One of your greatest gifts is your sense of humor. You need sense of humor on earth because you have been away from Truth. Your sense of humor acknowledges this. It tells you that you have been off-course. Your sense of humor stands up straight and says: "You have been looking at this occurrence incorrectly. You have taken it much too seriously. It is to be made light of, not heavy." Your sense of humor takes you out of narrowness into a broader field.

If Truth alone were known, there would be no need for a sense of humor. The predicaments of life would be seen for what they are. There would be no need to bring them down to size.

Serious has been a way of life for you.

When I encourage you to laugh, I am not talking bravado. I am not suggesting that you laugh at heartache and pretend that you are happy. I am suggesting that you have the idea that it is all right to take life lightly. Life will not be offended. Your step will be lighter. You can let go of heartache.

How many times have you taken a little thing seriously and made a big thing of it? The run in your stocking, the mud that splashed, the milk that spilled. How many times has a little thing spoiled your day or moments of it? How little even are some of the things that you and the world consider big!

Life in perspective is easier than life blown out of proportion.

Whatever befalls in life, you are equal to it.

Do not think I make light of what is seen as tragedy on earth. I do not make light of suffering. I do not say you will never have it. In fact, I will say that on earth, none escape it. And yet you do not have to emblemize it. You need not make a shrine of it. Suffering has a time-limit. It is not meant to be a holy way of life. After a while, endure suffering no longer. Shake it off the way a dog shakes water off his back.

If you cannot cease suffering for yourself, then do it for another. When you ease your aching heart, you ease another's. No one wants to see you unhappy. You who communicate suffering can just as well communicate joy. Joy is as available as sorrow. There are many colors to life, and you can choose one over another. You are not solely at the mercy of what has been handed to you.

Have you perhaps been a prickly porcupine? Ready at a moment's notice to fend life off?

Have you been like velcro and picked up everything around and kept it with you?

Could the sorrow you carry be a mask? I say it is because sorrow is not the truth of you. No matter how genuine your sorrow, it is not the truth of you. No matter how mammoth your sorrow, no matter how grievous, it is not the truth of you. The mask of sorrow may have been put on you, but you can take it off.

For a while, sorrow gives you comfort. Then it no longer does. It may outlast its usefulness. You do not have to keep it. You are not better with sorrow than without.

Rejoice in what there is to rejoice in. There is such a little turn in the dial from sorrow to joy. One of your senses is sense of humor. Remember you have it. Keep your sense of humor more than a lot of the things you keep.