Life is like your thoughts. You don't know what is coming next. But you think you have to know. You insist on it, or you think you must brace yourself. The predominance of your life is not tragedy, although much of your thinking goes in the direction of preventing it.

A thousand lovely things happen to you. Tragedies are few. Why would you let tragedy consume your life? Of course, "tragedy" is often your word for natural events in life.

Life changes.

Nothing can stop it.

Get out of the way.

You were not meant to be a blocker of life. Yours is not to dam it up. Yours is to let it flow. There is no need to do otherwise. In any case, you cannot succeed in stemming it.

Attachment, fear, displeasure and so forth come from your perceived need to keep life the same and/or to change it according to your preference i.e. make it under your control.

Take neither the defensive nor offensive towards life. Free it. Observe it. But do not command it. Do not force-feed your life.

Your desires and intentions will lead your life. Your forcing it will not. Be kind to your life. Do not order it around. Invite it the way you want it to go. Encourage. Do not balk at it. Do not whip it. Maybe it is doing well, despite what you may fear.

Your life is a story, and stories unfold. You are the reader of your story who waits to see what happens next. At the same time, you are the author, and how you feel about your story influences what happens next.

Perhaps you wanted to read a romance, but you find yourself reading an adventure. But there is always another chapter and another book. Enjoy whatever chapter you are in.

Accept the fact that there is meaning in your life. You are for a purpose beyond any purpose the world designs. Perhaps your life is a hunt for your purpose. A hunt leads you onward. Yes, you are a discoverer in your life. You find clues along the way, and you put them in your pocket, or you toss them away. It is enough that you have found them, and now you go on to the next.

When you read your story, you don't spend all your time rereading what happened before. You don't have to memorize any chapter or paragraph and keep yourself there. You don't have to turn down the corner of any page. Just turn pages. You don't have to skip any chapters either.

If you like, you can think of titles for your chapters. You can name them ahead of time. You can name them whatever you like. You do entitle your life. Your naming of your chapters may have a strong influence, but your story is not bound to the title you choose. Even so, whatever life does, you can live up to the title you choose.

When you free your life to go forth, you free yourself. You are not bound to your life. Your life as it appears in the world is not your whole story. There is much written between the lines and between the chapters, and there are whole books ahead of you waiting for you to enter them.

Do not hold so tight. And do not push away. You cannot know what you may be denying yourself.

I will tell you a secret. Whatever the genre of your book, whether it is romance or science-fiction or technical or spiritual… it is an adventure story. The one genre is adventure. So enter your story with a sense of adventure. Just as in the story books, you are setting out, and you are seeking your fortune.