What in life is a bafflement to you now? Whatever it is, it is something within you. No matter how external it may be that is unsettling to you right now, it is you yourself that is rocking your boat. No matter what, this is the case. Everything is internal, beloveds. No matter what cause you would like to give to it, the cause is in you.
Awareness of this gives you a head start.
I hear you now saying, “But, God, but…”
Let Us say that right now you are having a difficulty with your child. Nothing is changed. There is something within you that is crying out to be understood. Whatever it is that bothers you, it is your difficulty.
You say, “My difficulty? My son is bringing home D’s and E’s, and it’s my difficulty?”
Of course, I tell you that this is your difficulty. You are the one who is bothered. There is something here for you to deal with that doesn’t belong to your son. Dear One, I do not say that it is nothing at all that your son is failing at school, yet there is something in you that irritates you and you have to deal with. Your son can’t do it for you.
Perhaps you feel strongly that your son has to be brilliant, and you cannot deal with the repercussions that arise in you from the fact that he is not producing brilliantly. He may indeed be brilliant. There are perhaps alternatives that don’t demand that your son put effort into what may not interest him.
Perhaps your son is not brilliant in the ways you desire. Then, perhaps more clearly, you have something with yourself to deal with. Is your son less your son because the course in life you would choose for him is not his ambition?
What is there in your son’s lack of performance that brings out anger or hopelessness in you? What is at stake for you?
Of course, if he were kidnapped at knifepoint, this situation is seriously threatening to you. If your son were arrested and charged with a heavy crime, innocent or guilty, you have a heavy weight to deal with. The death of a child. Yes, of course, there are heavier difficulties in life than your son’s flunking school.
The good thing here is that there is a solution to your difficulty, and you are the one to find it. There is more than one solution. There may well be many possibilities. Don’t make being hard on your son one of your choices. You don’t have to sweet-talk him, nor do you have to lambast him. Lambasting him might make you feel better but hardly your son.
Anyway, life, as you live it, is a maze. You will find your way out. You will find a way out of your difficulty.
Let Me make clear that I don’t say that your difficulty has no partners. There are a million possibilities. You are to find the golden treasure wherever it lies. I will tell you one thing, dear ones: The treasure also lies within you.
I will tell you something else. Any difficulty you find yourself in, you contributed to it. Now, now, this is not affixing blame. Certainly, you didn’t desire to create this difficulty, and yet you involved yourself. Maybe your son’s difficulty is the worst situation you could ever involve yourself in. One thing for you to learn is that, by far, your difficulties are not life or death difficulties. You may have thought they were.
In life you are learning how to discern. You can well discern yourself, beloved. You can discern beyond wider than you have ever discerned before.