January 4, 2004

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: So here you are in a new year, and you cannot start a new year without giving yourself a few moments to look back over the old one. I feel quite certain that you’ve given yourself that opportunity to look over it, and hopefully let yourself look at what worked.

Now one of the things that I do with the leadership here in Lexington is, every time there is an event, we come together and review it. And with that review is “What did you like? What do you hope’s repeated again? What do you hope is not repeated again?”

I’m asking you to look over your last year and think, What did I really enjoy? What was good? If you were to think about what you would love to see repeated, what would it be? And it might not be an event. In fact, I would even say that for most of you it’s not an event; it’s an attitude, a realization. What did 2003 bring you that you want to bring into 2004?

Bobbi.

It brought me a lot of things, but one of the things was I had decided in 2003 that I wanted to travel more, and I traveled a lot this year, and it enhanced my year so much. It was great.

S: You asked for it. You got it. Good.

Stuart.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in a minority in this country with the beliefs that I have, and, you know, when I read the paper and things like that. And 2003 let me know that there were a lot more other people out there that were thinking similar thoughts, as far as wishing for there to be peace. And I took part in two peace marches in Washington D.C., and the first one in particular really touched me, the number of people, just the volume of people that turned out, and all age groups and families, and it was real touching. And it was good for me to feel like, you know, I was part of that large of a group. I think maybe thirty percent at that time opposed the war, and I haven’t been in a thirty percent category in a long time.

S: More. Jean.

In 2003, my ability to manifest was nothing short of magical, and at the end of the year of 2002 it became clear that I wanted to move to Lexington. I didn’t know how, with what resources or when, but it happened in 2003, and I got here, you know, at the end of the year. So I’d like to have in 2004 the same kind of ability to manifest in such a powerful way.

S: Yes. Absolutely. Welcome home.

Aye.

At the beginning of 2003, the entire world fell apart for me. I lost my car, I lost my job, I lost my home. I was homeless, and so I was forced to move back to Lexington, which is where my family is at.

Inevitably I now sit before you with a wonderful career, a brand new car, and a great, beautiful home. It did a complete three-sixty in an entire three hundred and sixty-five day period, and I had to recognize that sometimes things need to fall apart in order to come together. And I now sit before you in complete awareness of what it’s all about in terms of my own life.

S: Good work. Good work.

Steve.

I had more personal loss this year than in any year in my life, and the beautiful thing about that is I learned I had everything that I needed in that process. And when I quit making my wishes things that I needed, and instead looked at what I had, which was what I needed, and to use that in a […] of that resource, and it’s made all the difference.

S: Good work.

How many of you would say that you sustained a lot of loss this year? And are the others of you, whom I would say sustained a lot of loss this year, just being shy or not aware? Shy, of course! Just shy!

One of the very obvious life changes going on with high frequency, particularly Guardianship beings, had to do with loss. Not necessarily loss as dramatic as losing a job, and losing a home, and losing a. . . . Some of it was loss of trust, or as wonderful as loss of fear. Loss. And for those of you who were the New Year, you know that I said much of how the magnificence of the world showed up because of the loss that you dealt with. 

Just a very small aside: Remember, in this world, the human self sees loss as failure. And there are few things further from the truth. In a spiritual awareness, loss is opportunity, and any time you have the opportunity to make a choice regarding how you act, what you are going to feel, because of that loss, you can know that the Universe sees you as standing at a very important crossroad. You’re ready to make a leap to another level based on what you do with that loss.

As is always the case, many of you lost people that you were very close to, and it’s very easy to get caught up again in the human version of loss—they’re gone forever, which, of course, ensures that you’re blocking yourself off so that they are gone forever—not truly, but for you.

