No one says that pain does not serve a purpose. Everything in this universe, whether you are able to decipher it or not, serves a purpose.

But it is paramount that you refrain from thinking that you must have pain, that you must have your share of it, that more is coming, that you will be ready and even that you will be ready to learn from it. You do not have to think of pain as a good thing. You have made your acquaintance with it, but you do not have to make it your good friend, or a close one.

However gloomy your present thinking, surely joy has also been part of your life. Get yourself ready for more of it. It's coming. You can relish that there are bits of joy coming and perhaps even great happiness and great rewards and great unimagined surprises that will stir your heart.

When you think of pain, you are thinking of calamities that may come to you. You may not know their exact names, but you are making ready for them just the same.

Make ready for joy. You do not need to know its exact name or shape or form either. But you know what joy is, and you can set up your brain waves and every cell of your body to await it and be ready for it.

Do not feel satisfied that you have suffering and that you are coping with it. Be satisfied that you are moving on from it. Just this tiny switch in your thinking will work wonders. You are leaving suffering behind, and you don't have to have it. You can do very well without it.

Too much of life is spent waiting for the boom to fall. Too much of life is spent thinking of what to do under grim circumstances.

Begin thinking of what to do when exquisite happiness comes to you. Let your thoughts unfold in that direction. Let your movie camera play colorful scenes that unfold to the universe your beauty rather than your pain.

Better yet, extract the joy from this very moment.

You are in a body, so enjoy the senses you have. Enjoy the heat, enjoy the cold. Enjoy the wet, enjoy the dry. Enjoy the sweet tastes and enjoy the bitter tastes. But you need not enjoy the bitter ahead of time. For what purpose?

Enjoy the tastes that come as they come. Meet them. But if you feel you must plan, if you feel you must equip yourself beforehand, then equip yourself for more of the sweet. Get ready for celebration. Get ready for wonder. Get ready for plenty, not dearth.

It is as if you have mailboxes all in a line, one behind the other. Each mailbox is addressed to you, and each mailbox has a different label. One is for pain. One is for joy. One is for boredom. One is for giving. One is for taking. One is for being taken. One is for love. One is for greater love. One is for God. One is for intelligence. One is for error. One is for fear. One is for tragedy. One is for laughter… You have your choice of which mailboxes to put up front where they are easier for the mailman's hand to reach into. Which mailboxes would you put in front? Which ones do you have in front presently?

If your thoughts were mail you address to yourself, which mailboxes would most of it go into?

And what if you didn't have a mailbox with the name Pain on it at all? What would happen then?

You seem to be convinced that pain is part and parcel of your life. If that is so, it will find you whether you have a mailbox with its name on it or not. You don't have to put a shingle out for it.

According to what kind of mail you want, label your mailboxes anew.