There is no need for you to hold on so tightly to life. You have say on the course of life, yet you do not command it. Life is not your plaything. It is not your top to spin nor your yo-yo to zip up and down. Consider yourself more of a passenger on this ship of life. You are sailing on the open seas. Look not so much to the prow nor to the stern. You are a passenger even as you are a sailor. The ship furrows through the ocean, and you observe. Sometimes the seas are rough, and sometimes the seas are calm, and, yet, the ship sails on. You may climb the crow's nest, and, no matter how far you can see, you do not yet see all there is to see. There remains more for you to see.

You may paddle your own canoe, and yet there are currents and waves and tide that take you where they will. Even when you are appointed in charge, all does not go your way. You are, of necessity, swept along in the wake of others' lives. Honestly, would you rather control everything? You may feel you would, but would you? Do you really want to be the decider of everything for everyone? Your course in life has a say in everyone's course, and everyone's course has a say in yours.

However you sail, by steamer, by raft, by rowboat, by sloop, enjoy. Please do not make life so problematic. Do not get uptight about a day in the life of a sailor. Like waves, like soap operas, the days and the years wash away, and another day and another year appear. The tides of life come and go. You are not rudderless, and, yet, there is more to your life than the rudder. Look, just enjoy your travels on the High Seas. Tomorrow is another day.

You are living a life. The course of your life is not the end-all-be-all. There is a subscript or an overscript. You have a say in your script at the same time as you do not commandeer it. You watch it unfold. Say, "Humph" at it. Do not cross it out. Do not try to hold back that which has already occurred. There is a time to desist.

If life is a kite in your hand, you hold it loosely. You don't tangle with it. You go with the way the winds blow. You do not walk away from life. You do not give up on it, nor do you rail at it. Events of your life may indeed be significant, and, yet, the events are not everything. There is more to your life than what occurs in it. If you are the hero of your life, and you are, then be a hero. A hero withstands events. He surprises himself and rises above them. A hero comes out of the fire heroic. He withstands the perceived setbacks, and he undeniably forges ahead. You were designed to be a hero. So be it.

A hero rallies. He never pouts. A hero is brave. He has courage. He has daring. If it happens that he falls from a great height, he always gets back up. So long as there is life on Earth, there is life on Earth, and you are a player. You don't leave the game in the middle. You do not shirk responsibility. You make your bets, and you honor them. You honor life. Staying with life is not the same as getting stuck in it.

You are a compatriot of life. You are your own companion throughout your life. You are not a naysayer, not at all. Like the sun, you always arise. Bravo, hero of your own life, bravo.