As is the case with any loss you sustain in your life, it is poverty thinking, thinking without trust, a release of your relationship with Source altogether, when you believe a loss means you’re not going to have. In the very same way that your life continues on beyond the filters that keep you only seeing particularly slow-moving, very solid energy functions—bodies—in the very same way that the soul, the spirit, continues on beyond this small blink, any loss you have in your life has exactly the same potential for you to be devastated, push it aside, not let yourself see it beyond what it is as you experience it right there, right then. You create the reality that there is nothing more because—and you fill in the blanks—or you realize that this is a passage—a passageway—and it’s an open doorway for what’s next.

You don’t lose anything you need—ever! You never lose anything you need. Of the things you need, you never lose them.

And as Steven says, one of the ways you can let yourself know you are on the right track is that, instead of focusing on the loss, you focus instead on what you have to meet it.

Moving into this year with that attitude, not because there’s going to be tremendous loss—I don’t see that for you—but moving into this year with that attitude of loss is potential, loss is an opportunity to see what’s next, loss is a chance to find the abundance or the pony in there somewhere—yes, Gwendolyn? Tell the story, that one.

There were two children that were going to be tested. And they took one of the children, and put him in a room filled with all kinds of toys, the latest technologies, and all the wonders of new toys.

S: Which today would be what?

Oh, all the robots and automatics. And this other child they put in a room filled with manure. So they went back . . . 

S: Which right there, most of the time, describes what you think life is about. You got all the toys—you’re happy. The manure shows up—you’re unhappy.

So they went back later and checked on the child in the room with all of the toys, and he was very unhappy. Nothing worked, nothing was what he wanted. There just wasn’t enough of this or that. Just a very disgruntled human. And they went to check on the child in the room with the manure, and when they looked in on him, manure was flying all over. They said, “What are you doing?” “With all this manure, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

S: And I would like to suggest that you make 2004 the year of the pony. Thank you. Aye.

It seems like I put up my hand, although not experiencing quite so dramatic a way as Chris did, and adding to what Steve said and then what you followed it up with, with the loss that you experience, it kind of clears things away with the death of those things, and you have the opportunity to be more conscious, because I guess with the gratitude of what you have, that’s a conscious activity. So, in having those losses it would provide that opportunity to be conscious.

S: And I have learned enough in working with you for all of these years that I want to correct you there. It’s that you can have this, it could do this, because it’s your choice. It’s out there. You must be looking. Good.

Which leads me into a discussion about how to make the best use of your life in 2004. And I want to begin with the very simple, very basic, very human part of it. What brings you happiness?

Now, you know I have taught for quite a long time that there is really only one things that’s going to bring you happiness. And that is . . .

Love.

S: To give it, to receive it, love. To give love, even more than to receive it.

Happiness—and, as you know, giving and receiving, but what I was saying was, even more than receiving love, which your security system, your very human security system, tells you you cannot do without—and it’s true for that very human security system—even more than that, your happiness relies on and is equal to the love you give. But when you are looking at the love you give and how it makes you happy to do so, what is it that’s making that happiness? Now, have I said that clearly enough for you to understand what I’m asking? I’m saying what sort of happiness is it? Is it the same sort of happiness you have when you are looking for an address and you find it, and you say, “Oh, good.” Is it the same sort of happiness that you experience when you are looking at your life and saying “I’m a happy person.” What sort of happiness is it? Stuart.

The happiness that comes from using the highest aspects of yourself and channeling that through your form, and knowing that you’re living your Guardianship and doing what you’re here to do.

S: It’s a happiness that is the result of knowing that you are fulfilling, touching an inward trigger, and fulfilling a compact, if you will. And I know that every one of you in here are saying, “Oh, yes, that’s very true.” But how do you know that it’s fulfilling that? I’m asking you for the very obvious signals.

Paula

For me, it’s a feeling of comfort.

S: Comfort.

This was meant to be. I’m doing something that feels right, and it feeds me as a result of that.

S: Good. Good.

It’s interesting, we were talking about this today. I felt like I’ve been working really hard for the last year on keeping my heart open, and I felt like my heart wasn’t as open as it should be today, and so I decided I needed to be giving all day. And I gave a massage, and it opened my heart. And I was open at the end, and that feels like balance to me now when my heart is open. I feel like that’s where I need to be.

