April 1, 2012

Samuel: Hello, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: I just love that even now, I look around the room and there’ll be quick little pops: “Golden pyramid right here!”

How are you?

Great.

S: Intents? Made it through March. Learned something good about yourself. Ask yourself these questions regularly: “How am I doing? What do I need to know? What do I need to do to do my best?” “Yes, when I remember.”

Frank, what was your purpose today?

I was wanting to stay conscious that every thought, action, word, deed, was a model for the Universe of how humanity should be.

S: I love that. How would your day have changed, or would it have changed if your purpose had been to be the example of what humanity could be with every thought, every word, and every action? Is there anything that would have changed? Because, whether you like it or not, the fact of it is, what you were today was an example. But an example of what?

[Noki sips water from someone’s cup on the floor] Fault, my fault, I want Noki to be off work when she’s here. She circles the group, makes sure she knows everyone that’s here.

So today is the day of fools, yes? And it is a day about what, exactly?

Things not being as they seem, practical jokes.

S: As a for-instance, anybody?

Sometimes they’ll publish stories in the news about the amazing flying penguins. And you read the story and its April Fools.

S: Tease you.

Electronically the stores will have fake products for sale today. Google advertised a cell phone.

S: I think a lot of you need that one.

See stories about medieval epic hero Loof Lirpa, April fool backward.

S: Also a day of playfulness and, without an intent to do harm, to bring about laughter and frivolity, yes? Is it a world-wide thing or just an American thing? It occurs to me that it would only be America that would set aside only one day for fun.

You do have it in England, and the BBC had on a somber new show with a tree with cooked spaghetti, and called it the spaghetti tree. People wrote in and believed it.

S: It’s a spaghetti tree.

The local paper said it began with the Gregorian calendar, and the New Year started on January 1 instead of the spring solstice. The spring solstice . . . were fools.

S: And that’s saying if you cling to the old you’re a fool. Hmmm . . . you’re all in big trouble.

Well, it causes me to think about what I see in the lives of so many that I think might be a little foolish. And I wanted to use that as my focus tonight: things you can do to be sure you’re a fool. And the biggest one is, mess up your money, be financially foolish. Now why would I bring that up? Because it’s also famous this month for another thing. What would that be?

Taxes.

S: Well, point being, foolish finances throw Guardians off so much. The first thing I want you to remember is the Universe does not want you to be poor and troubled with finances. “Are you sure about that, Samuel?” I am. Think about it for a moment. If the Universe wants your work, isn’t it going to be a whole lot easier if you’re not burdened with poverty anymore? Wouldn’t it maybe be a whole lot easier to let go of this to pay for that, if when you felt the call to go to Timbuktu to serve that you could go to serve? Doesn’t it make sense that within that difficulty things would be easier, and easier might be better? I know, you’re waiting for the ball to drop?

Shoe to drop.

Lottery ball.

S: And the shoe is that the Universe does want that for you, but you don’t want that for you. […] decisions differently than you did. Guardians have a tendency to see a lot, to see more than just what’s right in front of you. You don’t like to miss an opportunity. You want to be a part of everything. You want to fit in and impress others. As a result, you put money very, very high on your list of needs, because you do not trust that your needs can be met without money. Somebody please remind me how long it took for Phoenix to toil and sweat over the money that it took to buy this building? You’re right, it was given to you, wasn’t it? When you’re not putting energy into keeping money away, then you become capable of bringing it to you. So the question to ask is . . .

How is it we’re keeping it away?

S: Any thoughts with that? How it is some hypothetical person might keep money away from themselves?

Actually someone who is announcing tonight compared “I have to take everything that comes to me as a possible work opportunity” versus “taking the things that made me happy.”

S: This sense of a fear-based “If I’m not doing every bit of it I’m shutting myself off,” [rather than] the opportunity to recognize that these are the things that make me happy and out of it will come whatever works to continue the happiness. Seeking happiness instead of dollars, trusting happiness instead of dollars.

Spending time looking at the lack of versus raising energy to what you want. To see it in the world.

S: And that’s huge. When you focus on what you don’t have, you are putting energy into not having. When you are focused on how bad things are, how difficult, how sick you are, how frustrated you are, it just keeps happening, doesn’t it? And that’s because you’re putting into the Universe “All I’m focused on is all of this awful stuff.” So you’re drawing to you more of that same stuff.

You know, how you determine that what you’re going to determine is to be happy and smile. And pretty soon you find yourself smiling at anything, and it’s a natural, happy smile instead of a forced “here is what I’m going to do” smile, because it changes you. You put out this energy of “what I want to be,” and you draw it to you and it changes you so that you put out a higher level, a stronger “here is what I want.” And you draw it to you and it changes you, and an even stronger version goes out the next time. When what you’re putting out there is “I’m worried I won’t have enough”—and I’m not saying be stupid with your money; I’m not saying take risks you should not—pay attention to bills. It’s simply that when your focus is on what you don’t have, how hard it is, how difficult things are, you are going to draw to you more of that.

