Callousness in the world comes from hardening of the heart. The human heart is meant to be soft and tender. Rubbing against the grain of its very tenderness makes the heart callous. A callous heart is afraid of nothing but its own tenderness. So a calloused heart is afraid of the truth of its own self, and so becomes self-serving. Callousness pushes itself to the front of the line and sees and hears nothing but its own demands.

A hard heart is not strong. Why would a strong heart have to reinforce itself? Why would a strong heart want to render itself less than tender?

A tender heart reaches far. It does not keep itself to itself. Its light shines out for more than itself.

A heart needs no defense. A heart is meant to give genially. A moat around your heart keeps love out. Love isn't to be kept in, nor is it to be kept out.

Selfishness does not even keep your heart opened to yourself. Selfishness may grab things towards you, but in its self-seeking, it has forgotten you. It has thought you are less than you are. It has disregarded you.

Do not worry about vulnerability. You are vulnerable. Be vulnerable to love instead of offense. Why be vulnerable to less than love? You can rage and storm, but you cannot forever deny the love in your heart and the love in the world.

The world has been ungainly. It has been self-serving, and in so doing, has done disservice to itself, thinking it had to. But its necessity is to love. Everything depends on it.

Amazingly, love has been defamed, hung up by its heels. Tenderheartedness has been looked at as an adolescent who is dreamy-eyed and doesn't yet know about the seamy-side of life or that it borders him on every side. Tenderness has been looked at as a country cousin just arrived in the big city.

Yet there is great love in the world. There is love whole and there is love distorted. Anything less than love whole is love thwarted.

That is the story of the world. It has looked for less than love as proof of non-love. It has piled up great evidence of less than love, and said, "See? See that?"

But love cannot be lost. It can be disregarded, but not lost. Love, like the sun, finds its way. Love must emerge. Have you not seen it in unlikely places?

There is such simplicity to the open heart. It is only itself. It has no add-ons, and it has no detractions.

Let your bedraggled heart take its rightful place in the universe of love.

I ask you to serve all hearts. I ask you to give honor to the seat of love. I ask you to promote love. It has no price. It is a gift.

What is yours is to be given. So it is your heart (and Mine) that must be given. You don't give it away — you give it. You don't squander it. You reveal it.

A human heart is a noble thing.

A human heart is a transformer.

A human heart is a transcender.

Your heart must transcend the parameters and events of the world, or else it is darkened.

Your heart has to go higher. And then higher again.

Allow your heart to be what it is best at. It is best at love. Let your heart be what it is. You have put your heart in a box for safekeeping. Take it out. Your heart needs no safekeeping. It needs spending. It needs to come out into the sunshine of life and see itself and be itself. Let your heart be.