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All that you have ever been is with you now.

You hold within you the completion of the journey.

Who knows what fierce battles have been won

and lost long the way -

what victories for love have been counted

and incorporated into your soul.

Each time you remained faithful when

you might not have

there was a victory for love.

Each time you turned aside from an easy gain

because it was the wrong way,

it was a victory for love.

Each time you allowed yourself to take care of

someone at cost to yourself

it was a victory for love.

Each of these victories lives inside you

along with the defeats.

Yet, the victories carry the larger portion of

truth since they join with your original purity.

The defeats do not.

The defeats in loving are based on one thing

and one thing only, a need to protect the self

because of feeling alone.

They are based on the loss of connection

with the Divine,

for without that, there could be

no betrayal of love.

The defeats must be let go of now in favor

of the victories.

ALL must be forgiven in the willingness

to embrace Love fully and completely.

You cannot embrace love for others

if you do not do so for yourself.

There are many reasons to forgive yourself

for the defeats of love.

The main one is this:

You did not know that you were a child of God

at that moment in time.

You did not know that you were a child of Love.

Now you are beginning to know,

and this step must be taken so

the world can be healed.

Open your heart to love. 

Let it flood through you.

Let it bathe every cell.

Let it cause you to weep with the desire

to let go of blame.

This will be another victory for love,

not a defeat.

Blessed be your heart that loves,

now and forever.