You may expect too much of yourself at the same time as you do not expect enough. When you disappoint yourself, your disappointment puts your attention in the wrong camp. You put it on the past. Past decisions weigh you down. What is before you now is optimum.

Uncling yourself from what occurred even yesterday. You have been quick to remonstrate with yourself and slow to make changes. Perhaps looking back gives you some kind of comfort the way touching an aching tooth with your tongue might. Take comfort now in what you can do. What you can do is lift yourself up from the seat where you have been sitting and see a new vast vista before you.

There are patterns in your life, and you do not welcome them all. It could be that all your life you were quick to take offense at life's unfolding. Perhaps now you can be more carefree and resist less or resist not at all.

Someone made you wait today. Do you really have to tap your foot in annoyance, or talk about it in capital letters? What if you told yourself that these things happen, that they are part of life, and that you can deal with them differently? First off, you can let go of making them into calamities. You can just let go of them, the same way you put a book down.

Whatever befalls in life that you do not want, you do not have to perceive it as awful. Perhaps what you perceive of as dire is a blessing because it calls your attention to a higher plane. You don't have to erupt in anger. Did you think you did? Perhaps you have thought you have to prove something, prove that you will not be put upon, prove that you can stick up and fight for yourself, and, so then, you have a good reason to make a fuss and wear yourself out.

You can make a statement without fighting over it.

You can live life without fighting at every turn or every other turn.

Honor yourself, and you will not be so ruffled when someone doesn't honor you. He is thinking about himself, not you, pretty much the same way as you are thinking about yourself and not about him. It is for you to change the focus of your life. Raise it a notch, wouldn't you like to?

Simply don't get in a huff anymore. If the world is not dancing to your tune, perhaps you want to put on a different song.

Perhaps you have been giving the world ultimatums, telling it how it should behave. Consider now how you may broaden the ways you respond to the world. Have a larger repertoire. Offense and defense need to retreat to the past. Pull a new arrow out of your pack. Count your blessings, not battles. Count occasions for love.

What is a great occasion for love than the moment right before you?

Consider that love is creative. What are some creative ways to deal with an escalating situation? Will you consider trying a new way?

Life is a play, and you are an actor in it. You can try out new roles, beloveds. If you have been a swashbuckler, maybe now you can be a peace-giver. If you have been in the middle of forays, maybe now you can step aside and see from a greater distance and kindly dispense God's Grace.