If you knew not the word "calamity", what would you make of undesired events? Imagine the enormous control you would let go of! Imagine how free you would be!

Heretofore, in the fiction of world thought, you have decided what to make of things and what category to put them in. Perhaps you have had the unconscious thought:

"Well, if I cannot make my demands on life and have them fulfilled, at least I will rate what does happen. I will put my stamp of approval or disapproval on the events of life. I will sort them out. I will be vehemently for or against what transpires. I will be the evaluator of what has already occurred, and I will vote. To that extent, I will be the decision-maker. Life may do what it wants, but I will be vociferous about what it does, and I will assign it merits and demerits.

"I will not see beyond what has manifested. I will stand on the soapbox of myself and berate life when it does not live up to my standards. Whether it is my personal life or the world at large, I will set up a squall when I do not get what I ordered. It is not that I am a complainer. I am simply one who points out life's flaws and condemns them. I do this over and over again the way a mantra is recited.

"How dare life not go according to my plan! If it is not my plan, then it must be God's, and what is He or She thinking of? If only God would listen to me…

"What can God possibly mean when He or She says, 'All is well'? God must certainly see a world different from the one I see! I think His vision needs to change so that He may acknowledge that the world has gone off course. Does God ignore what is right and what is wrong?"

My children, I do not say that your complaints are baseless. I say: What do you accomplish by them? Do your complaints raise the consciousness of the world? What kind of merit do you ascribe to your skill of complaining? Perhaps you would consider becoming proficient in not complaining. Why not become proficient in pointing out the beauty of life to yourself, not as one who is blind, but as one who points out the grace of life rather than reiterating its faults? When you let go of plaints and ascribe to the Higher, what waves will you stir on the surface of life? My beloveds, what waves have you been stirring?

Your constant criticism of the world imprisons you and it imprisons the world. It keeps you in constant despair, adding more logs to the pile of your discontent. And so, unwittingly, you encourage that which you would remove.

When you have a child, and you constantly point out his faults, what hope do you give him? What can he make of himself when you underline his failings? What do you call his attention to? What you say about him is what you make of him. He most likely will fill the portrait you make of him.

And so, with the world, no matter how accurate you may be, will you take life in stride? Will you let go of judgment and self-righteousness and lean toward the goodness you so desire and so incur more of it? You have been heard. I have heard your pleas for a better world. And I would enlist your aid.