Step back from events in your life. When you are amidst the upset, you do not see far enough. You must remove yourself from the fray in your mind, and sit back a little. Let go of it. When you let go of the fray, you will see more choices. You will see possibilities that, in your excitement, you overlooked. You will even see that, if, indeed, your first fear does come to pass, it is not so dreadful as your dread of it, for you would be finished with it once and for all and walk away from it no different from when you entered into it.

So what if something doesn't turn out the way you want? So what? Why is it so important that things turn out the way you want?

I will tell you why. It is because you have counted on it. It is like you have invested money in the stock market. You track those stocks because you have invested in them. When they go up, you are elated. When they go down, you are deflated. You invested money and more than money, and so their ups and downs make you their pawn.

In life also, you invest yourself, and you know what you want your return to be. You even delude yourself that it must turn out the way you expect, or you are ruined, mistaken, or a fool. In any case, you judge yourself harshly.

It is fine to care, but when it is vanity or pride or control or always being right that you invest in, you are in the wrong game and you set yourself up. Invest, let go, invest, let go. Do not tie yourself up in your investment.

Life is not a rigged game. Life is not at your beck and call. You take your chances like everyone else. If there were no chance, cards and sports would not be games.

Life is not a sure thing, and you don't have to be right every time. Applaud yourself for making errors. You got out there and played. Congratulate yourself. What you have been doing, to My dismay, is calling unwanted results mistakes. No wonder your shoulders are down.

When things don't go the way you want (you would say when things go wrong or against you) instead of assigning yourself names of defeat, what if you love yourself just the same? What if you even love the events and the others' investment in them? Life upheld itself. There was a meeting and a departure. Now you have more roads ahead of you to take, more adventures, more choices, more expansion.

You do not know the beautiful meadows to which your so-called mistakes may lead you.

With life, all you have to do is live it. Do not make life your master any more than you are the master of every event of it. You were created in My image, but that does not mean that you control all the curves in life, that you can, or that you are even supposed to.

Not even do I proscribe your life in fine lines. I do not corral every inch of your life. I gave you your life to play in and delve into. I did not say, Make your life perfect in your eyes.

I said, Get out there and play. Toss up this world. It is the playing field. Play in the adventure. It is made of discovery. And more discovery.

Take not your investments in life so seriously. Take not life so seriously. There is always more. You have ventured out into the world of earth. The game is really easy when you let go of outcomes. Keep Me close to you, play well, enjoy the playing, don't count results, for results are not your story. I am, and you are.