One way to look at life is that there are no questions, and there are no answers. There is just life and you and I. This is another way of saying that you will do well to see that nothing is at stake. From that vantage, you would scrimmage in life less. You would allow life to be less intense or not intense at all.

This idea may take you aback. You like your involvement in life. Confess, you might prefer over-involvement to neutrality. So much of your life is presently involved with skirmish. You may protest grief and anger and upset, yet you would miss them. How you would mourn their passing! What would life be about, you wonder, if it weren't a problem for you. What would you do with yourself? What would you think about, spend time on etc.

What if you tried out being more of an observer in life and less of a runner-around-in-it. What if you participated in life without getting carried away by it? What if you stayed within the realm of your present life, yet were on vacation from it. You would be there in it, but rested, and seeing it as if for the first time. What if everything were okay instead of wrong. What if you didn't judge your life? What if your life, as it is now, despite your impression of it, is just right, even perfect, a perfect rendition of an unfoldment identified as you. What if it were impossible for your life to be messed up, and not you or anyone else could take away one particle of its joy.

There are many possible points of view to take regarding your life. I am suggesting one of them. We could call it a hands-on approach sans anguish. It is not that you would be away from your life. You would be present in it. You would be engaged in it but not at its mercy. It would be more like your letting the soup of life simmer without stirring it all the time.

When you become an observer of life, you might be surprised at what you see. Enmeshed in your life, as you have been, you have missed out on a lot of it. If your life were a movie you were starring in, how beautiful would be the photography, the scenes, the setting. You would look at your life with new eyes.

What if a great master painted a portrait of your life. Look at the colors and textures he would choose to portray you and your life, this amorphous thing called life. You would hang it on your wall. You would see in new light. You are meant to see with new eyes in new light.

How do you picture yourself in this New Year? Where would you position yourself for your portrait? What room would you be in? Or would you be outdoors? By the ocean or hillside? What would your hands be doing in this portrait? Where would your eyes look? What colors would your portrait be made of? From what direction does the light fall? What is the one word that would describe this picture of you?

Somewhere in your portrait would be I. Perhaps in the background. Perhaps in an expression in your eyes. Perhaps in the clasp of your hand, the rose of your cheek, the suspension of your breath. In any case, there is no picture without Me. There is no scene in your life where I am not. There is no moment of it without Me. So, a portrait of you is also a portrait of Me.

A great Artist created you. And He has never taken His paint brush off you.

Do you see what I am saying?