You have been taught to be dismayed. You have been taught that dismay is an appropriate response. If you did not believe in dismay, would you have it? If you did not think it was the proper response, would you exhibit it? Must you have dismay?

Must you be frustrated when something isn’t the way you have decided it should be? What if you didn’t make such decisions in the first place? What if you moved right along no matter what the terrain?

What if you knew you were you regardless of what was in your way. What if you just tipped your hat to events and people, said Excuse me, and went a different way? What if everything that occurs is no more than bumping into someone on the street? or going around a pothole? or changing your pace? What if you didn’t have to mind what occurs around you?

What if you didn’t have to feel disappointed, hurt, upset, disturbed, aggravated, annoyed, frustrated or angry? What if you never had to?

Who said you did? Who says it now?

The world would have you get in a huff about your rights. What about your right to enjoy life as it comes? What about that?

What if everything didn’t bother you? What if you were never irascible because there was nothing to be irascible about? What if, in every moment, you chose peace instead of war? What if you didn’t battle with yourself at every twist and turn?

Do you wait for someone to give you permission to be at peace?

What if you believed it is possible for you not to war with the past, present, or future? What if you believed in Me?

If you believe in Me, would you not then believe in yourself?

You are not intended to be a slave to others, their thoughts, beliefs, or anything that infringes on your choosing your right to take life in your stride. You are the one who walks on Earth. Choose your own gait. Choose your path. Choose it now.

There is a door marked Love. And there is a door marked Disturbance. Which door do you knock on?

You have followed an invisible rope that led you to Disturbance. In fine print, under the sign, is written: “Leave your shoes and happiness outside.”

Let go of the rope. Venture out on your own. Come to the other door. In fine print under Love, it says: “Find joy here. Come in.”

There is no question which door you would choose, and yet…

Has some degree of suffering been your style? Has it been your virtue?

You can change boats in midstream. You can change directions. You must. Is there a question about that?

In every moment, you are making a choice for joy or discontent. If you truly would have joy, why, then, aren’t you choosing it at every moment?

Stop asking your questions about life, and plunge in. The water is fine. Whatever the temperature, you are in the waters of life, and so you swim, and so you leap and splash.

Do not tell Me now in that tone of voice that life is not so simple. I am telling you that life is. In every single moment, you have a choice. Let your heart choose, not your voracious mind. Your mind is greedy and would give up something now for something later that it imagines will be better.

Compare life to your waking up one morning and finding yourself married to the woman beside you. Well, then, that is your bride. Give her a kiss, and say Welcome! Be the same with life.

But life is not a vow nor is it a promise. It is what you have. Greet it. Soon enough it will change before your very eyes. Make the only choice you have to make, and that is to choose love and joy and so create them.