The familiar is only the familiar. What is familiar is no more true than what is not familiar. What you are used to, what you are used to thinking, is nothing more than what you have been used to. What you are used to is not necessarily right. Because you have seen a certain way, and only a certain way, you have seen a limited portion, and that limited portion is where your expectations come from.

Expectations are seldom met. What unfolds may exceed your expectations; the chance of that is greater when you have no expectation to exceed. Expectation is opening the door only a crack. Better to open the door all the way. Make room for fulfillment.

We have talked about the universe expanding through your vision. For this to happen, your vision first has to expand. For your vision to expand, you have to let go of your old pictures.

You want innocence, not expectation.

Your vision is like a camera. It was an old brownie. It served you well. Now get a zoom lens. See bigger. See further. See closer. See.

You have been bending the truth.

You have been cutting your long legs to fit the bed.

Now you unfold your vision.

What is before you is an endless unfolding. When a paper cut-out is folded, it is not opened. Open it up, and it expands, and there is more to be seen.

The main picture to let go of is your picture of yourself. It has been colored, but it has not been in full color. It was not clear. You made too much of your picture and not enough of yourself. You made yourself too important and not important enough. You assumed that your ego was you. You thought that pitiful thing was you. You upheld your ego and neglected your truth. And now you flick off ego, and the true picture of you appears. When you had only the one picture of you, the picture of your ego, you thought it was big. And now you see that it was ever small, and that there is a far bigger picture of you just over the horizon. You are afraid to let go of the smaller picture until the bigger one is fully over the horizon.

But let go of the little picture now. It holds you back. It holds back the dawn. We are talking about the dawning of you.

And you are just ready to dawn. You are ready to recognize your dawning. Like the sun, you are appearing. You are a sunrise just reaching the horizon. You are a sunrise hanging on to the horizon because you are a little afraid to emerge. But there has been enough interim. The line of the horizon is not safer than the sky. Do not be afraid to rise. It really is not comfortable being on the cusp of rising. Unrisen, you are bent. Risen, you unbend, and you are open to the universe and open to yourself.

You are the unfoldment of the universe.

As you rise, you see more. As you rise, more is seen. You bring the light with you. Let it be seen. Let go of where you have been. You have been there long enough.

This is the second rising of you. This is the rising of you with your eyes open.

Rise to that expanded horizon. Expand the horizon. There is no line. It is an imagined thing. There is a blending. There is a merging, and you emerge.

A baby bird breaks its own shell. No one breaks it for him. He doesn't wait for an outward signal. He breaks the shell himself, and the shell is broken, and he steps out. He looks around. He has burst from his shell, and the rest is preparatory for his taking wing.

You have already burst from your shell. You are shell-less and open to the awaiting universe, and now you are ready to take wing, and take wing you will.