S: And I’m going to use that. It’s a perfect way to move into this. She did two very specific things to bring that balance. Can you tell me what they were?

Consciousness.

S: Yes. She consciously what?

She consciously knew that she was out of balance, and wanted to find a way to open her heart.

S: That’s part of it, and there is another part. First is consciousness, and that’s two arenas. The first arena is awareness of what it is you are feeling now. And in order for you to truly be able to make the best of not only the rest of this night and the rest of your life and this coming year, you need to know you. A regular check-up in which you’re able to take as unbiased as possible a view of what you’re thinking these days, what you’re feeling these days, what your emotions are doing. Ask yourself, Why? Where does it come from? What’s it about? Consciously conscious.

And the second aspect of it, of that consciousness, was what?

Taking action.

S: That’s the next one. Hold up just a moment. I’ll call on you for it in just a moment.

She knew what needed to be done.

S: She knew; she consciously chose to take a specific action. It was choosing to change. Conscious of what it is, and consciously changing, which then led to . . .

Taking the action she needed to balance herself.

S: Yes. Taking action. In your life, consciousness that is inner and outer awareness, consciousness, plus action, is going to, in most situations, equal positive change. She wanted to have that feeling of an open, loving, balanced heart. And rather than hinting to all of her friends that she needed a hug, or having long, drawn-out, emotional conversations with all of her friends—heart-to-hearts—she chose what would appear to many in this world as the opposite of what she was seeking. And yet so often the power of opposites is exactly the power that you are seeking to make that change.

Paula.

I wanted to mention a piece of technology that you brought up at the last Sunday-night meeting, and that was [that] you said to try to consciously to do three acts of generosity a day, and then at the end of the day write down how it feels when you do it. And that seems to me to tie right into the kind of thing that Bobbi just said that she did.

S: Very good. Very good. In fact, come to the head of the class. Excellent. I’m going to use that. I’m going to just resign.

In your life, there are ways you can give that would have an effect on many different areas of your life. And what I mean by that is, Bobbi wanted her heart open, and so she thought, I want to give loving behaviors. And for her, giving a massage, for instance, was a loving behavior.

But in your life there are such behaviors that have . . . For instance, you know that you would benefit from having a healthier lifestyle, you know, for instance, that your diet is really out of sync with what you know here or here would be helpful for you. Choosing—consciously—an action, a positive action, to bring about change is going to have a greater effect than being frustrated about your weight or your activity level and seeking a diet and going through a certain amount of deprivation, and not having a positive experience out of it. Setting yourself up consciously for positive experiences needs to be one of the most well-oiled weapons that your heart has for living in this world.

And with that in mind, I started that section by saying, What do you know makes you happy? And, of course, the first and most important and clearly the highest and most precious spiritual answer that immediately comes to all of your minds is living love, giving love at your very highest, conscious ability. Of course.

But giving love at your very highest conscious ability shows up in many ways. And sometimes those ways are taking processed sugar out of your diet, not counting your calories and measuring your fat four or five times a day, and [having] everything that you put into your mouth become a punishment or a virtue, but not food at all. Do you see the difference in what I’m saying? Because you can do those very same things with a positive mind-set rather than a negative one. And that system works perfectly for those who have that positive mind-set. But if you have the typical “I have been on eight hundred diets, I’ve lost the same eight hundred pounds over and over again”—well, I guess that one wouldn’t exactly be accurate, would it? The same twenty pounds over and over and over, or however it is it works. You can have a positive function with that, or you can have what is more often than not the attitude in the world which is, It is a punishment for enjoying myself too much earlier in my life. It is a punishment for growing up in a household that food represented comfort, food represented love, food represented special acknowledgments. You can look at it that way, and constantly have to go on a diet, because you’re coming from a place that this is penance, instead of a place that says I’m going to do something good for me.

