Refrain from expecting others to be what you want them to be. Maybe they once were but are not now. Let people be what they are when they are. There is nothing else for you to do. You don’t have say over other people. You realize that you don’t always have say over yourself. Give freedom to those around you. Give freedom to the world. You are living your life, and others must live theirs.

Make new dreams, beloveds, when your dreams capitalize on others. Don’t hold on to the old dreams that had their day. Let them go. They may have been true once, but that doesn’t mean they are now. It is in letting go that your dreams can be realized. Release some of your dreams like balloons so that they can come true. Only in freedom can your dreams come true.

Focus on becoming the wonderful creature you want someone else to be. Adore your loved one and set no price on adoration. No one has to marry you. No one has to not marry you. No one has to do anything, no one but you. You have to come to peace with letting go. Loving is one thing. Attaching is another. No child of Mine is meant to latch on to another. My children are meant to be free-wheeling.

Your definition of love may have been attachment. You may have mixed up love with attachment. Almost surely, you have. You who would not set conditions, set them all the time. You initiate requirements from another. You hold on tight when it is necessary to let freedom ring.

Let those who want to come close to you come close. And those who wish to go away, bless them to their wanderings.

Let the theme of your life be letting go rather than holding on. Remove your fingers that clutch one by one. Let your palms be open to life. Let your hands be like Christ’s. They offered, and did not tighten. What did he need from anyone for himself? And what do you think you do? You certainly don’t need someone to serve you from a sense of obligation or duty or simply because you insist on it. Insist on untying bindings, not tightening them.

Do you think I am talking to someone else? I am talking to you. Look Me in the eye, and you will see that I am talking expressly to you.

If you are ever annoyed at someone else’s actions, then you know that you are holding on to expectations. When someone disappoints you, you have been holding on. Hold fast to your dreams but have dreams that do not require performance from another.

If you dream of a certain job, go for it, but do not, even in your heart, demand that it be given to you. If your dream is to write a book, write it with your full heart. But do not demand that this one or that one read it or that this or that publisher publish it. Fulfill your dreams, and let others have theirs. You are a giver of freedom, not demands.