Caution.

Nothing is what it seems.

What is good,

and what is evil,

is not so easy to discern.

Happiness, without virtue,

is vanity.

Love, without commitment,

is selfishness.

Be doubly careful.

To be alive entails certain

responsibilities.

Though what seduces us is

to detach,

to act as if we were the center of the universe...

And, in life,

every step counts,

a measure.

Every breath,

intention.

So, do not look away.

When it appears,

sin demands

that you recognize it

and, at last, refuse it.

Change.

Alter.

Return.

How can you recognize good without facing evil?

For automatic choices are also part of the problem:

they require no presence.

So, we are all responsible,

not merely through practices,

nor through good-neighbor policies.

And, even in the pursuit of happiness,

betraying yourself will never bear good fruit.

The ends never justify the means.

Again, the problem of maps

and what has been mapped.

Who would trade a person for a profile?

Listen to your heart,

which expands and contracts.

The cold and the heat,

like the world itself.

It whispers;

It teaches.

Be still.

Breathe.

With your eyes closed.

Inhale.

You know, as I know.

Everything that goes away returns,

and not everything that lets go

becomes detached.

Debts.

I owe this to myself:

integrity,

the structure of the soul.

Kept,

expressed,

fulfilled.

For, in the end,

it is me with Him.

Everything that is spoken

is first addressed to God.

Then, to the universe.

Then, to oneself.

And, finally, to the other.

Remember this,

for your words,

when they drift away from intention,

may do nothing more than deceive others

and even yourself.

But the infinite,

space,

cycles and groups,

the very space your body occupies,

will it not know

your heart?

Think, I beg you.

Think again.

For doing what is right

is never easy to entertain.

The just path

is rarely traversable

without trust.

So change,

in the good Spirit.

Sinners, all of us.

That is not really the point.

And do not think that beautiful words

exempt me,

nor even confessions.

They are the steps to climb,

the mountains to scale.

And faith moves mountains.

So, do not worry.

Do not be afraid.

A leap of faith.

Much less be intimidated,

but be humble.

Though you may accumulate, by miracle,

all knowledge

and those most stubborn secrets,

always remember

that doubt and reason

are the tools of the prudent spirit.

And balancing opposites

is part of our divine inheritance.

Like the eclipse.

When opposites touch,

the doors to the sacred open.

Honor the fact that you are alive.

To be the mystery in motion.

This body is our cocoon,

and, when the hour comes,

we will emerge into the good spirit itself:

the end of disparity.

And also of movement.

Then, yes:

suffering

has to be part of it

so that we may break through the barriers.

So, if this is how it must be...

How is it?

Can I really continue?

This, to me,

is the human being.

To continue.

Without guarantees,

without answers,

without resolution.

An eternal movement.

Persistence itself.

That is our essence.

So do not let the arguments

of the inattentive

crawl into your temple.

Much less occupy the moment.

Claim yourself,

for consciousness and responsibility,

love and commitment,

happiness and virtue,

are all a sacred matrimony.

Marriage.