now. It is not for you to hold back nor to retreat nor to jump ahead. It is for you to move forward into today and keep abreast of yourself.

All the attention you put on the news — put some of that on you.

You may have no direct say in world affairs, but you can move your life as you wish. What do you wish? What do you will?

Have a picture in mind. Draw it and you will be drawn to it.

When you wish to grow radishes, you plant the seeds.

When you wish to grow green peppers, you plant different seeds.

What do you wish to grow in your life? This is what you want to plant. The seeds of your life are your thoughts. Dreams are bigger thoughts. Expand your thoughts.

Emphasize details and you will have more details.

Emphasize greatness, and you will engender greatness.

I am not telling you to slide through life without attention to detail. I am telling you not to get caught in the details but to remember what they are for. Remember what you are for.

I know that thoughts assail you. Don't get caught up in them. Let greater thoughts sweep you up and bring you higher. Thoughts come to you as if on their own, but you can let them go. Let greater thoughts sail across the horizon of your life. Your feet are not tied, nor are you tied to any thought. You have your pick.

Do not think that bodies are something to put up with, yours or others. I know that sometimes bodies get in your way. I know that many of My children have gleaned in a myriad of ways that bodies are not good, and that you would be better off without them.

It is true that bodies are physical, and they are the least of you, but that does not mean they are not due respect.

You are in a body today for a reason, or you would not be in it.

Be kind to this body that houses you. In terms of the eternal, your body is irrelevant. But while you are in it, it has merit.

It's true that your body can seem to hold you down, but it is also true that your body houses a great soul, and for that alone, it is due honor.

It is true that a body is a cumbersome thing, but it is also agile. A body can do any number of wonderful things. It wants to serve you and serve you as best as it can. The body does not want to keep you back from anything. Of itself, the body is not much, but with you at its helm, it is a wonder.

Bodies are not to be neglected. If you had a servant as loyal as your body, you would treat him well.

You may have felt that your body is something you are stuck with for an indeterminable amount of time. It is true enough that your body is disposable, but you can also look at your body as a friend who doesn't last on earth forever and whom you can treat kindly during its stay. Certainly, your body is patient with you. Cannot you be patient with it?

Think of it, your body is made of light.

Yet, many on earth may give more regard to the car they drive than the body they live in.

If you cannot adore your physical body, can you not love it for its usefulness? It does not take precedence over your soul, but your body is not a bad guy either. It is not out to get you. It is out to serve you. Give it a gratuity every once in a while.

Bodies are but a token of you, but they are, nevertheless, your token.

Consider your body a horse that takes you everywhere you tell it to. Give it a kind word. Give it its due. Feed it well. Give it good water. Give it time to rest. Brush it. Praise it. Let it know that you are glad for its willing service.

Its service has an end, but until then, it is your chariot. You are the driver of it, and it is nothing without you, but still, for now, it is yours, and it does your bidding. You are the keeper of it.

Do not just tolerate your body. Enjoy your relationship with it. Your body is no excuse for confinement of your heart and soul, for, with or without body, you are supreme. Your body can slow down, but it cannot deter you. Your body does not have the say over you.

If your body is in shambles, that doesn't mean you are. Whatever your body is doing or not doing, it is only a wrapping around you. Whatever its appearance, hale and hearty, beautiful, strong, efficient — or weak, tired, worn, flagging — it has no one but you to take care of it. Take care of your body with your thoughts and your regard for it. Your body does not take ascension over you, but it is not to be downplayed either.

Today, give your body a nod of recognition. Thank it.

You can count on My loving you, yet you cannot count the ways I love, for I love in infinite ways. There is never a stoppage of My love. There never is an interference. There is nothing that can interfere with My love. Nothing can block it, stymie it, pause it. Nothing can make Me forget my love, misplace it, lose it. No one can shrink My love, rough it up, cut it. No one can burn it, maim it, cover it up, erase it, undo it.

Of course, you get into cause and effect. You get into such thinking as: "If God loved me, he wouldn't have let that happen. He would have let me get that job, pass that test, and keep my wife by my side forever." And so the doubt of "if" enters the picture. You are sure that if God loved you, He wouldn't have allowed this or that to happen. The fact is I do love you. I love you immeasurably. That I love does not always mean you receive what you want. It does not mean that I will always please you. At the same time, you don't have to suffer. Whatever happens is just a short jog in the road. It is not forever as you seem to feel it is.

Beloveds, pleasing you and loving you are not the same. Someone you love will die. Even you. Sooner or later, even you. Someone will leave you, and someone else won't leave you. Milk will spill, and someone will have a boo-boo. What else is new, beloveds?

Regardless, the foundation of life is strong. It is the strongest of the strong. It is eternal and infinite. Compared to Eternity and Infinity, the most difficult heartbreak in your life is nothing at all, a little blip, a little peep. Know the strength you are built on.

