To thine own heart, you have been false. Unless there is joy overflowing in your heart, you have been false to it. You have tried to denature your heart. You would have it be an instrument other than it is. You are timid with your heart. Otherwise, why would you protect it so?

You have made of your heart a dam, and you regulate it. Your heart is not meant to be regulated or relegated to sequences and rations. Your heart is meant to be full-fledged. You have been holding your heart back, even if only by a thread. Let your heart give birth to love now.

If your heart were a flag, it is a flag you have rolled up. You open it to take peeks every once in a while, but then you cover it up again quickly for safekeeping. Your heart is not meant to be kept safe. Safety is not a consideration for a heart of love.

If your heart were a thermometer, would you tell it what temperature it must read. Is that not foolish? Your heart has a wider range than anything you decide. Your heart is not meant to be a decision. Love is not meant to be a decision. There is to be no start and stop to love.

If your heart were a cake in the oven, it is one you have kept in too long.

If your heart were a pendant, you left it somewhere and forgot to wear it.

If your heart were a drum, you have forgotten to drum it.

If your heart were a fife, you have not played it.

Wear your heart on your sleeve? Where else should it be worn? Oh, yes, on your face, in your eyes, in your hands, on your chest. Your heart is meant to skywrite across the universe. Your heart is meant to be ever soaring, ever touching, abutting the universe, abutting every soul in the universe, giving love at every turn, randomly, wholeheartedly, tossing it up and letting it fall where it may. In truth, your heart can only fall on love. Love draws out love and provides its own cushion.

Do not believe so much in slights. They are manufactured by the mind. Let your heart be what it is. It is not a heart of gain. It is a heart of giving. No heart is meant to condemn or pull away or draw back or isolate itself. Hearts are not meant to use caution.

Life is not meant to be lived in a protected zone. No moat is meant to cut off your love from everyday life. No fences. If there must be a fence, then make it a fence with a gate that swings open. What fence can there be when a gate is open and will not close?

You are to be openhanded and open-hearted. The safe heart is no heart at all. It is a poor imitation. Save your heart from repression. Keep it safe from miserliness. The gold of your heart is not meant to be kept. You are supposed to spend it, knowing full well that there is more where it came from.

If you removed the bars from your heart, how happy you would be. If you are hesitant to remove all bars at once, then replace the iron bars with ones made of willow. Willow bends. Willow will let love through. And then you will be readied to have no bars at all.

Bars keep love out, beloveds. You are meant to let love in. Today, let your heart be a heart of plain love.