Rather than think about what you need, think about what you have to give. Rather than think about what you don’t have, think about what you do have. Get your mind off your sore spots. You have a powerful mind. Use it.

Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for yourself. No matter how many reasons there may be to feel sorry for yourself, let all those reasons go. Your mind has other things to think about. Certainly, you don’t think it’s to your advantage to feel sorry for yourself. It’s better to find reasons to be glad for yourself. Search and find, beloveds.

There must be some advantage to you in feeling sorry for yourself, or you wouldn’t do it. However, there is no true advantage in bringing your attention to yourself or bringing others’ attention to yourself except to relish self-pity and the consternation of others. It is a selfish thing to do. I ask you to let go of feeling sorry for yourself, for self-pity deters your evolution.

Feeling sorry for yourself is the same as a pig rutting in mud. A pig gets the most enjoyment out of the mud that he can. You are a human being. You have to get out of the mud, not stay in it. There is no virtue in wallowing in pity on yourself or anyone. Pity is a stopper. You are to progress.

There are those in the world in such situations that they would envy the opportunity to have all the reasons you give to feel sorry for yourself.

Life did not turn out the way you wanted. This is not a tragedy.

If you sleep on a bed of nails, get up and out of that bed of nails. Get out of where you have let your thoughts cogitate themselves.

You may feel that life gives with one hand, and takes away with another. That’s how it may seem to you, and now you have to think another way.

It is hard to lose a good husband. It is hard to never have had a good husband. Once you were young, and now you are old. Once you had loving parents or unloving parents. These can be named loss. You must think another way. You must think about blessing, for, in every situation, there is blessing waiting for you.

Your circumstances are not punishment. Never think that you are being punished. That makes you a self-proclaimed victim of life. That isn’t what you want to be. You are not the prey of life, nor are you a victim of it. Never were you.

There may not have been the feast before you that you wanted, and yet you had something to eat. You may not have had the love you most wanted, yet you had love.

The more love you crave, the more opportunity you have to give. Give love. Give it in corners of the world. Give it in the recesses of your heart.

Even if you are bedridden in a hospital, give love. Even if this is your last day on Earth, give love. If you have one minute left on Earth, give love. Make life nicer for someone. Make it nicer for yourself by getting away from accumulated sense of loss. You did not miss out on life. You had life. You had it. You had this great thing called life. Life can be dispensed with. Life on Earth can be over. Yet love is always alive, and it always was. Do not dispense with love. Wrest it from your heart and hang it high like a lamp in the world.