Creating A Joyful Life

July 6, 2008

Samuel: Hello, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: What’s on your minds?

Since you ask, in the newsletter you made references about the Mayan calendar, and I wonder if there’s a correlation between your work and that time [. . .] that they have set forward as being the end of time as we know it?

S: If I might make just  a bit of a correction with that—it’s the end of the calendar. However, I don’t deny the end of life as you know it.

My work is, as many of you know with great frustration, full of things that you’re not going to be able to pin down and say—or if you do say it, I will roll my eyes and snicker—to say “twenty-twelve, this is going to happen,” because my work is with humans, and even when that humanity is the cloak of a Guardian, it doesn’t change that what rules here is . . .

Form rules.

S: . . . free will. Yes, form rules. Free will. So what I would say is, “A transition is a transition, and you are here to be a part of a transition.” Right? And you’re going to have one. Things would need to change pretty quickly to get on track for that to mean the completion of Sacred Status and the beginning of Ascension.

However, what I was asking was. . . .

I haven’t come up to have energy this interesting in a long time. Some people who do not usually have great big, huge, energy fields do. There are some of you in here who are just sort of glowing, and vibrating, and it must be they’re doing their good work.

It’s the Greeters.

We hugged people so well.

S: Or did not hug them so well.

We said hi.

S: All right, I’ll start over. Greetings, dears. How are you doing?

Greetings, Samuel.

S: How’s it been?

Very good.

S: Pretty good. Things going well. I have a couple of things that I want to talk to you about tonight, and they have to do with summer.  But, I also am hoping that there will be just a bit of time to kind of get a sense of what’s going on in your minds, so do not hesitate when I am talking, asking for information, to just raise your hand and give your view of what I’m talking about. If you regularly leave that to other people, then you’re missing out on an interesting opportunity, because you are here to stand up. And this is a pretty good, easy place to do it.

Summer. What does summer mean to you other than the—what would you say?—astronomical version of it, something like that? The . . .

Astrological.

S: Well, I was thinking more of “Here is the sun. Here is the tilt. This is where it is.” Aye.

For me, summer . . . I personally love summer. Besides it being a time of a lot of warmth and sunshine, which I respond well to, for me I get a chance to see a lot more of community with people, and humans in general. I can’t tell you how many, within the last few weeks, I’ve just gone to many outdoor festivals where I’ve just been able to be out with people that during winter and fall, when it gets colder and the weather’s not as good, everyone’s so isolated. And I think in a lot of modern culture, a lot of people isolate themselves, and so for me summer is a chance where at least there is an opportunity for people to get out and be with each other, and enjoy the beautiful weather, and whatever they’re celebrating at that time. So . . . that’s what I love about summer, and that’s what summer partly means to me.

S: Good. Well said. Nice.

Steven.

I love the outdoor aspect of summer. The days are longer. It’s a time of physical expression in the garden, doing outdoor projects. I’m more in touch with nature during the summer, because we’re so insulated as a culture these days, mostly behind drywall most of our lives.

S: Behind?

Drywall.

Walls.

Under fluorescent lights, and summe’rs a time to be out, and my physical body responds to the sun and the physical expression of all sorts of things outside—sports, gardening, playing with the dogs, going for walks.  It’s my favorite season also.

S: Nice. Very nice. Very nice.

Paula.

Summer means to me some really wonderful experiences. There’s nothing like going out in your garden and picking a squash that’s warm from the sun, and taking it inside, and, you know, saying thank you, and then eating it. It’s just such a unique experience, something that makes me feel connected to the elemental kingdom and grateful for what I have. And, you know, it’s an opportunity to sit out at night and watch the fireflies start across the field, and get more and more and more and more, and it’s just a reminder to me of how beautiful this earth is, and how connected we are to it, and how important it is to us.

S: Lovely.

Janet.

Summer is a time when I really connect more with Source than the rest of the year, for whatever reason. I’m outside a lot. I pick berries, and it’s like I’m talking the whole time, picking the berries, and I’m staining wood, and I’m talking to Source the whole time I’m staining wood. And I think to myself sometimes, when I catch myself doing it, I’ll think, “Boy, if I was saying this out loud, people would think I was really weird.”

