“Whoa,” you say to a horse when you want him to stop. When you want to stop yourself from being happy, you say, “Woe.” You say, “Woe is me.”

Will you think of something else to say? Will you speak more along the lines of: “Fortunate am I. How fortunate I am. How fortunate. How incredibly fortunate am I.”

Is it necessary for something to go away before you will be glad for it? Every toe of yours is precious. Your arms and hands move, as if in a dance. You are filled with grace, beloveds. Your eyes see, and your eyes lift up. They open and close. Is this not a wondrous thing?

You can think about everything that you have and everything that you are, or you can think about what you don’t have and what you think you are not. Oh, beloveds, what are you thinking?

You have a mind that thinks and a heart that feels. You can wiggle your toes. You can have an itch. Is this not a miracle of life, that there are itches and you have the means to scratch them?

What is not a miracle in the human arena?

You have a voice that makes sounds, and these sounds can be intelligible to others? Wow, isn’t that amazing?

Will you now, beloveds, say Wow instead of Woe? Let Wow be your new favorite word.

Wow, you woke up this morning. Wow, you got out of bed.

Wow, the sun rose this morning. Wow, a day is dawning. A royal carpet of life has been rolled out for you. Hop onto it. Bounce on it. Jump for joy that you are alive. You are ALIVE. Wow, what a gift life is.

Life is not a penance you serve. Life is more than something to put up with. How about serving life with appreciation for it?

You are alive in a human body. This is such a miracle, and you think of being alive as an ordinary event when it is, all along, an extraordinary event. Wow, you are alive. What an opportunity you have been given. What an opportunity you have.

You have been handed a treasure, and you don’t know what you have in your hand. You may toss it aside for another day, this treasure you have in your hand.

You have been given a feast, with such great delicacies to eat, and you say the bread is stale. But what about the soup? And what about the salad, and what about the fruit from a tree? Are they stale? Why single out the bread?

What about your becoming an appreciator? When are you going to? I suggest now. I suggest right now. I suggest you greet life right now with alacrity. I say you have joie de vivre. I say I gave it to you.

What have you done with your joie de vivre? Did you stick it in a drawer? In your jewelry box? When was the last time you took out your joie de vivre and placed it in your heart?

Perhaps you have said at one time, “What is the point of life when I am not happy?”

Beloveds, the very point of life is to be happy. If the spot of life you are on does not give you happiness, move yourself over to happiness. Unburden yourself of the frame of mind that convinces you that you are unhappy.

I gave you a gift of life, and you accepted it. If you have grumbled even once about this gift, you have grumbled too much.

I say, Whoa to grumbling. I say, Get up right now, and have a picnic with life. Make those sandwiches. Eat every crumb. Let Me hear you applaud life and all who are in it with you. Let Me hear you applaud. Louder, please, louder.