What can you do for your diet that can be good for you? Now, I’m not asking you to raise your hand with this one; I’m asking you to answer this yourself. What would make your body happy? What do you need to do to bring about conscious, positive change to make yourself available to that happiness that it wants?

And you can take this in every other area of your life and make good with it. It’s not about what you overcome; it’s not. When your life is over, it’s not about reviewing how often you failed. It’s looking at how much you loved. What are you doing to love you?

Now, I’ve got to warn you that you’ve got to be a bit careful with that one, because that can also create an individual who is so inwardly focused on one’s own “Well, I know that I really need to be taking care of myself, so I’m not going to go to toning tonight.”

We know that’s wrong.

S: That’s right; that’s wrong. “I need to take care of myself. So I don’t have the money to do it, but I’m going to . . . how do you say this? I’m going to put it on my credit cards all the way to the limit.”

Max out

S: Max out. That’s the one I was looking for. That was floating around in there. “So I’m going to max out my credit cards and be in debt for the rest of the year and have to eat peanut butter and rely on others for help, because this is important and good for me and Samuel said you should do what’s good for you.” No! Because releasing one whole section of your life so that you can focus on this section over here is not balance. You will not find success through that. You will not have happiness through that.

Now, life needs to be a balanced whole, and the assignment that I give individuals whom I have the opportunity to speak with, and one of the things they are saying is, “I am so miserable about . . .” and you can fill in the blank there. My work situation, my lack of work situation, my income, my ability to . . . my situation here, my desires there. It doesn’t matter. Stop looking at your whole life through the lens of this one piece, of this one loss, of this one change. And you cannot look at life differently if all you have in your life is that one small piece. Well, of course, it would be a bigger piece if that’s all there was, wouldn’t it?

You need to look at your life and see what makes it up. Make a diary for one week only, and in that diary just make note of the different things you are doing, the different activities you are involved in. It’s not a time-keeping journal. All right, from eight forty-three until eight fifty I did this. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying give yourself a bit of a review of the day. Today I did this, I did this, I did that. At the end of the week, look to see if you can put categories to the things that are done. Do you find that there looks to be a category that is called “My daily work schedule”? There looks to be a category that might could be called “My personal relationships at home,” another one that might be “My personal relationships outside of home.” Look at it to see what the functions of your typical week tend to be, and think of that then as the whole pie, with this piece called “Work” and this piece called “Personal Relationships” and this piece called “Creative Outlet” and this piece called . . . what would be this piece?

Exercise.

S: Again.

Exercise.

S: Exercise, taking care of myself positively. This piece, this piece, this piece. And then divide those out proportionally. How much time do you put in this? How much time do you put in that?

Having a sense of what makes up your life, you then want to allow yourself to focus on creating balance. All makes work and no play makes somebody no fun, or something like.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

S: Makes for a dull boy.

Makes Jack a dull boy, or Jill a dull girl.

Those of us with […]

S: That’s right. Only Jack and Jill. No, no, no, no. All work and no play. All right, you know that one. But why do you not put that to work in other areas of your life? What do you need to do to make Creative Endeavor a bit bigger of a piece of the pie? What do you need for Personal Relationships to have more time and be a more important, more balanced, aspect. Look at it. After just a week it’s going to show you, it’s going to be a compass that points the way toward bringing balance into your life, because balance is necessary. And you should be finding that the balance shows up as internal and external.

Ultimately, when you have a positive balance of what’s going on within you and what’s going on in your world, you feel stable. I’m not saying you feel happy. Please don’t ever mix up stability with happiness.

“Samuel, there are a whole lot of counselors in this very room who would tell you that that could be a very important first step,” and I agree, a very important first step, but not the destination.

Stability happens at a plateau. Plateaus are very important. In this coming year you are going to feel like you are spending the year on a stair-climb machine, where you meet a powerful new level and then you have to stop and take a few breaths. Maybe you have to work at Kinko’s or the like. And then you keep going. And then you stop. You’re going to find that, more than any other year, you are needing to be aware of your plateau times and use them to learn more about yourself and plan more about what is needed to move you on again to that next level.