S: Or they would think you were on the telephone.

But, you know—I was thinking about it the other day—it’s like every summer, that’s when I really talk to Source a lot.

S: Nice.

Greg.

For me, it’s the light. That’s what summer is. It’s the light.

S: Nice.

Now I want you to move backwards and think about your childhood. What was summer like in your childhood.

Suzanne.

Summer was freedom. It was from the very moment I got up to the moment I went to bed, it was anything I wanted to do. It was bike-riding, and playing in the sandbox, and reading Carolyn Keen mysteries, and hanging out with my friends, and bicycling, and just every day was an adventure. I didn’t know where it would take me. I just remember that delight of just waking up and going, “Wow! I’ve got the whole time for myself.”

S: Bonnie.

Pretty much the same things that Suzanne said. It was like you were let out. You were let out of school. You were let out of responsibilities that you didn’t . . . you know, juggling, and everything. Everything was wide open to you.

S: I think maybe over the next couple of months, everybody in this section might want to come early enough to try to sit in this section over here, because I think that side of the room might have a silent spell over it. Do you think? A “nay zone.” Excellent.

Jessie.

As a child in the summer . . .

S: Hold up a moment, Gwendolyn. All right? Jessica  and then Gwendolyn. Right behind you so it’s easy.

I loved the freedom element when I was younger, but my favorite thing was sitting out at night, in the middle of the driveway, in the dark, by myself, even as a young kid, and in evening time, after the sun had gone down, and just enjoying the warm air and a nice breeze, and the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves was just wonderful. I always love summertime at night.

S: Nice.

Gwendolyn.

Summer time meant, of course, getting out of school, and at that time, when I was very young, we started going to horse shows, like the County Fairs and the State Fairs and so forth, and that was very exciting for me as a little kid, you know. I got to do all that sort of thing. And customers that had horses with us would take me out to the fair, and we’d ride on rides, and they had fireworks displays and all that kind of thing. And I remember that as just that kind of exciting kid’s stuff that you got to do.

Whenever I think of summer, though—as a child, we had moved out in the country on a farm, and I had this vision of walking along a dirt road and noticing cornflowers growing at the side of the road. It was like magic. It was a freedom that this child that I was was very much under the thumb of reporting when class time was and being where I was supposed to be and everything, but walking along that country road didn’t have any of that element to it. It was seeing how beautiful the clouds, and the clearness of the blue in the sky, and those cornflowers stick in my mind. Just that freedom of that child at that time.

S: That’s lovely.

Cam.

Swimming, whether in a lake or swimming pools, just to jump in and feel that refreshment from the heat of summer. I just loved swimming.

And one other image that comes to mind from when I was very little is lightning bugs spread out through the woods. It was just so magical to me.

S: So you think they’re bugs and not little fairies? Just little wee lights.

If you were to think back on the elements of summer, not all of you have memories of free time, and out playing and being able to pretty much do what you want.  For those of you who grew up on a farm, and those of you who grew up in a rather strict family situation in which there were rules about “idle time,” some of you have memories of, perhaps, wishing you could go out and play, and wishing you could have more time on your bicycle, and . . . I’m sorry for that.  Now, I did not have anything to do with it. But everybody needs a childhood. And, indeed, everybody’s going to have one eventually.

And some of us never leave it.

S: Did you hear her?

No.

S: She said, “And some of us never leave it.”

Summer is about growth. Growth, and growth, and growth. And in your life, because so often Guardians are very connected—consciously or not—with the seasons of their surroundings, very often for Guardians some of your greatest opportunities for growth happen in the summer. Growth of your physical essence, of your emotional experience, of the being of spirit that you are.

I’d like you to take a moment and think about your growth over the last couple and a half months. Physically speaking, some of you have had some real jolts. Emotionally. Spiritually. Your recognizing that you are in a constant process of change is so important.  You make it stick by recognizing it. So what do you do to make it stick?

