Beloved, may you live well and long. May you know what is of significance and pledge yourself to what matters rather than to what is really not so important that you cannot leave it behind you when this is all you can do.

When all is said and done, when you sift through your imagined possessions, when the dust settles, what do you take with you? What fits into your heart and soul and leaves its mark on you? No one takes steamer trunks anymore these days. Who could ever fit so much in your baggage now? One handbag may be too much.

When you come, bring your heart and soul. You may not even care anymore about taking your diamond ring with you. What sentimental value do you even insist on taking with you now? You don't want all your memories packed in any longer. The items you would have to take with you - you wouldn't even bother to take them any longer. What are they to you now? Now you would like to travel light and be done with it.

You probably won't have a desire to take anything more, as if anything physical matters to you now. Who up here in Heaven would want to glance through your keepsakes with you? And, when you are done, what then? Who wants a what then? No longer will there be a before or after.

What do you want to pore over within yourself any longer to speak of?

All your life long, you have had something important to say. Now, at this imminent moment, you can't think of one thing. What can you not leave behind? Be glad to be freed from the past.

You want freedom. You don't even want to excel. You don't even care about making points. No longer do you care to amass now. You don't care if you score or not. What need have you for numbers or the alphabet, as a matter of fact? What need or longing do you insist on now?

What do you see, and what must you remember or account for? No longer will you add stature. No longer will you even require your initials or a computer. Whatever for? Why would you want a head stuffed with what?

You might well prefer having an empty head rather than a crowded one. What is it that you supposedly transition from and to? No longer do you want more details to hang onto.

Now, I, God, hear you say:

"Once upon a time, I could sew a fine seam. Where is this skill to be kept now, and what happens now? Do skills remain or trot off somewhere like life itself?

"As it was, once I could hardly embrace the present, let alone the past. What really is there to embrace, God? Life itself, and You alone, and Peace and Love to fill up on.

"I can't even think of a tree I want to be buried under or which ocean or another to sink under. I ask to hold Your hand and remember You, God!"

Beloved, before you were born, you chose to take on the role of hero. You didn’t choose to accept the role of slug-a-bed. Absolutely not. You chose a hero’s role. If not a flashing Superman role, at the very least, you chose the role of slow but steady. You made a commitment to not jump ship. You pledged to be here steadfast for the long haul.

You are not here to bite your fingernails.

You are not here to wish for escape from your role on Earth.

Oh, yes, it may seem to you that you are no hero at all. Nevertheless, someone is looking at you and following you and learning from you.

As a matter of fact, you also follow yourself as well. Remember joy. The least you can do is to cast joy on yourself. You have a role to fulfill. It wouldn’t be yours unless you were capable of rising to magnificence. This is yours to do. This is what it means to be a hero. Certainly, a hero is not down on himself.

To be a hero, you accept that at every moment, you have a choice to make. It is your choice to make. This means you are not helpless. You always have a choice to make, and you make it. Choose to be of good courage.

You don’t make a choice to lie down on the job. Not even once more can you make a choice to cry: “Foul!” What is courage really but to make a choice?

A hero is a pleasure to others and to himself. Beloved, you are the illustrator of the book you write. You take a firm hold of your life with the decisions you make.

You don’t know what lies right around the corner. You don’t sit down on the job. Bolster yourself. Begin to see yourself as My hero. Give yourself glad tidings. Right now is your very chance to do Me honor. Even if you are bedridden, this could be your moment of Crowning Glory.

Lift your head. Smile at a visitor. Don’t mourn. Not at all. By all means, you are your own Crowning Glory. You state your Self. You align yourself with Me. It isn’t only that you have courage. You inspire courage in yourself and in others. My Will be done. My Will be done through you.

You are a herald Angel on Earth. Immerse yourself in the love that you are here to give. Give it. Part of giving love is to receive it. You accept love as well as you give it out. It is a natural thing to see love revived. More love is to come and to come through you. You may not know what bounty of love you express that uplifts a fellow traveler. You contribute to the journey in another's life who also inspires you. You may be the saving grace of one imagined another.

It is you who is to shine brightly. You brighten life for others by your very existence. Someone follows you as you rise to new heights.

You are not imprisoned within old thinking. Of course, you star in your own life. You gain speed. More and more people see in you that which you may not have yet seen in yourself until this moment. Never are you a bump on a log. No siree.

To Thee I Sing”

Beloved, life is tried and true, and yet each day is new. Life is forwarded to you every day. Life is an experiment. You may tremble at life's inconsistency as if certainty is supposed to be the law of the land. Life is not a debt owed you. Life is given to you. Life moves along, yet life can choose any route it chooses while it is at it.