That’s a good thing, a very good thing. But for those of you who whine every time you hit a plateau, you’re not going to be able to make use of a time designed to become the incubation of greater power.

When you are, in this coming year, working on bringing balance to your life, ultimately three very specific areas are going to be positive. I’ll say it differently: In this coming year, you are going to find that many of your most positive works show up in three areas. The first one is what you are doing for your body. You will be faced this coming year with . . . how can I say this positively? The nature of life on this planet is that you are constantly getting ready to leave a body that no longer needs the energy of you. If it did not break down so that you could get out, you’d be stuck in it. So it’s not a bad thing that the aging process—be you twenty or seventy—that the aging process brings about changes in your life, and I am not talking about those. I am talking about new breeds of virus, new ways, new awareness about being healthy enough to resist the common cold.

You are going to be seeing more of such things as the big virus that closed down . . .

SARS

S:  That’s the one: SARS. You’re going to be seeing more of that sort of thing coming about, because in many ways your world is getting smaller and smaller, and something that begins in China, for instance, can be right here on your doorstep twenty hours later. You need a body healthy enough to be able to manage that. You need a body healthy enough that you are not constantly focused on what doesn’t work. “My back has gone out. It doesn’t work.” All right, what does work? “Everything else.”

This is one of those areas in which focusing consciously on the positive is going to have a decided advantage for you in 2004, and your body is one of the most easily changed arenas in your life. You have more opportunity to see powerful, positive change out of this [body], even more than out of this [heart]. And you know that to be so, because many of you know how difficult it is, you say, to know your heart.

So let your heart reflect in your body. What do you need to do to allow your physical experience to function at its best and most balanced? Do it.

So the physical is one very major area that you’re going to be challenged, and it’s either going to be a positive change or it’s going to be a rehash of the same old negative stuff, because that’s where you’re choosing to live, and that won’t help you. No matter how pretty the toy is, you will grow bored with it. Positive, power in that positive.

The second area is financially. Do you know that your financial abundance is very tied to the way you treat your physical body? Because the same sorts of attitudes and actions are required: Focus, consciousness, functioning positively.

[Regarding Oma, the dog] Good to see my girl here. but I notice that Cindy’s holding the leash down with her foot. That’s all right, that’s all right. I want your brain here, and it follows her around otherwise, but just remember, I enjoy her. Listen now, she knows that all of this energy is being directed to her.

What do you need financially? What you need most financially is not a raise, it’s not the ability to take vacations to Tahiti; it’s not stuff. What you need financially is an understanding of the flow of prosperity, an understanding of how money works in your life.

Money is symbolic. What you have in your pocket, your purse, your wallet there, is not going to make you happy. It’s what it does that you want. So one of the good things that you can do is think about what you want your money to do, rather than—just like with the body—what’s not working, what you don’t have. In the very same way that you put your physical body on alert that you’re going to be giving it some things that it needs, you’re going to focusing on it, you’re going not to look at the same old negative cycle over and over and over again. You’re going to something positive. So your money works.

Abundance is not what I’m talking about. Abundance is the result of what I’m talking about. When you come from a place of negative, poverty, fear-based consciousness—“I don’t have”—you won’t have. That’s a promise. It’s the nature of energy in this world. That’s a promise.

And yet I have said, “But you cannot say, ‘Here is what I want to be living as. I will max out my credit cards because I deserve this,’ because doing that removes that balance once again. As with your physical body, you’re not going to change it until you accept where it is right now. The Form has had a lot of changes in her physical essence as a result of this . . . wolf thing.

Lupus.

S:  Lupus. Thank you. Made sense to me.

And you cannot see regression if all you focus on, if all she focused on, was what doesn’t work anymore. It’s accepting that, rather than—oh, help me here. Rather than running everywhere, you might have to walk for part of it, until your body is strong enough. So that is with your money. You’ve got to know where you are now.