Every day of your life, you are learning unattachment. The day doesn't stay. It leaves. Sooner or later, everything leaves, or you leave. The body does not have eternal life, yet you do. You, the Being I am speaking to, you have eternal life. You couldn't die if you tried. I supposed we could say that your loved ones you mourn for are MIA, missing in action. Just the same, they are right here with Me, safe and sound. It is not even a question about whether you will have them back. You have them now. You have their love now. You have their love now more than ever because there is no Earth life to get in their way of loving you. No more squabbles. Life is good. Life is very good. No need for you to suffer from the natural course of life.

At the same time as life is at your beck and call, life is not at your beck and call. Life is not your indentured servant. Like you, life has a life of its own. Life has its own way of doing things. Life has its own timing. Life has its own spacing. Life itself is not attached. You are attached, and, yet, you are learning to let go. Life will always teach you that. Attachment is a hindrance. Letting go is a blessing. Bless yourself with letting go. You can do it. You have to do it. Might as well do it now. At least, stop fighting it. You don't have to hold on so tight. You don't have to hold on at all!

You can't fall. You can only rise.

You have heard the expression: "Don't confuse the messenger with the message." Most often this applies to when someone receives bad news. It's not the mailman's fault. He is the innocent messenger of a message.

By the same token, the deliverer of wonderful news is also an innocent deliverer of messages. You are not to be agog at the mailman. You are not to be agog at anyone. You can like, appreciate, yet remember who is the originator of the message and who is the deliverer of the message. The deliverer hands you the messages. He is not more even when he delivers the best news in the world.

Certainly, you don't ignore the mailman. You simply acknowledge that he dropped a message for you in your mailbox. In the case of My messages, you might as well adore the mailbox as to adore the one who delivers My messages to you. The delivery man is to be respected yet not adored for being the delivery man.

There is a tendency to impart exaggerated qualities upon the ones who deliver My messages. As much as you want to adore the mailman, it is not so good for him that you adore him. He is just delivering the messages on My behalf. He has a nice role, yet it is a humble one. I am within him, and I am within you.

There is the sense in which you are to appreciate everyone. There is the sense in which everyone is My messenger, and everyone is I. Everyone delivers messages on My behalf. Love the messages and not the delivery man so much. This is advisable on your behalf, and this is advisable on behalf of those who deliver messages to you.

The message is admirable. The mailman may be a great mailman, yet he does not write the messages he delivers. He did not think of them. He drops the messages off.

There is the sense in which We can give thanks to everyone for everything. Thanking is one thing. Aggrandizing is another. When you aggrandize the mailman, you are also liking the idea of coming closer to the Throne, so to speak. You are already close to the Throne.

When you turn a movie star into something more than he, the person, really is - when you turn him into an idol - you are fantasizing. When you turn a spiritual person into an ideal, you may well be concretizing your dreams the same. Adulation is adulation. It is not real. It is built on a presumption.

Much falling in love in the world is writing your own movie. It is fiction. You project your dream.

On Earth, a man may be a great sage, yet he is a man. A man may be a great Holy Man, and yet he is a man. He may be a perfect Holy Man, and yet he is a man. Learn from him. Value his knowledge. Value his goodness, and don't go crazy over him. He has his role, and you have yours.

Love goodness. Love intelligence. Do not put any man above yourself. Embrace the gifts a speaker gives, yet do not idolize the speaker. Serve, help, give, yet do not give up yourself. Surrender to Me, if you please, I Who am your True Self, even as I am present in everyone.

When you feel you have the best, the most, the most superlative anything, you may be leading yourself down a garden path. Superlatives are of the relative world, and so are finite. The man before you is not your discovery. Love is your discovery, love without tying anyone up, including yourself.

Be One with Me and Everyone.

Every morning your body gets up, but your soul is always rising. In sleep, your soul rises. In waking, your soul rises. Unlike the body, your soul does not get fatigued. Your soul knows only rising.

And you, the individual of you, live in two worlds. You live in the world of body, and you live in the land of soul. Earth and Heaven, My dear ones. You may not pay attention to that which We call Heaven, but you can be sure you spend time with Me. That you are many-dimensioned means that you do.

And the realm of Heaven is within you. It is not elsewhere. There is no elsewhere. Elsewhere is all made up. It is a fantasy. Often lovely, sometimes not.

What if, in the morning, instead of thinking you are getting up to meet your day, you think you are rising to Heaven? What if you pre-empted your usual morning thoughts, and told yourself: "I am getting out of bed and into Heaven!"

What if you told yourself that today would be Heavenly instead of excruciating?

If you do not see Heaven yet this morning, what if you spend your day on the lookout for it? What might happen?

