Every relationship you have reveals an aspect of yourself. In every relationship, you bring yourself to the table.

You crave love and peace in every relationship, and yet relationships fall short. You may not know what to do with them. You may not know how to make a relationship thrive. Sometimes it's a struggle, and you wonder what you have relationships for. When they cause pain, you wonder.

Sometimes relationships are a stand-off. Sometimes you stay on one level and dare not venture further.

Sometimes you deal with relationships with your left hand, or you are offhand about them. Your heart is put on the side. Speech is required, and yet you dare not speak for fear of upsetting the apple cart, even when the status quo does not make you happy. When this is the case, is it that you don't want to interrupt unhappiness, beloveds? You don't want to knock unhappiness off the shelf, even as it wobbles there?

You may defray honesty and clamp your jaw. Beloveds, what is so terrible that you cannot speak of it?

Before you can tend to a wound, you must look at it. Look at it in the light of day. Maybe all that is required for healing is for you to look at it. The wound may not be so big as you fear. It may be only a little scratch. It may only need looking at. It may only need your voice to speak.

You are torn between courtesy and honesty. It is really true, beloveds, that you can't sweep relationships under the rug. You can't step on them day after day. You have to open their windows and let fresh air in. There is nothing so terrible that can't be opened up, spoken about, understood, and shaken loose.

Your heart has to reveal itself. Unrevealed, your heart is out of joint. When you do not reveal your heart, you pound on its door needlessly. You create a steel door. You pound your heart shut when your heart is yours to free. Sooner or later, your heart will burst out. Speak soon rather than late.

Nourish your relationships. Let your tongue speak your heart. Speak your heart routinely. Open your heart to itself. Do not bury it. Love does not mean to disregard your heart or to try to dissuade it from what it feels. What your heart feels, it feels. There is no point in draping a curtain over it. Hearts cannot be denied. Reveal your heart freely so that others may reveal theirs freely. Let your heart step right up. Honor it. Honor your heart, and you will honor other hearts as well.

Your heart is not meant to be hurt. Your heart is meant to be welcomed. Welcome your heart, and you will welcome the heartedness of those seeming others.

Your heart is meant to speak. Your heart is not meant to be a pantomime.

In relationships, hearts must speak. Your heart must speak. It is not to be kept dumb and deaf and blind. It is not to pretend. Your heart is not meant to be covered up or cast aside or shoved in a corner. Not your heart, beloved.

In every relationship, there is much of yourself to discover. Relationships provide guides to take you to the far reaches of yourself. Relationships take you to the forest. Relationships help you get through the forest and come out the other side. Hold hands with your relationships, and help each other through. Be a friend to your heart and a friend to others' hearts. Let your hearts hold hands and help each other across the forest. Do not stay on the outskirts. Your heart is not meant to be at a standstill.