Your life is all about memories. Now, in one sense that’s a really obvious statement, because of course, in your now all that you can hold onto is the memory of the now right before this one, and the now right before that one, and the now . . . Everything about you is a memory, hopefully good ones. Everything about your future is, in one way or another, connected to your memory, so . . . I’m getting a few little odd comments from people who are saying, “Oh no, I’m in big trouble then, because my memory is just slipping away. What about that?” Remember that it’s never true that it slips away. Only now and again it gets out of hand, but not fully gone.

When you were a child, you made many of the memories that make up you now. Now, I’m going to try to say that again in a better way. Many of your childhood experiences had a very important effect on your adulthood. Now, you have had anywhere from four years of life to many more—that was nice, wasn’t it?—and it’s not that childhood was such a blissful, golden, wonderful time, because it’s not true all of the time; it’s challenging constantly. But more often than not the tendency is to remember the glorious summer of life in which there have been fewer responsibilities and more opportunities to grow and change, and you had friends and learned a lot about what you like and what you don’t like, and what you can do and what you cannot do, and it’s a very charmed period for that.

Do you think you know where I’m going with this? The best of what you remember guides the least of what you become unless you choose for it to be different. More often than not, the best of what you remember becomes the least of what you are, because what is the most turns, more often than not, to be those memories, those experiences, the difficulties. And I want you to remember—I’m going to use a very trite phrase, and I don’t mean to, but I can’t come up with a better one—bad things do happen to good people. It’s true. And I’m going to talk a little more about that in a bit, but when you are going through hard times, it’s important that you remember the summer, the keys to that part of your childhood that had a different way of handling the bad things that happen to good people.

When you were a child, and even if you did not have a lot of those fairytale, perfect summers when you could throw open the door and run out into the yard and into the arms of your friends—well, hmm, maybe not that—when there was a lot of laugher and a lot of play, when there were ways to go off in little groups and hunt crocodiles—wrong country. I’m having a hard time here, aren’t I? Wrong country. Words aren’t popping out.

I want you to think about, even if it’s just one day that you can think of like that, to think about that day, and look at it with my question in mind. My question is: Was it that glorious? Did you not get called inside before you wanted to? Did you not fall on that bicycle, or the bicycle fall over and you on it? And you got a bit injured, or maybe a lot injured. Did the friends you wanted to be with that day have other plans maybe, and you were sad and maybe a bit alone? And the reason that I’m asking this is because this happens in life all the time, and somewhere along the way adulthood hits because of the inability to remember, “Oh, well, it’s all right. I’ve got this friend who is available.” Or, “Great. Now I get to watch any TV show I want.” Or, “Well, I made it through that. Let’s see, what bone hasn’t been broken? I could go for that one next.” You just kept going.

Now maybe the next day was rainy and dreary, and your parents yelled at you, and your feelings were hurt, and your best friend had gone on vacation, and the one [. . .] after that moved away, and it was awfully close to school starting again, and you had done something stupid the day before and you were assigned to the sweeping-out-the-cave duty—whatever. But when you put your mind to summer, that’s not what pops up for you. And when you think about the child’s experience, you’re not thinking about “Well, I was so afraid that it was going to be a tornado tomorrow, that’s why I just stayed in the house all day.” You laugh! Or “I just was so worried about running out of food in the garden, so I took to hoarding it all in baskets and stuffing it all around the house. You laugh. “I was so unsure that I would be accepted into a group that I just was nervous around people all of the time, and I couldn’t enjoy myself, and I was concerned enough that I learned to bake that summer by being the one that brought cookies and cakes to everything so that they would like me.” No, those are not the things—[child makes a noise] made him hungry—those are not the things [. . .]

[. . .] and it has always worried me, and it’s involved fear. I try to fix it. That sort of thing. And that goes back to when I was a child, and I’ve brought that forward into the present time.

S: Sure.

I’m not sure how to turn off . . . I can look at the big picture, and I know that this is a learning process for everybody involved. I know that everything happens for a reason, and still and all I can’t find quite what to replace that emotion with.

