We send best wishes to everyone for a calm and peaceful holiday. We will resume our weekly blogs next week, though Soulbytes will continue to be posted over the weekend. Here is today’s guidance.

Let not outer circumstances disturb your inner balance. Remain steady inside and out no matter what you encounter and no matter where life takes you. Your encounters without, however, are meaningful. Find the deeper meaning in them. What do they say about you? What do they point out to you about your own behavior? In this manner will compassion be awoken within. Allow it to gently emerge without in a natural manner and notice how it makes you feel within. Perhaps then you will understand what it means to be in balance. Yes, as within, so without, but as without so within is equally true.

Position the self wisely today. Like the eye of the storm stand calmly, keeping balance while outside energy does its thing. Without attachment remain grounded, pragmatic and centered. In patient waiting you will understand the proper direction to take. Your decisions will be right. In turmoil nothing gets resolved. It is only from a place of calm centeredness that right action will be revealed. Only then will it be time to act. Wait. Calmness. Take action only when it is absolutely in alignment with what is right.

What can you let go of and what can you open up to in your life? There is wisdom that says let go of your thoughts and open to the magic. There is wisdom that says let go of resentments and be compassionate. There is wisdom that says let go of anger and be loving. There is wisdom that suggests letting go of desires and opening to true needs, and yet there is wisdom that suggests letting go of needs and being empty.

Within the self lies the wisdom of the ancient sages. This is the ancient self that is waiting to be tapped into. This is nature within each of you, as personally natural as the moon rising and setting, as available as sunlight, wind, and rain. Perhaps letting go and being open are as easy as opening a window so that air may flow freely in and out, so that your own nature may stir and activate within you. Imagine letting go and opening in this simple way today, like a window, and then see how your experiences naturally unfold.

Do not be fooled by what you hear. It is the human condition to both lie and accept what it hears as truth, but that is the fearful human who lies and believes untruths. That is the fool. This is not a weakness but a strength in hiding. For even such a fool seeks to maintain balance and so should be studied and considered a work in progress, a seeker. The liar/fool must constantly pay attention, must constantly string more lies to keep a falsehood alive, honing skills of value in the process. But would it not be better to put such skills to better use, seeking to align with truth and honesty, going where the spirit leads?

Dismiss no one; dismiss nothing. Consider everything you hear, but make your own decisions for yourself regarding your own life and how you want to live it, regarding your own actions and what is best for you. Take steps along your path of heart rather than along a path of deceit or discontent, rather than choosing ignorance. Guide yourself with wisdom and truth. Where are you not seeing clearly, being confused or blinded? How are you fooling yourself?

Hold the self accountable. Be responsible for who you are. Without blaming others for your life situation take over the care of the self more fully. Human beings like to look at others as the root cause of all the ills within the self and within the world, but the truth is that each human being is the world and is of the world, fully exploiting and fully expecting its needs to be met. If things are to change each human being must face the life they have created and lived, the life that is no longer viable for one reason or another. For some people this comes as an inner shock, for others as an outer shock. Either way it’s time to face the truth and change.

Only in each human being’s efforts to change the habits and behaviors of the self, and amending its habits and behaviors in the world, will balance be achieved. The real crux of the matter is the need for all to take responsibility for the self and the world. You are all accountable. You have all created the problems you now face. Only you can fix them. Time to step up and be honest, even as you expect others to do so. Time to step up and be the truly loving and compassionate human beings you are all fully capable of being as well. This is it; this is the real work of now, for all human beings, no exceptions.