In the silence, open yourself to these images of the current period of your life, and record them as they come.

Comparing Outer Events and Inner Images

You have now completed both the Period Log and the Period Image for your chosen period. As you consider these two entries side-by-side—the actual outer events of your life and the spontaneous imagery arising from within—what is the relationship between the two? Are they contradictory, or do they balance one another? Are they parallel, or does one go off on a tangent from the other? Do they seem complementary or markedly different?

In making this comparison, do not evaluate or judge. Just try to describe the inner correlation between the outward events of your current life and the inner imagery that arises from this period. Turning to a fresh page, head it with today's date and briefly list the main messages that the results of the two previous exercises, taken together, seem to be trying to tell you.

Finally, returning to a deep silence, allow the two messages—to fit themselves together out of their own natures, in their own way. You may be in touch with a temptation to impose a tidy intellectual resolution upon them. Take note of this temptation to either rejoice or despair.

We do not seek a quick and simple resolution. The message these two images have to give us is neither good nor bad. It is simply a reflection of the inner movement of our lives, a reflection of ourselves, and we accept it in all its complexity, without undue excitement and without premature conclusions.