The world might tell you that when it comes down to it, everything is about money. But, even in terms of the surface world, everything is about love and the pursuit of it. You look everywhere for tokens of love, and money is only a token. You want proof of love. Sometimes you want proof more than the actual love. You want to be able to say beyond a doubt: "I am loved. Look at all that the universe pours on me."

You spurn the stepmother in Snow White who looks in the mirror and wants confirmation that she is the most beautiful of all, but you look at yourself in the reflection of the world and want to see that you are the most beloved of all. Of course, you ARE the most beloved in My eyes. The world is lagging.

But even beyond your overwhelming need to be loved is your dauntless need to love. Deeply you want to be the most loving of all. You perceive a great distance between the love I say is in your heart and the love you notice there. You would close that distance, and yet you are the one who sticks things in between, sometimes barely keep the opening of your heart ajar. You open, close, open, close. Why, you have barely peeked into your heart. What are you afraid of finding there? That you really have only a smoldering ember of love, only ashes, only vestige, only a jot? Do you fear, that if you really looked, you would find that the love in your heart is in short supply, that your heart is dried out and perhaps contains only a dribble of love, only a remnant, perhaps only a notion of it?

If you think that your experience of love is primarily an experience of the lack of it, realize that your experience is your perception. You are the gate-keeper of your heart, and you have even locked yourself out. There can be no absence of love in your heart, but love can be stuck there. If the love in your heart does not circulate, then it is most assuredly stuck there. Is the love in your heart all gummed up?

Open Sesame in the stories of old is about the opening of hearts. A magic word opens the heart. The magic word is Open. Sesame merely oils the rusty locks.

King Arthur as a boy and the story of his sword in the stone is the story of the opening of hearts. In his innocence, he turned the key. In innocence, his sword was the key to open the stone. Innocence knows no barriers.

But there can be something caught in your throat. One word from you, and your heart will open like a most beautiful lily. Your heart will be so open that the entire world enters it. And you enter it, and for the first time, all armor is gone, and you sit in the throne of your heart.

Beloveds, take out the sword from your heart. Turn it the right way, and toss it aside, and love will flow from the mightiness of your heart. Stopping love is hard. That is the hardness you feel in your heart. Hardness is hard to swallow. Free your heart so that love in the world may be known, and so that you may know the love in your heart that you so richly deserve to give to the world, therefore to yourself and therefore to Me.

Hearts must be loosened. Certainly, the shackling of hearts has not worked well. Hearts of love must be undefined. They are not to be starved nor considered starved. No one is to be peremptorily starved of love. That is a mere concept. Unuseful. Outdated. Should have been thrown out a long time ago.