Dear Billy,
So your uncle and I were talking about what wishes we would most want to send you at this point in your life — like we were some kind of weird version of the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty — and Alex said: “Oh, health, love, and wealth, don’t you think?” I asked him what he would have wished for at the same point in his, and he laughed and said, “None of those. I would have wished for greatness, and I would have been an idiot to do it, too.”
That made me laugh. But it also made me think about what I really would have wished for, and what I wish most for you.
Alex is right, of course. Health, love, and wealth are great wishes! But I want to add something I think is even more important, and more basic, too. I wish for you that your inner voice should always speak loud and clear, always be heard by you, and never be silenced by anyone who wants to fool you or make you do something not in the best interests of your own growth. Sometimes it happens in life that to be sick, or to be unloved, or to be poor, are among the greatest gifts the Divine can bestow. It’s strange, but it’s true. And it’s always the inner voice that will tell you when some obstacle on your path is meant to help you move to a wider road. It’s the inner voice that will help you past the obstacle and on your real way.
An awful lot of the media today is mainly concerned with telling you that you don’t have an inner voice: that you need to listen to outside sources to solve your problems, or that someone else knows what it’s best for you to do. But if there’s one thing I would like you to know, it’s that they’re wrong, anyone who tells you that. And that when you listen to your own heart, you know they’re wrong, too. (Your heart won’t just tell you when they’re wrong, by the way. If you’re honest with yourself, it will tell you when you’re wrong, too. And that’s going to be more times than will make you comfortable, that’s for sure!)
This is not to say that there isn’t wisdom and guidance to be found in the world outside. Of course there is, and plenty of it, and all of us are foolish when we don’t take advantage of that. But you’re going to need your own inner voice to tell you when the advice that comes is good, and loving, or when it’s bad, and tainted by secret motives. Your inner voice won’t leave you, as long as you listen to it, and the more you listen to it, and consider carefully what it has to say, the louder it will sound.
I guess what I’m wishing for you is your own road. I have no idea what you’ll find along it, but what I want for you is that every step of it should be yours, and no one else’s idea of what yours should be.
much love from your Uncle Alex and me,
Aunt Tod
ps: oh, and always pay off your credit cards every month. that minimum payment thing is a complete sucker’s game.