Look at where you are now, not at how far you have to go to get what you want. Look at where you are now. What needs to be done, what needs to be changed, to bring a positive understanding of money, without fear? Not talking at all about winning the lottery; not talking at all about getting that raise. Not at all. With what you have right now, what’s needed?

All right, if in the body there is a constant weakening within the legs, for instance, you can ignore it, just keep walking anyway, and hurt them more. Or you can find some exercises that will strengthen the legs so that the legs are able to do as much as is possible.

That’s what you do financially—really! Know where you are. Strengthen your assets. See how far you can go with what you have. Work on the fear.

Which leads me directly to the third. You are very likely to find a new reason every week to fear something in this coming year. Without a doubt, there’s going to be so much change going on in your world that, for those who are focused on all of their needs being a byproduct of the physical experience of this reality, you are going to be fearful all of the time—another promise. A very, very good reason not to have your whole life focused on those things that break your heart.

You know that there was a great earthquake in Iran. Yes? You noticed? And did it make you cry? Broke your heart to think of the suffering and the difficulties? And there is going to be a lot of that. There is going to be a lot of that. And you can focus on that and get yourself worked up into hopelessness, frustration, how useless you are—and I guarantee you will be. When you focus on the fear, you move into the instinctual ‘fight it or run from it’—fight or flight—and it takes away anything except what you’re tunnel-visioning on right there.

What works in your world? What’s changing you for the better? What do you see that is positive change? What do you see out there that’s working? It’s good for you to read the news if you use it as a focus for sending out energy, for putting out positive thought into the ethers, to use it to motivate yourself to make use of the information in a way that helps you or helps the world. That’s good. It’s not good when it rules you. And one of the things that profoundly affects your fear levels—do you know? Got a guess?

Television.

S:  Yes, television—generally. I am not saying do not watch television—I’m not. I’m saying control your watching. I think one of the best things you can do for that is make it hard for you. Rather than mindlessly you go inside, you turn it on, you like the noise. [Makes a low grumbling] That was a wolf growl, not a very . . . all right [tries again].

Record your programs. Watch them at a time that works for you. Doing that alone [Oma makes a sound] . . . you see? She agrees. Doing that forces it to become a conscious behavior. And when you do it, make it a situation in which you are aware that in this drama you are going to see some things that might push fear buttons in you. Maybe make sure that when you are watching you are with somebody you love, holding the hand. Maybe make sure that your television is in the place that is very comfortable, where you’re not unconsciously surrounding yourself with things that make you afraid in your life. Pay attention. Fear-based drama is going to be on high alert.

But all of that is good news. Your self, your money, your levels of fear, all of that is good news if you are coming from a place of conscious activity, purposely positive, where you are in charge of your personal world, rather than the victim of fate’s fickle wind.

What can you be doing for you that would make a positive difference? What can you be doing for your money that would make a positive difference? What can you be doing with your fears that would make a positive difference? That is going to have a profound affect on your year, a year in which there is going to be challenges to your health, challenges to what you think prosperity is based on—pay very close attention to the words I used there—challenges to what you think prosperity is based on. Some of you need a change in that. Some of you need to simply amplify the positive. And what amount of your life is spent feeding or being the victim of fear.

Work with that. Consciously work with that.

This is a remarkable time in your world. And you need—I would say “You should,” but that’s not very nice—you need to make some changes, so that you can be the leader, the example, that you’re here to be.

You can change this world—for the better—but you’re only going to do that by changing yourself first. And that opens the heart, so that you are no longer by yourself, fighting the good fight, but you are part of a greater, more beautiful and much more powerful wholeness. One with one with one. And a quick example of that: Reach out, touch the people next to you. When you’re down, their “up” fills you. When you have a need, this is available. One with one with one, you will change this world, and this world is ripe and ready.

It would be good if you were, too.

Glochanumora, dear friends. Happy, happy trails.