S: Any thoughts? Can you help her?

Hope.

S: “Hope,” she said.

I’ve tried that.

Well, there’s a couple of things. I have to look at why I’m holding on to it, and that I need to do that [and to] know that it served a purpose for me and be grateful for it. And realize that I have to get my ego out of it because I’m wanting to fix something that’s not mine to fix, and the only thing I can do is work on me. And I think, when I look at the emotion that I have with it, why do I still have that emotion? And when I work with that, then I can work on finding something to replace it with.

I think I have all of that information within, and it’s . . . I have to say it doesn’t bother me as much as it may have a few years ago. I’ve come to a place of acceptance and understanding, but the replacement aspect—what exactly . . . I mean I’m kind of clueless as to what emotion I need to replace that with.

S: Not an emotion.

Not an emotion?

S: Not an emotion. You want to replace it . . . well, first, the fact that these things were a part of your childhood and on into your adulthood is a whole lot of the reason why you do not take part in behaviors that can have an addictive quality. So the first thing that I would say is, realize that your upset isn’t because you’re doing something; it’s because someone else is—somebody you care about, somebody you love. They don’t have the will that you must have, which is totally not true. Don’t even begin to think that somebody with an addiction—addictive nature—dealing with so many things that are out there that you can get hooked into and wrapped all around—you replaced that. You received the wisdom, but because of the pain that you have in your memory associated with that, instead of understanding and acceptance you have fear. Fear is a powerful thing—a good thing a lot of times. What’s the other side of fear?

Love.

S: Love. The opposite of love is fear. If you’re looking at fear, you’re not looking at love. What is it you are afraid of? And you’re not afraid of something for you; you’re afraid of something for someone else. Right? Wrong! You’re afraid this person you love so much and are so invested in and care about so much might not be in your life. Well, maybe it’s not quite that drastic a situation, but in this case, certainly that’s a possibility. Realize that you are fearing because you don’t have control, and, by the way, that’s pretty much always why you fear. Truly. So if you want to do something effective, change you rather than wanting to change him so that you are the strength and [are] there if that choice is made.

Bad things happen to good people because good people don’t stand up at the beginning, because good people are so focused on all of the negative things that have happened in their lives that they know this is going to be what happens, and you are drawing to you an acceptance. Maybe it’s the acceptance of “there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s going to rain frogs tomorrow, and I’m just not going to be able to stop it. So I may as well pitch my umbrella.” Bad things happen to good people because they don’t stop the process. They let their lives be so filled with negativity, with things that cause them not to trust themselves, things that cause them to have no relationship with Source that allows that hope and that trust, because they want to control others and are getting back-splash—back-splash?—backlash from that. Back-splash; guess not. Because you’re waiting for things to become your way, and, frankly, you’ve probably not set it up so that your way is a way that you believe in enough to follow.

So the way I hear it is, some bad thing could happen, like—for instance—someone very close to me might die, in which case I haven’t really set it up that they’re going to die, or it’s not . . . well, okay, I won’t go that way. But I could look, because I have a relationship with Source, because I have not looked at all the negative things in my life, but I’m focusing on the positive, I am not going to get stuck in that bad thing.

S: Well said.

I will, of course, grieve and all that, but I won’t go “Oh, all these tragedies!”

S: “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me . . .”

Right.

S: “ . . . twelve years down the road.”

Right. Right. So it’s not always about being able to change the event.

S: Right.

Although it is sometimes.

S: Sometimes.

Yes. It’s about changing us.

S: Don’t you hate that part?

Actually, it’s more hopeful. I have better [. . .] with myself.

She has more control over that.

Actually, I do.

S: It’s all about a willing perspective. When you have everything caught up in a box because this is all you can handle, and you spend your life very carefully not getting outside of that box, being angry with people who pull you a little bit or who won’t come in to live like you do. When you have made a life that’s all about avoiding change and growth so that anybody in your life that doesn’t live life the way you want them to and isn’t doing what you wish they would and is not being what you want, you are going to be challenged to make them see what you see.

