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What is guilt? It is to feel ashamed to be who you are; it is when we are hard on ourselves when we feel we have made a mistake or let someone down. Guilt is focusing on the one thing that we think is a fault or problem and flogging ourselves long after it has occurred, instead of learning from our 'mistakes,' letting go, and feeling good about ourselves.

No human has ever been, and no human will ever be perfect. It is a blessing to be imperfect, because it is a blessing to be human. Errors are natural. Mistakes are inevitable. Embarrassing moments sometimes happen. When we accept that complete perfection is impossible, we can accept ourselves, others, and the world, exactly as is. Why should we be afraid of this freedom?

Only out of such acceptance can we can actually make positive changes, because positive changes only come out of a loving heart. To judge oneself, others, or the world robs us of the source of true power, and all ability to create real change.

We don't deserve love by being perfect. There is no condition required for us to be worthy of love. There is nothing we must do, and nothing we must do well. This is unconditional love, and unconditional love is a choice. We choose in each moment whether to sink into the morass of judgment, or whether to see our habits of negative thinking and feeling clearly, and to refuse to indulge in them.

We choose in each moment whether to be awake or asleep. Being awake requires all of our energy, focus, and commitment. Being asleep requires no initial energy. But dwelling on thoughts and emotions that close our hearts always brings us great pain. If we have fallen fast asleep, and are practicing negativity, we may seem to get away with it for a while, but eventually that negativity will come back to us, and we will feel bad for it.

Being awake is knowing that you are fed up with being asleep, that you are fed up with judgment of self and others, with denying yourself, with conflict, with struggle, with drama, with being obsessed with yourself, with being obsessed with another, with doing work that does not fulfill us, with being in relationships that do not support us. Being awake is knowing that you finally deserve to rest. Being awake is honoring the good within oneself and others without thinking that anyone is any more than anyone else. Being awake is choosing love, especially when we are most tempted to be bothered.

To 'not see the forest through the trees' is to be hard on ourselves for our mistakes and faults, to want to change the way we all are, to make the past and the future important, and to be lazy with the negativity in our minds. Seeing the big picture involves letting go of our guilt about being imperfect, accepting the way we all are, living in the present, and choosing love; these are the things that are really important, not the details of imperfection.