The crucifixionDear Tom,

Sometimes even the most steady people in your life falter. They hurl stones, they throw tantrums. They create a spiral stemming from a tortured place in their mind to which you can be no cure. You become the trigger, and you become the cause of something that happened long before you existed in their life.

Forgive us, my friends, for we know not what we do. There will be times when I will hold the nails to your wrists and there will be times when you will hold them to mine. Forgive. Accept. Love. It’s the way to our enlightenment.

Understand as you lay on your cross that rarely is that nail creating a new wound. Rather, it is opening an old one, and the blood that pours out has pooled there since the dawn of your suffering.

Understand as you hold the nail firm in your angry torment that neither the hammer nor the nail are new. Rather, they’ve been bequeathed to you by countless souls that have knelt there before you. You have chosen to pick them up, and press them to the wounds of another.

Forgive. Let the blood flow and the hammer fall as a great testament to your love. Love yourself enough to become aware of this moment. See its effects now so that you may find the truth, and in that truth know that you have the power to experience whatever you want, and the power to choose how you see this experience now.

Accept. Know the beauty of the moment your skin opens and the blood flows. It is there you must shine the light of your awareness. You have chosen to bleed here and now. Are you the scar’s master or are you the slave to the story it tells? Which would you prefer?

Love. As you bring the hammer down find love in that space. You are allowing a great opportunity for the light of love to shine. Yet know you can decide to be the master of the hammer you now wield, or a slave to its weight. Which would you prefer?

Know now that your actions are nothing more than opportunities. Do not look at others now. Instead, focus and see the choices you have made to get you here. Study yourself and only use the actions of others as a chance to continue that self-study. Here you will know that you can either become the master of yourself or a slave to the stories you tell. Which would you prefer?