It may be that you have hardened your heart toward life. You stiffened yourself. But will you now become a soft bed upon which life can fall? Will you hold your palms upward to receive life like a fine rain that mists from Heaven? Closed hands do not welcome life. It is better to welcome life than not to welcome it. You aren't going to keep it away anyway.

Rather than be a warrior in life, a sentry, a guardsman, be a forager. Pick the berries and the wildflowers that grow. Wade through rivulets. Step over that which is unlovely to you. Forage through life. You need not ford your way through life as though it were an obstacle. Such thinking becomes an impediment.

In the forest, there is room for everything to grow. Every twig in the forest serves a purpose. The forest is open for all who would dwell there. There is no sign that says No Admittance.

Consider the world a brilliant forest, laden with growth of all kinds, big and small, all quiet in their mingling. Which blade of grass is less than the tallest tree that grows? Who in the universe is not deserving of a place in it?

The sun is not snobbish, nor are the stars and the moon. The sun rises for all in its glory. The moon softens the night and the stars beacon light to you, a salute of love from the universe. Be like the sun, moon, and stars. They take their place and they follow their path, and what on earth can possibly be disturbing to them? What can get in their way?

Even when the sun and moon eclipse, they courteously pass by each other, certain that they belong where they are, certain that their light is mighty, reflector or reflected. They know that light is light, and that they are light. They are simply what they are without pretense. The moon does not try to become the sun nor does any star wish it were another, Each follows its own passage or its own position in the universe and is content.

Where did discontent on earth come from? What took Human Beings away from the recognition of their light and the light in others? What clouds swept over Human Beings? Merely a dust storm of limited thoughts. New thoughts are needed. Old thoughts need to make way for new ones. Why are old thoughts dearth to leave? Why do you hang on to them as if they were your guardian angels?

When your feet grow, you need new shoes. When shoes wear out, you throw them away and get new ones. If you can do that with shoes without agonizing, why not with your thoughts? They may have served you well in their day, but thoughts are not to stay on the same path. They are to venture. If you want a new life, you need new thoughts.

Thoughts are like children who are to grow. You do not bemoan a child's growth. You honor and enjoy it. Be the same with your thoughts.

New thoughts are yours for the asking. New thoughts are like new equipment. Old thoughts are themselves tired of staying. Who wants to be threadworn? Who wants to hang around just idling?

Shake up your thoughts. There is always new growth in the forest. Set your old thoughts aside. Send them off with love, and now turn to the new. Every day is new, and you are meant to be new. Adopt a new thought today, one you never thought of before.