My hands are on your shoulders. I steer you through life. I never let go of you. But within My grasp, you have all the freedom in the world. I may steer you straight, but if you want to go left, We go left. If you want to go right, We go right.

Do you see how it is? You have free choice. With that in mind, all credit goes to you, and, given the light of freedom, how can there be such a thing as blame? If blame were accrued to your choices, how then could you be free? You would be frozen rather than free. Having freedom means that you are free. What a gift that is!

The only mandate you have is to go freely. Well-oiled, your life brings and gives joy. Like a door-hinge, you open the door of life wide, and you freely walk through it. And so the door stays open for others to come through. And so freedom and joy expand.

As much as you have cried for freedom, you may have also thought it was a hindrance. You may have desired direct concrete directions, to be told exactly what to do and when and how. You may have also thought that other people should clearly know what to do before they do it. Yet with freedom, all you can do is estimate as best you can. You have to even guess sometimes what is loving and what is not. And you may change your mind before or after. And yet all of life is not hit or miss. Sometimes you really do know the path to take.

You want to be honest and you want to express. You are tired of pretending agreement where you have none. And yet sometimes your expressing yourself seems to clip another's wings and then you feel eclipsed. You are saddened when another becomes sad, for you understand you are meant to be an exponent of joy.

You and everyone else have a rightful place on Earth. You are not meant to be trampled on any more than you are to trample. Yet sometimes your joy seems to be at the expense of another, or another tramples yours. Do not take how someone else sees things so seriously. Free yourself from that. And then you have freed them from your opinions as well.

Accept your joyous nature. You have nothing to prove. I do not ask you to be a saint on Earth. I do not ask you to sacrifice. Accept that you and others are already holy, and therefore there is no need to sacrifice. Giving is one thing. Giving comes from fullness of heart. Giving up or giving over or giving away from less than fullness of heart is more like a denial. Do not deny yourself, and then you will have more joy to give. To be a giving person means to give to yourself as well.

See clearly. You want other people to.

Be first.

Be first in your own heart or you dissemble.

You are not meant to be at the mercy of others' thoughts and opinions. If that were so, freedom would not be yours. If that were so, others' thoughts and opinions would have the right to steal yours away. But you are free to see as you see. And you are free to change how you see, by your own vision and not by default. You and I are at the helm of your life. No one else is.