The soul knows where it belongs. Not some of the time. All of the time. When you strip everything away and get bare this fact sings.

It doesn’t matter what path you choose, what form the exploration, just that you remove any blocks and keep yourself open. Your life to date, the pain and wounds, joy, laughter and Love, ALL the Love… You can use as a road map of how to find your way back to the space that knows. That lives in eternal joy and peace. That flourishes in a warm embrace.

Like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz when she says “Why didn’t you tell me all I needed to do was click my heals three times to go home?” to which the Good Witch responds “You never would have believed me.” I remember thinking as a kid, “Mother F-er … Would have been good to know.”

How much easier would life be if we skipped the drama (and those harried flying rabid attack monkeys?)

Choose to see things differently and take any light bulb moment of truth to change the story you’ve created. To get help. To share yourself. To move from fear to love, from insecure to joyful, from ill will to well wishes. You can choose in this moment to open yourself up to the possibility of being happier today than you were yesterday, to be the change necessary so you are delivered from whatever your current circumstance into peace and Love. Simply by choosing to be awake.

Believe it. Have faith in the beautiful process of nature and the seasons in our lives.

Today. Right now. I’m giving you a free pass. A pass to forgive yourself and anyone you have been carrying a hate on for. As you read this — allow forgiveness to be understood and accepted and make the “journey (without distance) from your head to your heart.” Notice I’m saying without distance, not without resistance. I get that upsets will come, people will trigger you. Don’t let it take you down to Chinatown around and around the yellow brick road. No matter what comes your way, in keeping your heart open you will always have access to your center, just as Dorothy did, you can click your heals three times, take a breath and go directly home.

Release the past. The future has no business today and be willing to have the truth, your truth Lovingly blossom.

Excerpted from Melanie Lutz’s THE BARE MELCESSITIES: Walking out. Waking Up. Getting Bare available at the Beliefnet.com store