Don’t misunderstand me. He wants his choices. Who are you to tell him otherwise. He is not a child.

Yes?

I have a hard time with acceptance. We’ll take something simple like a bad driver in front of you, and you can go [with] the option of teaching them how to drive properly, or you can accept it, and so that . . .

S: Acceptance means don’t let it run you. It doesn’t mean you agree with. It doesn’t mean you understand it. It means you don’t let it run you.

But you can take it into the world in a bigger sense.

S: Sure.

And the world’s filled with all these injustices, and where do you quit accepting all the injustices? I mean, sure, it’s [about] picking your battles, but . . .

S: A large part of it is picking your battles, that’s true, but when something comes into your awareness, there is an action to take. It doesn’t mean that action is to run them down and put them out of their misery. It doesn’t mean that that action is that you really have to step out of your box. The action is what?

You don’t let it run you.

S: Again?

You don’t let it run you.

S: You don’t let it run you. Detach.

Isn’t that the cowardly way out, though, in a lot of situations?

S: Might be, now and again. Hopefully, you are letting yourself stretch and stick your neck out in little ways enough that you’re beginning to get that wisdom callus built up so that before you know it you’re sticking your neck out at the right time, in the right ways, in something bigger and something bigger.

What matters to you? What are you doing with it? What are you doing about it? What stops you from being untethered? You don’t march on Washington, because you can bellyache to each other. You don’t write your Congressperson, because you marched on Washington with eight hundred thousand other people, so you don’t need to. You don’t write your Congressperson because you don’t have the address.

Everything that human nature wants you to do is all about protecting yourself. Sometimes in life, you have something that is more valuable to you than that vision of you. If you want joy in your life, be joyful. Like attracts like. And realize that being joyful does not mean that everything flows smooth as glass. It means that even when you hit the rough patches, you are capable of being joyful.

Everything that you are is based on yesterday in the minds of most. The thing about Guardians, though, is that there’s more. And when bad things happen to good Guardians, it’s “Take a look at the situation, recognize your part in it, realize your responsibility to that, do not fear change, embrace it with an open heart, but do not be stupid while you do it.” It is a game of balance, absolutely.

Put your life in balance. Think of those things that need tending. Your garden is getting a little too weedy. Think of those things that hold you back. Think of those things that get you moving in a way that isn’t what you really want to be doing. Get rid of the automatic negative response, and change it because you want to, and because you can. Do what you know you can do, and then step aside, release that human vision of it and look at it through your connection with Source. If you don’t have one, get one. Look at it through the eyes of love. If you don’t know how love sees things, start loving.

Make new memories. Don’t let the old ones define you and bind you. Find ways to let the eight-year-old, filled with joy that the end of school and the beginning of summer has come about, let that eight-year-old, ten-year-old, five-year-old, figure out what you should be doing next. It ought to be something like riding your bicycle with the wind hitting your face.

One last thing: When you are in the middle of bad things happening to good people, do not separate yourself from those who love you no matter what. It’s so easy to do, and so wrong. When you are in the midst of bad things happening to good people—life is the bad thing, you’re the good people—choose not to add to it. Choose to act, not react.

Function at your best, even though everyone knows you have an excuse not to. Function at your best. Create a community of great examples, and if you don’t know what you could do next, look around this room. It’s filled with people who would love to be able to tell you what they think you should do next.

The fact of it is, there are not bad things and good things. Energy is neutral. You make it bad or good by the way you see it. You have heard me justify just about everything for the sake of helping you see perspective. From my seat, bad things only happen when you have a need that’s out of your control. Look at that.

In every situation in your life, you are here to do the best you can, where you are, with what you have at the time. You can do better—try. You don’t have that roller coaster in front of you. You have that really scary thing—a plateau. Don’t . . . all right, even I know that’s not a good saying. Just don’t define your life by the things going on around; define it by what goes on within you. The expression was, “Don’t get your panties . . .”

In a wad.

S: Yes. Even I knew that one wasn’t good.

Glochanumora.