No one can tell you when winter will end and spring will begin. The birds and flowers and all manner of other creatures will respond accordingly when spring arrives, but even they do not know when or where it will first appear. In just this way, no one knows the time of the end . . . or the time of a new beginning.
Those who claim to know such things can rarely tell you exactly what is ending or beginning. Or, if they do, it is only a single thread they see—only one color in the infinitely complex tapestry that is being woven by winter into spring. Only one thing is certain, and that is that winter must end and spring must begin. Beyond that you can know nothing.
The wise know many things, but the thing they carry most deeply in their bones is the wisdom of ‘wait and see.’ So much folly—so many mistakes, miscalculations, missteps, and misjudgment—results from the rushing of time, from the preempting of the reality of what will be.
You have gained mastery over many things—but the greatest thing, the most important thing, is beyond your grasp, where forever it must remain. And so the wisdom of waiting is the deepest wisdom. Those who master it can afford to forget many cares and anxieties because time assures them that, when they arrive where they are going, they will know what the moment asks of them and what it is that they should do.
Whatever cares you carry, set one half of them aside. Then, from the remaining half, set apart one half again so that only a quarter remains. From that quarter select those cares that are of greatest concern to you and place them in My hands and have faith that I will carry them for you. And what of the cares and concerns that you have set apart? Simply cease to worry about them. Because time itself will carry them to where they are going.
Once you have been born into this world, you must live in time. But you cannot do the work of time. To shoulder time’s work and carry it throughout a life will grind you down to dust in the end. This is not what I wish for you. It will not make you happy, and will not improve the world. So let time carry the burden of itself, and go forth lightly in faith and trust.