Life is not regimented. Life takes its chances as it moves along.

Surprise in life seems to be a certainty. You are trawling along in a boat on a river. No one knows how many fish your net will catch on any one day or not. That you are trawling every day seems likely, yet there are no guarantees no matter what you say.

Yes, life is an idea, and ideas change. Your perceptions of life also change.

To be alive means you grow and change. You don't stay the same. You can't stay the same. Beloved, you cannot stay the same as you always were or thought you were. Nor do you have to change every minute of the day. Still, change is your fortune. You can't predict all the upcoming changes.

Today is not a past event. You can part your hair on the other side. You don't have to dye your hair purple. It isn't exactly that you must keep up with the trends. It's just that you can only live now and not in the past. You don't have to be a flibberty-gibbet any more than you have to repeat the past. Life is new. You do not walk on a treadmill and tread only the past. There is greater than the past. You are ever new. Open to the present. You are not meant to be freeze dried. You can't ride the same old horse forever.

Change is the name of the game of life.

Once upon a time, blue jeans were dungarees and were worn for work on the farm. Now blue jeans are fashion forward.

Once a flying machine was a conjecture. Today airplanes fly in the sky every day.

Once computers were imagined. Once computers were bulky and slow. Look at them now.

Once television was black and white.

Today the whole world is before you. Mosey on. You can't stem the tide. Nor can you pretend the tide away. New is here.

You want your joints flexible, and so you want to be flexible with life as it comes to you.

Every year is a New Year, and you are new as well.

And then there is also something called human nature that seems to stay the same!

Indeed, there is NEW under the Sun. Look up! As you roll out of bed, the Sun rolls itself across the sky. Welcome, Sun!

Life is unprecedented and ever new. You can't leash life. Nor can you slow it down.

Who knows what tomorrow brings? Who says you have to know? You'd like to know, or do you?

Pretty much you have to take life in bite-size pieces. Pretty much you have to take life as it comes.

It is said that God is the Doer. Where does that leave you? You and I are One. You participate, and, yet, you as you perceive yourself - you are also a receiver. We are One, and you are also a Witness even as Oneness Is.

Oneness is, and you, as the individual, imagine you are a distinction as you sit in the Heart of God. You cannot depart, and yet you also observe God's Doings. Well, which is it you would be, beautiful Doer of God's Will?

Beloved, be beholden to this day that connects Us as One. The day isn’t beholden to you even as today is at your feet. A day is to lead you. A days sets itself before you. What will you do with this day that is before you? There is something in this day that you are to make beautiful.

Who says your day, as it is first offered to you, has to be your heart’s desire and not an inch less?

Follow the day set before you. You have choices to make, yet you do not call all the shots. This is how life is. Life doesn’t have to be exactly how you desire it to be. Who says that life has to be your cup of tea? Who says that you are to have days of only sunshine and never rain?

On some days, you receive a day that is beyond your highest dreams, and some days you may feel left out. Either way, this is life, and it is yours. You are the beneficiary. Each day comes as it comes.

I put clay into your hands. Whatever clay I put into your hands, every day the clay that arrives is yours to knead. You give your best to the God-given clay handed to you and make the best God-given pottery you can. Every day has that which is up to you to wed.

There is always more beauty to come. Make your day as you will. Sing today’s highest praises. This is your day, not someone else’s. Today is in your hands.

There is an aftermath of joy that comes to you. More joy is on its way. This is Our Covenant. We shake hands on it. Here is where your free will comes into its own.

My Will is that you uphold life. Give life all you’ve got to give.

Consider that you are not lacking or lagging. Make a list of all the benefits you have received in life to this day as opposed to what you may think you are missing and may have been denied. The benefits win by a mile. What then is your complaint? Be gracious. What else can you be, Beloved?

It takes less effort to be grateful for all your blessings than to complain once. When you feel worn out, complaint is likely the reason why you are so tired. You are looking at the downside when you could be at the top of the arbor. Make good choices for where you put your attention. It is your attention after all. Remind yourself that you are made in My image. Don’t waste one moment feeling sorry for yourself. Be all the goodness you long for. Diminish what you don’t want and have had too much of based on your own point of view.

Want to know the secret of how to get what you want? I will tell you. Here it is:

Never mind that you think you didn't receive. Go for what you want and never mind the rest. Be what you want to be. Take the bull by the horns. This is your one life right now. Give it your nod. Downplay what you don’t want. Be your own marching band. No feeling sorry for yourself. No crying: ”Wolf!”

Whatever the circumstances, it is up to you to depend upon yourself now to raise your spirits.

Say: “God, thank You for showing me the way to come nearer to Thee. God, what I want most of all in the world is You.”