When matters seem to get in the way, when little troubles with inanimate objects pile up, the car won’t start, the computer acts up, the kitchen faucet drips, then, beloveds, turn the other cheek of your mind. Your sense of humor had been hiding, and now you will find it.

In the world, things are not always in your command. The fewer things you have, the less will be your wrestling with them. It is not for the mechanical item to understand more, to behave better, to stop or to start. It is innocent. You may be too, but you are the Human Being. No need to kick the tire of your car.

When you drop a favorite dish and it breaks, you don’t blame the dish. You may blame your wet hands or the configuration of stars or your cluttered counter, but you don’t blame the dish. You are sorry it is broken, but you don’t vent anger on it. Why then on inanimate things that don’t act according to your will?

Physical things are only physical things. They are at your mercy, beloveds. You are not at theirs. Get a little distance between you and obstructions that presently seem to overtake your life. Aggravations are only aggravations. You cannot get caught up in them. A washing machine is only a washing machine. A car is only a car. A kitchen faucet is only a faucet. And yet you let them wound your heart and ruin your day.

And, beloveds, when you aggravate over other people, there is a part of you that is looking at people as ungainly objects who are in your way, also responsible for how you feel. We come back again and again that your feelings belong to you. Your irateness is your irateness. The puddle you step in is not the cause of your mood. The customer service person who doesn’t hear a word you say is not the cause of your mood. A knife is not responsible for a gash. It is the hand that holds the knife, When it comes to your stabbing thoughts, most often the hand is your own. You do not have to wound yourself, beloveds, with the incorrigible contingencies of life. Cars are going to break down. Computers and customer service personnel are not always going to serve you. Glass breaks, dust falls, and unexpected obstacles will trip you. You live in the relative world. Beloveds, why are you surprised? Why are you so adamant?

You could occupy your life with fighting every little thing. You could always be standing with your dukes up. Every minute you could find some cause to aggravate you. A door won’t close. Traffic goes slow. A dress fell off its hanger. Beloveds, fall off your anger. Pick up the dress, and be done with it.

If you want excellent health, walk through obstacles and come out the other side. You have had an idea that you have to have anger, that somehow it serves you. I do not say you must not have anger. I am suggesting that it may not serve you. Anger keeps the psychiatrists and courts busy, and expression of anger fills the world, and yet, no matter what incites the anger, anger does not have to rule and occupy the territory of your life so much. Anger does not have to be.

Forgiveness is the release of anger. Angriness is not the release of anger. And if you feel anger, you do not always have to express it. Acknowledge it, and move on. Don’t keep dragging it with you. You may feel that anger pulls you, but anger is the cart that you pull. No matter how justified, no matter how right you are, anger is anger, and you do not have to have it.