The most wonderful thing about life is that we are always given another chance; in terms of our growth and our understanding we can never reach the end of the road. This may sound a bit scary on first reading it; as though life is a matter of constantly retracing our steps along the same, boring old road. But it isn’t like that at all. The road along which we travel is as broad, as varied and as interesting as our imagination is prepared to make it. Living is all about learning – the old adage says, “Live and learn and learn to live.” Nothing can be truer, for the only vehicle we have for growth is life. Just as with any journey through uncharted territory, we will get lost and that can be confusing and even frightening sometimes. We get sidetracked and suddenly find that the broad, pleasant highway we were following has become a narrow, twisty lane winding through dangerous countryside.
We meet many travellers along the road; some are friendly, others who cannot be trusted or believed when they tell us something; others are sick and need nursing; others are even more lost than we might feel and beg us to show them the way; others are ultra-confident and so sure of their direction that they do not even pause to acknowledge the presence of other travellers. At different points along the road we ourselves need help; sometimes we don’t realise it and struggle on helplessly until we realise what we need and have the courage to ask. Some of us find the journey tedious because we are constantly anticipating the next obstacle in our path. In so doing, not only so we ensure that we find such an obstacle soon but we have spent so much energy worrying about what it might be, we don’t have sufficient strength to deal with it. We try and try but because we have exhausted ourselves with worry, we find ourselves overwhelmed and rapidly reaching the end of our tether. When we reach the point where we can do no more, when the dark clouds have excluded all the sunlight from our life, that is when help comes; it comes from unexpected sources but it always comes. We are never deserted by those who accompany us from Spirit, throughout our earthy lives. They are not permitted to interfere with our own free will; they will whisper suggestions in our ear if we will but listen but if we ignore their suggestions, at the point when we feel we can take no more, they will see that help is forthcoming.
It should not be like this. Our journey through this earthly life should be a challenging but exciting adventure, one that brings new interest as well as new challenges each day. Sure there will be dangerous areas to pass through and we will need to exercise great caution at certain times, but that makes up the variety that keeps life ever fascinating. Our attitude is all important; what we think will become what we experience. Expect the worst and all manner of ills will beset us and it will seem we no sooner overcome one bad thing when another occurs. On the other hand, be positive, accept that everything happens to us for good purposes and we will always have the strength and ability to deal with them, and life becomes sunnier and infinitely more enjoyable. Remember that we do not journey alone and that all we meet along the road we are intended to meet so that we can help one another. Those friendships, and the lessons we are taught by what we share with others, fill our lives with love and excitement if only we will permit them to. It is true to say that the most enjoyable and well-lived life is measured by the friends we have made and the love we have given, not by the things or the money we have accumulated. Things and money can become such a great weight to carry around that the effort tires us out and we have no energy to enjoy the real pleasures life has to offer. Of course we need money and we need possessions but within limits. Moderation in all things except love, is a good motto on which to base our lives. Love, unconditional love, should be the cornerstone of our existence and the more we practice it the easier it becomes.
Often we will fail but that is not a cause for misery because we will always receive other chances. There is no such thing as a ‘last chance’ where the Creator is concerned. Our life is eternal; the period we spend on earth is important but it is but a tiny part of our existence. Consequently, we have all the time there is in which to do better, to compensate for the mistakes we made, to make up to those people we know we have wronged. And one way or another, the opportunity to do just that will regularly present itself until we have done well enough to move forward. Sometimes the opportunity will arise here and sometimes in the hereafter but make no mistake, it will come. It is therefore foolish for us to waste time in recriminations for things we have done or said that we know we should not have done. True repentance is to recognise what we have done and then make a special effort to look for the opportunity to atone for those transgressions. Then we can try harder not to repeat the mistake. Mistakes are the Creator’s way of teaching us important lessons and we will learn little without them, especially so if we go about wringing our hands and weeping because we have done so. Look at mistakes from this perspective and we will be freed from remorse, find we make fewer of them and discover a new enjoyment enters our life.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL!
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