The refrain of life as sung on Earth is loss and gain with an emphasis on loss, so it appears.

Who goes to court to sue for a mistaken gain in income? No one sues a car company for the car's exceeding the anticipated gas mileage. No one sues anyone for delivering an unexpected third baby, nor would they!

No one complains about winning a billion-dollar lottery. No one complains about finding a $20.00 bill on the sidewalk. No one complains about gain unless it's a gain in weight or clutter.

There is plenty of complaint when someone loses his eyesight. You would too, understandably, yet where was all the gratitude for your eyesight all the years when you had the good use of your eyes?

In these days, age is often seen as a decline from strength, yet age often is a gain of wisdom and, sometimes, a gain of great wisdom and great goodness of heart. You really can't say you haven't learned something during your ride on Earth.

I am making a case for abstinence from sense of loss, abstinence from your seeing loss, seeing the absence of someone dear to you absconded and kidnapped to Heaven as an offense to you. Actually, you may see loss as something you own and of great value being stolen from you by stealth and by no right. You wouldn't mind being the exception to the rule and be immortal even in terms of this physical life on Earth.

There are two things to remember here, dear ones. There are reasons for the term of your body. What you see as death has merit behind it.

The second thing is that you don't own anything in the first place. You may have a deed to it, yet everything on Earth, in the final reckoning, is borrowed or rented or loaned or taken or holed up in or confiscated. The day to pay the piper comes.

There is a third thing to remember. No one owns anything. No matter all the courts of law, no one owns anything. Not riches, not poverty. Not silver not tin. And there are many matters you see as of the utmost importance that are not really important at all.

And a fourth thing. There are people who hoard. There are good people who hoard for a rainy day. What is a hoarder but someone who cannot collect enough?

What is a miser? A miser is someone who has much gold and fears the loss of it. What has a miser gained, and what has a miser never had all his life?

Many of the things you may see as insignificant may be of great importance, indeed. I speak of integrity and love and laughter, for example. Sometimes My children forget about joy and simplicity and why they came here to Earth. Truly no one is here in his essence for acquisition and accumulation.

An adult is someone who can part with something, and may even be glad, at least, okay with it.

There as those who may forfeit friendship and choose selfishness. There are those who cannot give someone the time of day. They may be thinking:

"Why doesn't the person have his own watch?"

There are those who won't loan their cell phone to someone because they don't like the person who wants to borrow the cell phone for a minute. There are those who find a friend's asking for a ride as an imposition.

Who is rich and who is poor? This is not the whole mettle of man, you understand. There is more to the whole story of a man beyond that he can give easily or not, for all are to stay away from being holier than thou.

Self-righteousness is not such a great possession either.

I tell you this: You have something to learn from everyone and everything. You can't deny that you have something to learn, can you? Some may need to learn to find their hearts and give from them. Some may need to learn to remember the joy of giving while some have to learn not to be a patsy as well.

Alas, one extreme or another seems to be capable of a ploy of the ego.