You spend your heart and soul and world time and energy on matters of the world that seem very important. You feel you have to succeed at them, or you fail at life. You really believe you cannot live without whatever your heart is set on. The idea that you must absolutely have something in order to be happy is an illusion.

You impose this idea upon yourself. You are habituated to the idea that there is something you must have, or that you are nothing without it. That you are alive on Earth doesn't mean you have to have everything the way you want it. You can accept less and be just fine.

It's just that you are accustomed to the whole charade. You habituate yourself into being in a tizzy. You got used to it. In a tizzy, you know you are alive. Without a tizzy, you may not feel you are up and running.

Agitation is some kind of comfort-food for you, or, We can say, it is like your cigarette of choice. Smoking your cigarette may make you cough. You may not like the cough, but you sure like puffing on that cigarette. It's not so easy to give up a habit.

As you see it, a cigarette settles you down. It grounds you. You put up with the cigarette for the sake of restoring calmness. Calmness soothes a calamity. Beloved, must you go through the rigmarole? Is intensity the sole option you have to choose? May I ask: Do you really think that agitation is your Soul's only option? Isn't this intense choice second-best at best? Why go through the same course of events time and time again?

Gather happiness around you now. You don't need cigarettes. Of course, I speak of sturm und drang. Certainly, the aftermath of storms has its pleasures. At the very least, when the storm is over, you gain relief from it.

You are piloting yourself through life. As a pilot, it is your choice to go around storms. You don't look to embrace storms over and over again. You don’t have to fly in the middle of a storm.

You have a choice of peace. At present you are adamant that you must have the fulfillment of an ambition, that you absolutely must have it. You must get the job. You must get the girl of your dreams. You must get this, and you must get that -- or what? Do you believe you can't live without it?

If you don't get an A in a final, if you don't win in the spelling bee, if you're not invited to the dance, your life is all over?

You don't want to turn desires into absolute needs. You may feel you risk everything when nothing is at risk.

There are always choices. You always have another chance. If you don't get into the college you want, what is so deathly? Beloveds, even death is not deathly. Life is never over. Life is always in your pocket. When your body stays on Earth and you leave Earth, you know you always were far more than your body. While you live on Earth, you are also far more than apparent conditions around you. Don't take yourself so seriously. You are you regardless of circumstances. There will always be circumstances. They may not be the circumstances you most like, yet circumstances don't last forever. Something you like will come around the corner.

Whatever you go through, you are still you. You are not reduced. You may become more versatile.

On cloudy days, the sun exists. The sun is not changed. Only its appearance is changed. Appearance is no more than appearance.

Life changes while you are on Earth. This is a given. If you did not make comparisons, you would not depend so much on surface changeable facets of life. How you are packaged is not you. You are you.

Now, be the Sun that shines regardless of anything.