What do you really want? Become acquainted with yourself and know what you really want and go for it.
Everyone wants love. Everyone wants the blessings of togetherness. Everyone wants freedom. Solitude is also a need. Some crave peace, and some prefer commotion.
Yes, life in the world is made of contrast. Your desires are often opposites. Closeness and freedom. Togetherness and solitude. Peace and upset. This conglomeration of opposites does not make life a cinch on Earth.
Much of your time is spent in choosing. In the world, it has been kept a secret that you can really have everything. Mixed desires are two sides of the same coin, or you can look at mixed desires as a thermometer with a sliding scale. Where are you? Where do you want to be?
No one desires unhappiness - or do they? My dears, there are some who seem to thrive on unhappiness, as though unhappiness amounts to a feather in their cap.
Let’s look at joy now as something you give. How happy this approach would make you. What a difference this would make to you and to the world. Joy to the world.
What makes you happy? What would you like? Give out what you like. See what happens.
What makes you unhappy? What would you not like? Don’t give it.
Life in the world is not always what you call fool-proof. Not everything is tit for tat. Not everyone sees your gifts and reciprocates or thinks to do so. And so you give without expectation of a direct return. Give without strings attached in the recesses of your mind and heart. Giving has to be freely given, or it is not giving. Given with attachment is pretty much like stepping on the gas while you are in neutral. You don’t get anywhere. Give because you give. Give joy.
When you give to give joy, you give without expectation of return. In your giving is your return. If another has to pay you back, the squeeze is in your heart. You become a dunning bill collector. Beloveds, in your giving is your return. Give freedom, no checks and balances. Give from love not obligation, or not give at all. Sooner or later, in one way or another, you are the receiver of what you give.
At the very least, you can give Good Will. You have much more to give than stinginess.
What do you desire? It is not exactly that you are not responsible for your feelings. You have some say over your feelings, and you have more say over how you express your feelings. Someone chooses to hurt, and another chooses to bless. Someone chooses to be vindictive, and someone chooses to drop off a pie. You can be how you choose to be, short-range and long-range.
No one makes you give joy. No one makes you deny giving joy.
Your life is your life. You make your own choices. You can smile or you can frown. You can stint, or you can bestow. Your life is in your hands.
It is your choice to flounder, and it is your choice to set the course of your life. You choose the color crayon you draw with.
You have more freedom in your life than you give yourself credit for. Never say again that you couldn’t help it, for, of course, you can help it. Whether you are a student in elementary school or a teacher, yes, you can help it. You always have the choice of going higher. You can escalate your kindness just as well as you can escalate unkindness. Your choice.
Choose what your life is made of. Bless others, and so bless yourself.