Envision Heaven on earth today.

You have lived enough of your life on earth envisioning less than Heaven. Now envision miracle after miracle, miracles like waves lapping, all surging in your direction.

At what point in your day, will you spot a miracle? You do not know. That is just right. You do not know. But until this moment, in your mind you have traded lesser events for miracles. Today you will be a better tradesman. You will trade in gold rather than tin.

Oh, in one sense, you may grasp that all of life is a miracle and that everything in it is. You know that. You speak, you communicate. These sounds out of your mouth form into words into thoughts into meaning, and they are heard and understood. What a miracle the conveyance of thought is!

Even these bodies of yours that you lug around are miracles. Faces, eyes, hands, beautiful aspects of Heaven, no two alike yet all the same.

And nature unfolding. There is no day without nature. There is no day without weather, and much can be seen through trees. Even the hottest pavement in the biggest city has not yet escaped the hand of nature.

Air is everywhere, and some of it is fresh and smells good.

Stores have flowers.

Fabrics have flowers drawn on them.

The sun and moon are popular.

Dogs exist. A little more aware of miracles are they than you.

But today you will anticipate miracles.

You will look for them wherever you turn.

And you will find them.

Instead of a fact-finder, today you will be a miracle-seeker. Miracles are announced in your heart beforehand.

Some of the miracles you spot today will seem big and some will be little-seeming.

You will trip over some.

Some will sneak up on you.

Some will come from you. Is that not the greatest miracle of all, that from you in a body miracles appear? You appear to someone in bright light, and their day is lightened. You are a miracle-shooter.

Sprinkle the world with miracles today. Let your thoughts be miracles. Let your thoughts be conscious blessings that re-awaken the discovery of miracles in others.

The miracles are always there. They may need a little overture from you.

Auspiciousness is always there.

Serendipity is always there.

Love is always there.

And you are now the noticer of it and the purveyor of it.

I have sent you to earth for the purpose of giving and receiving miracles.

You have to rise above what you call errors or even what you call sins in life. The concept of sin keeps you back. Surely, you know it is My desire that you rise. The belief in sin is a way to nail you to the wall. Staying where you once were is not growth.

Move on. What virtue is there in staying where you are?

Great ego believes in great sin. When you soak yourself in guilt, it is not just guilt you soak in — it is great guilt. Think a moment. Do you not think yourself wonderful to pick over every awful thing you wish you had not done or had done otherwise? Aren't you more wonderful than someone else who puts grief behind him? Aren't you more virtuous to look at mistakes from every angle and punish yourself for them? You are not like the others who get off more easily.

What is the virtue in making life hard?

As the story goes, when Christ spoke to Mary Magdalene, he did not tell her to go over every past error she had made or to count them with rosary beads. He told her to go, and sin no more. He was saying, The past is behind you. There is no advantage in dwelling over it. You are a different person today because you see differently than you did yesterday. Give yourself credit for where you are rather than blame for where you thought you were. There is no staying still in life. Life is to be moved on in.

You do not go forward by going backward.

Leave your past behind you. It is not a place for you to dwell on.

It takes no special occasion for you to be new-born. You are new-born every day. Yesterday you placed your feet in a certain way, and today you place them another way. You do not spend today tracing everywhere you went yesterday.

You can repeat the past in your mind very well, but why? Is there another reason but to plague yourself?

Consider it virtue to move on in life. Let the past fall off. Stop carrying it with you.

It is great ego that carries conceptions of the past. Do not sentence yourself to the past. It was the present once. Make a new present.

Often I am blamed for your suffering. Blame no one. Let your suffering go.

When you gain an insight, you gain it. You may say, "Now I get it. Now I understand. Now I see." But you don't keep saying that when the insight is no longer new.

You do not get medals for steeping yourself in guilt. Give yourself a medal for stepping out of it.

How are you of most use to Me? As a bedraggled sinner or as a fresh soul?

Absolve yourself from what you call sin right now. If the past never was, sin wasn't either.

You learn in life, but once you have gone beyond the alphabet, you don't have to keep repeating it. Once it was new for you to count to 100, but now that is not new. You don't stay the same with numbers and you don't hold onto the past of any kind. Wave it behind you.

Now you acknowledge Truth. Attend to Truth and not the past.

Be a lovely expression of Me today and not what you once were or thought you were. Unlabel yourself. Step out into the universe. Today, start anew. Let go, let go.

Forgiveness and Christ

Your heart is a beautiful sun meant for all to see like a sunrise. The sun of your heart can be covered up, and yet it continues to shine its light. You can cover up your love as clouds cover the sun, yet the clouds do not stop the sun. The clouds do not even touch it. The sun shines regardless of what is superimposed upon it. The sun of your heart shines the same no matter how many fences and moats and shades of night do their cover-up.

