THE MEMO

Take Counsel.  I hear your cry.  It passes through the darkness, filters through the clouds, mingles with starlight, and finds its way to my heart on the path of a sunbeam.

I have anguished over the cry of a hare choked in a noose of a snare, a sparrow tumbled from the nest of its mother, a child thrashing helplessly in a pond, and a son shedding his blood on a cross.  Know that I hear you also.  Be at peace.  Be calm.  I bring thee relief for your sorrow, for I know its cause … and its cure.

You weep for all your childhood dreams that have been corrupted by failure.  You weep for all your self-esteem that has been corrupted by failure.  You weep for all your potential that has been bartered for security.  You weep for all your individuality that has been trampled by mobs.  You weep for all your talent that has been wasted through misuse. 

You look upon yourself with disgrace and you turn in terror from the image you see in the pool.  Who is this mockery of humanity staring back at you with bloodless eyes of shame?  Where is the grace of your manner, the beauty of your figure, the quickness of your movement, the clarity of your mind, the brilliance of your tongue?  Who stole your goods?  Is the thief’s identity known to you, as it is to me?  Once you placed your head in a pillow of grass in your father’s field and looked up at a cathedral of clouds and knew that all the gold of Babylon would be yours in time.

Once you read from many books and wrote on many tablets, convinced beyond any doubt that all the wisdom of Solomon would be equaled and surpassed by you.  And the season would flow into years until lo, you would reign supreme in your own garden of Eden.  Dost thou remember who implanted those plans and dreams and seeds of hope within you?  You cannot.

You have no memory of that moment when first you emerged from your mother’s womb and I placed my hand on your soft brow.  And the secret I whispered in your small ear when I bestowed my blessings upon you?  Remember our secret?  You cannot.

The passing years have destroyed your recollection, for they have filled your mind with fear, and doubt, and anxiety, and remorse, and hate, and there is no room for joyful memories where these beasts habitate.  Weep no more.  I am with you, and this moment is the dividing line of your life.  All that has gone before is like unto no more than that time you slept within your mother’s womb.  What is past is dead.  Let the dead bury the dead.

This day you return from the living dead.  This day I stretch myself upon thee three times and you live again.  This day I put my mouth upon your mouth and my eyes upon your eyes and my hands upon your hands and your flesh is warm again.

This day like unto Jesus at the tomb, I command you to come forth and you will walk from your cave of doom to begin a new life.  This is your birthday.  This is your new date of birth.  Your first life was only a rehearsal.  This time the curtain is up.  This time you will not fail.  Light your candles, share your cake, pour the wine.  You have been reborn.  Like a butterfly from its chrysalis, you will fly .. fly as high as you wish, and neither wasps, nor dragonflies, nor mankind shall obstruct your mission or your search for the true riches of life.

Feel my hand upon thy head.  Attend to my wisdom.  Let me tell you again the secret I told you at your birth and you forgot.  You, beloved, are my greatest miracle.  You are the greatest miracle in the world.  Those were the first words you ever heard.  Then you cried.  They all cry.  I have sent many wise men and poets and messengers with the word of your beauty and godliness, but you did not listen to them.

Still I love you and I am with you now.  You have not understood.  You have been told that you are a special piece of work, noble in reason, infinite in faculties, like an angel in action, like a god in apprehension.  You have been told that you are the salt of the earth but you believe no one.  You burned your map to happiness, you abandoned your claim to peace, you snuffed out the candles that had been placed along your destined path to glory, until you fell into the hell of your own creation.  Then you cried and beat your breast and cursed the luck that had befallen you.  You searched for a scapegoat on which to blame your unhappiness.  You blamed your mediocrity, your failures on the will of God.  You were wrong!  You have the tools to build a new life, I have given them to you. 

You can see and enjoy the magic of a leaf, a snowflake, a child, a cloud, a star and the look of love.  Count one blessing.  You can hear a baby cry, wind in the trees, a robin’s call, and the words I love you.  Count another blessing.  Are you mute?  No.  You can speak as no other of my creatures and your words can calm the angry, uplift the despondent, cheer the unhappy, encourage the defeated and say, I love you.  Count another blessing.  You can move and stretch and run and dance and work.  Within you are 500 muscles, 200 bones and 7 miles of nerve fiber all synchronized to do your bidding.  Count another blessing.  You are unloved and unloving?  No, No more.  Count twice.

Put your hand on your chest and feel your heart beat; hour after hour, day and night, 36 million beats each year, year after year through more than 60 thousand miles of veins, arteries and tubing.  Man has never created such a machine!  Count another blessing.

Count your skin, your lungs, your brain (the most complex structure in the universe.)  No nation’s gold is better than you.  None of the world’s wonders are greater than you.  You are my finest creation.  Tally the list of yourself.  You have and are so much.  Your cup overflows with beauty and blessing of yourself.  Know then the first secret of happiness is already within you.  I know, because I put it there.  Count yourself the blessing that I have made you, proclaim your rarity.  You are the most valuable treasure on the face of the earth, for I created you and there is only one of you.  You show no knowledge or appreciation of your uniqueness.  Yet you are the rarest thing in the world.  Why do you value yourself in pennies when you are worth a king’s ransom?

Why did you listen to those who demeaned you?  And far worse, why did you believe them?  Never demean yourself again!  All power is vested in you and you must choose to use your power to realize my glory and your own.  Choose to love, laugh, create, persevere, praise, heal, give, act and grow.  Take and choose life in its fullest.

You are more than a human being, you are a human becoming.  You are capable of great wonders.  Never settle for the crumbs of life!  Have joy in this day today.  You will feel despair no more and each day will be a challenge and a joy.  You are born again a new miracle, a new chance to choose.  Do all things with love, love for yourself.  Wipe away your tears.  Reach out, grasp my hand and stand straight.  I have cut the grave cloths that have bound you.  You are the greatest miracle in the world.  I love you, and it is an affront to me when you do not love yourself.