A lifetime of opportunities

"Each of us is given a lifetime of opportunities to become a better person for having had the experience of all of our relationships. Whether or not those opportunities are fulfilled remains a matter of free will, but the potential is ever present."

Kevin Todeschi. (1999)
Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates: Unlocking the Dynamics of Soul Attraction. p. 22.

Learning the hard way

"The issues she [Diana] was addressing--Aids, battered women, drug addiction, alienation and loneliness--were challenging ones, not only for herself but also for society. She was learning the hard way that this was a school of hard knocks."

Andrew Morton (2011). Diana: Her True Story. pp. 343-4.

A highly-advanced soul, late Princess Diana kept giving people the world over a lot of love even when she herself had a hard time. Whenever we remember her, we should recall her giving and loving nature with her radiant smile, and try to live as she did.

You have inherited most from yourself

'In Cayce's cosmology, it is through an ongoing process of personal spiritual growth and development that each individual learns, grows and constantly meets self--self's past experiences, relationships, inclinations, talents, and faults in the form of karmic memory. With this in mind, when a twenty-two-year-old man asked Edgar Cayce, "From which side do I inherit most?" The reply came: "You have inherited most from yourself, not from the family! The family is only a river through which it (the entity, soul) flows!" (1233-1)'

K Todeschil. (2011). Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation and Family Karma. p. 8.

Emphases are mine.

Talents, dispositions and everything else one has within her- or himself are accumulative results/effects of the past experiences and efforts made by the individual concerned. Understanding and accepting this truth will make you even stronger, so that you can stop blaming others for or complaining about whatever flaws or demerits you find within yourself.

Karma is within each individual

"As stated previously, it's not that individuals come together as a means of forcing one another to deal with the karma that exists between them, instead that memory essentially resides within each individual alone. It is the relationship interaction that often causes each person to eventually face the karmic memory he or she possesses." 

K. Todeschi. (2011) Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation and Family Karma. p. 20.

Relationships with others are needed for one's own karmic debt to be paid.

Do not condemn yourself

"Do not condemn self. Condemning of self is as much an error as condemning others. Live thine own self. Leave the results with God ... do not feel that ye have failed. Do not judge self. You have not failed, yet. You only fail if you quit trying."

K. Todeschi (2011). Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation and Family Karma. p. 46.

This is a message in one of the readings given to a female client through Edgar Cayce.

Footprints

Margaret Fishback Powers

One night I dreamed a dream.
I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to me and one to my Lord.
When the last scene of my life shot before me
I looked back at the footprints in the sand
and to my surprise,
I noticed that many times along the path of my life
there was only one set of footprints.
I realized that this was at the lowest
and saddest times of my life.
This always bothered me
and I questioned the Lord
about my dilemma.
'Lord, you tole me when I decided to follow You,
You would walk and talk with me all the way.
But I'm aware that during the most troublesome
times of my life there is only one set of footprints.
I just don't understand why, when I needed You most,
You leave me.'
He whispered, 'My precious child,
I love you and will never leave you
never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints
it was then that I carried you.'

Above is a very famous Christian poem by Mrs Margaret Fishback Powers. Ways of reading it will vary among people, but from Spiritual perspective, the point of the poem I believe is this: it is when you are facing difficulties and working hard to overcome them that you can be truly aware of the existence of God, or Great Spirit, and why you were born here on Earth. Through trials and tribulations, we learn most.  We are all children of God.

You will find the story about how the poem came to be recognized as her original work in her book, Footprints (Michigan: Zondervan, 1993/2002).

Keep singing

Keep the heart singing!
Keep the mind clear!
Keep the face toward the light!
The shadows then are behind.

Edgar Cayce