Beloved Child of Mine, I hear you weep. It seems you have settled into some kind of perpetual sadness. I hear your thoughts that say:
“I have so much, so very much, to be grateful for, and I weep. I weep because I weep. I remember when I used to leap out of bed, almost being unable to wait until the day would begin. Now I am not eager for the day to begin. I am eager for the day to be over so I can sleep into oblivion. I know that life is beautiful. I haven’t forgotten that, yet my heart aches with I know not what.”
I speak to your heart now that sits back with a shawl over its head and cries.
Beloveds, consider this time of sadness as dew on the morning grass. You do not have to think that you are supposed to be sad or that you are not supposed to be sad because of it. There is nothing wrong with being sad. Like dew on the grass, sadness will evaporate.
Consider sadness as a lovely ribbon of life. You put the ribbon on, and you take the ribbon off. Sadness is not such a big deal as the world would make it.
Or perhaps someone braids the ribbon in your hair and pulls too tight. Still the ribbon of sadness does not stay entwined with you forever. You know sadness leaves. It has left you before.
And if sadness comes back, well, then, let it be. Sadness seems to be part of human life on Earth. Rains come. Snows fall. And there is a January thaw, and spring comes back, and tears are dried. Crocus buds open. Grass grows. Sadness does not have to be, but so what if it does hang around for a while? Who are you to say that sadness isn’t supposed to be?
Sadness is not a constant of life, yet its head pops up and sometimes it lingers. You are sad because you are sad, yet it isn’t required that your sadness increases when you realize you are sad, so very sad. Sometimes in the world, you perspire from heat, and sometimes you shiver with cold, and sometimes you weep tears that are not of joy. What is the meaning of this? There is no great meaning in sadness. It just means you are sad.
You don’t have to stay in sadness, nor do you have to fly from it as though sadness were a very very bad thing. Sadness has its good qualities. You can consider your tour of sadness like waiting in line somewhere. You do get to the head of the line, and waiting is over, and now it’s your turn not to wait in line. What has happened? Not that much. One minute you were standing in the line of sadness, yet, all the while, you were moving forward in the line. While you are sad, you are moving out of sadness, though let Me remind you that you don’t have to run away from sadness as though sadness is a wolf that will eat you up.
Sadness can be like a solace to you. Better to feel than not to feel. It doesn’t matter what you are feeling sad about. Look not for a cause. Look not for an explanation. Your intellect does not have to take over. Sadness is a passing thing. No need to make a federal case of it.
You can look at it this way: Who would not be sad when he is purportedly on leave from Heaven? What recompense can you receive to equal Heaven?
Will you admit that you feel a little less sad now? Probably because I have made sadness a quality that does not have to be banished. Sadness can walk along beside you until it leaves. Consider that sadness is a release on the order of hiccups. Sadness has its seasons, and then it is gone. When it is gone, you are no worse for wear. You climbed a hill, and now you come down the hill into the valley where the sun shines brightly, and sadness goes on its merry way, and, suddenly, it’s spring.