"Have goodwill To all that lives, letting unkindness die, And greed and wrath, so that your lives be made Like soft airs passing by." Is this too difficult for you? Then unrest and unhappiness will continue to dwell with you. Your belief and aspiration and resolve are all that are necessary to make it easy, to render it in near future a thing accomplished, a blessed state realised.

Despondency, irritability, anxiety and complaining, condemning and grumbling; all these are thought cankers, mind-diseases; they are indications of a wrong mental condition, and those who suffer therefrom would do well to remedy their thinking and conduct. It is true there is much misery in world, so that all our love and compassion are needed, but our misery is not needed; there is already too much of that. No, it is our cheerfulness and happiness that are needed for there is too little of that. We can give nothing better to world than beauty of life and character; without this, all other things are vain; this is pre-eminently excellent; it is enduring, real, and not to be overthrown, and it includes all joy and blessedness. Cease to dwell pessimistically upon wrongs around you; dwell no more in complaints about, and revolt against, evil in others, and commence to live free from all wrong and evil yourself. Peace of mind, and true reform lie this way. If you would have others true, be true; if you would have world emancipated from misery and sin, emancipate yourself; if you would have your home and your surroundings happy, be happy. You can transform everything around you if you will transform yourself. "Don't complain or feel sorry for yourself...

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against bad, but chant beauties of good." And this you will naturally and spontaneously do as you realise good in yourself.

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Still others plunge us into an intimacy we may or may not have considered: “What is one thing from your past about which you feel most guilty?” (OK, so I’m chicken – I pass!)

It’s a fun game, and a good relationship-builder. And yet I wonder: what happens if I go a step farther, take initiative of shaping questions I need to hear.

IF . . . I want to make this year best one of my life, what one attitude will I change, starting right now?

IF . . . I truly believe that hope is possible and love is real, how will I let it show?

IF . . . I want to live so that my values show, what one thing will I do TODAY?

Your questions may be different from mine, and your answers surely will. But that’s beauty of “Game of Life”. There are as many questions as you need. And only YOU can shape answers - IF . . . you only take your values in hand and dare to begin.

© Maureen Killoran, 2005