You might as well give up on hiding the fullness of your heart. Cover-up is a lost cause. Like make-up, it washes off. Go ahead and use make-up if it makes you happy, yet how well you know that dimming the sun of your heart makes you unhappy. You may dress your heart in varied costumes of haute couture or rags and all the styles in between.

Nevertheless, the sun of your heart is undaunted. The love within you will shine through, and it will be as good as new. It will be as fresh as a daisy. It never grows old, not even cold no matter how much ice you store in your heart. Your heart is going to shine so brightly that you will know that your heart had been parading in poor costumes. The veils over love will disappear, and there will be the sunshine of all the love in your heart that I put there. All that love of yours will burst through all the bonds. Your heart will not be sullied. It will not be worse for wear.

The muscles of your love are always growing, and they will flex and break the pitiful shackles and disguises you have put on your love. The sunlight of your love will burst through. Say when. Say when now.

Oh, what a radiant sun you have concealed in your heart! You have perpetrated a fraud with the lesser emotions. You called them real and loved the imposters. All the while, you had it all backwards.

What is anger but a cover-up of love? What is fear? What is dislike? You feel the contrast of the lesser emotions with the love in your heart. The lesser emotions are more fired up, and so you call the lesser emotions true and the land you call love far-fetched or even lost, as if the sun of your heart can stay in the dark long or be missing.

You know how to sweep a room and dust off furniture. Sweep the dross out of your heart. Clean your heart like a mirror and look into it. See the sunlight sparkle. Remove the particles that hide your light. Pick out old hurts and dislikes. Use tweezers if you must or a spoon, and get them out. Make way for the sun, for you are to shine it.

Love is not a costume nor is it jewelry, yet do wear the sun of your love like a diamond. Your love is a diamond. Bare your heart. Your heart has nothing more to do than to be seen. If you at present cannot seem to see the brilliance of your love, then make sure to give it, and you will see it reflected in the light of others' eyes.

Perhaps your love has been like a fire that has been burning long, and certain overlays have made the fire smoky, leaving ashes and residue that interfere with the fire's natural ability. Remove the soot. Clean that chimney. Too much residue from the past has been kept there.

Return your heart to its original luster. Get going on it now. This is heart-cleaning day.

You who want freedom must also allow others their freedom. This means that you do not control others. Control is enforcing. It is not for you to impose your wishes upon another. You must allow others their choices whether they are what you want or not. It is not for you to say, for example, that the love of your life has to love you. You are not the determiner of anyone else’s life.

You do not really know the lay of the land, beloveds. You may have another’s best interest at heart, but not know what is in their best interest. And it is also possible that you have your best interest at heart, and, again, you do not always know what that is. I will tell you unequivocally that it is not to make another captive.

Hands off is good advice.

Moses said: Let my people go.

And I say this same to you.

No one is to be in your grasp. All are to be free to roam the world as they will. This frees you as well as all others. No one wants to be beholden. No one wants to be told where their heart must go. Hearts have to come to their own choices. Perhaps you wouldn’t try to enchain another’s heart except that you have trammeled your own.

Hearts are not meant to be obedient to others’ hearts.

Will that your heart love, and leave other hearts to their own say.

Because you want the love of someone in particular doesn’t mean they have to love you. Let you be the one who loves, and loves enough to free the ones you love. Love is freedom, beloveds. It is not capture. Love is not to be fenced in. Love has to find its own way.

When you determine the range of another’s heart, you are like a cowboy lassoing a steer. The one whose love you want is not a steer for you to rope in. He is My child as much as you are. You and I both must give him or her free will. Remember how wise King Solomon was. He saw that the mother who loved truly would give up her baby because she loved.

Others’ hearts are like babies, and you must allow them to flourish. There is no ownership when it comes to love. Love owned is not love. Love is not a possession. It is a gift, but not a possession. When you hold on to someone, you are holding on to the past. You are insisting that the past continue. And so now, beloveds, release the past and in so doing, release others from the past. Love is to be discovered anew each day. Then it is springtime, and hyacinths come up, and there is renewal on Earth.

Soil is tilled so that flowers may grow. The soil is made malleable. And so must your love be like soft earth where flowers of love sprout and grow, as if blossoming for the first time, sprouts of delight pop up for the splendor of the universe.

Of course, you desire that the flowers grow to the sun, and yet you do not hold them in your fist. You nourish them with your thoughts, and you let them grow as they grow. The sun will reach them. You don’t have to. You do not even try to conquer flowers.

The way to keep, beloveds, is to let go. Otherwise, you squelch, and you would never want to batten down another’s self-expression. Let your love be a call to love but not an order. Love needs no instruction, only allowance. This is the way love will encompass the world, not having to, but being free to.