I see myself as going from one extreme to another, then drawing it and being scared of it, so there’s no ability to create what I want. My biggest blind spot is a sense of entitlement. I’m doing the work so it should come easily.

S: That sense of entitlement—“I’m doing this so I should have that”—is a dangerous one, isn’t it? “I should have all of my needs met.” What is it you need? When what you fill that list with is things that represent an ego-centered Western value set, and you believe that because you have done so well you should have that, well, the first thing I need to warn you about is to beware of what you ask for, because you might get just what you are entitled to. You have been warned.

Joke about a man praying for a lottery win. God answers and says, “Buy a ticket.” The fact is buying the ticket is something you’re reluctant to do. Taking a chance on changing career, investing in yourself to do something.

S: Very true. One of the things that entitlement does is it caused you to say, “The ticket should fall in my lap. I should not have to go out there, not get schooling or certification.” And I cannot tell you how many in this very room that I have spoken with individually who have wondered why it was so hard and why it did not fall into the lap or have the writing on the wall so that it would be clear and simple and easy. I’ve got a secret for you. It’s not an April Fool; it is clear and simple and easy. And when you get that, you start drawing clear and simple and easy to you.

I have put limitations on certain areas at my age: not likely to start a new career, I’m in this box and it’s because I don’t open self to the unexpected. I say, “This is it.”

S: Something that is very important to remember is to beware of perspective. There are those in this world who think you are rolling-in-it rich. There are those in this world who think that because you have an automobile or wear clothing that is clean and does not have tatters, because you got past fourth grade and didn’t have to go to work—and this could go on and on—there are those who would say you are already so rich, and what you’re focused on is how you are so not rich and how none of it can change because these are the rules.

A very quick reminder: A Guardian does not have to follow the rules. You can create them. Try it. So many people are crisis manifesters. “Well, the rent’s due but my car broke down and I have a huge expense, behind on rent, the landlord will kick me out.” Wait . . . principles of manifestation. So, release the fear, focus on […], and you make just enough to get you through show up. If only you’d use your power for good.

Think about that for a moment, because you’re sitting next to somebody who does that, who is a crisis manifester. When your back is up against the wall, only then can you make it work out. A crisis manifester needs to focus on the manifestation, not the crisis. When you allow yourself to recognize that you can do it when back against the wall, take a tiny step away and do the “a little step further.” For those who’ve been taking part in the exercises in the past few Lifescapes, manifesting a little thing with no attachment out of the blue is not so hard. Kind of fun, isn’t it? Manifestation is not hard when it’s not clouded by Bonnie’s walls, as you were saying, that little box. Known, acceptable, the way the world works. It’s easy when you’re not focused on fear, on yourself, and when ego isn’t directing it. Fear, yourself as the cause, the effect, and ego. Those are the things that get in your way.

I think not being responsible with what you do have when you do have money. And I’m thinking in in terms of not servicing your car properly. It’ll break down and you have a crisis that draws money from you. Not cleaning up your debts when you have money. See something on sale.

S: There was a lot wrapped up in that. That sense of using shopping as a recreational activity.

Therapy.

S: I know that “retail therapy” is a joke right now, but I’m not talking the therapy part, the recreation part. Buying into what the marketers are telling you you should be wearing or driving or eating, even if it’s not what you really want. You want to be like everyone else. Recreational shopping has a lot more to do with keeping you from having more money than many more things going on in your life.

Paula’s first point was taking what you have and being responsible with it. If I gave you the assignment to write down everything you spend for one to three weeks, your consciousness would change dramatically. You’d also go through the seven levels of grief, dying. When you are conscious of what you have and what you are doing with it, it changes things. So give yourself the assignment of being conscious with it. Put yourself on a cash-only diet for a while. None of the nice handy plastic cards that don’t feel like spending anything.

And then the second aspect is to be responsible. I want to take that in a slightly different direction.

There are two kinds of responsibility that get associated with money. One is the very obvious irresponsible with it, but that can get cleared up pretty fast if you keep a diary of all that you’re spending. Responsibility means to know what you have and change your lifestyle to fit that, rather than mourning what you do not have and refusing to change your lifestyle. There are so many people who do not realize that money is power. When you give money to somebody you are giving a piece of your power, so you want to give it where that power is going to be multiplied and returned, not where it’s simply going to become the black hole—you give and give and keep having to give.

Shopping can be one of those black holes. Tell me another. Children. Let me switch that up a bit. Your adult children. When is a child an adult? Never, in the parents eyes. If the answer is when they’re able to make it on their own, and you keep that from happening, you get to always have a child, don’t you? When is a child an adult? Well, legally, there is an age. But there are some adults who aren’t adults. And there are some wee children who are way too adult. It’s not an age. It’s an ability to function in the world. And the parent’s job is to make that child able to function in the world. Right? And yet so many parents keep putting out money, keeping that child from ever knowing what it is to be successful and self-empowered, and capable on their own. And some of you were those children, and you know how hard it is to learn to do it on your own when you’ve never really had the opportunity. Who would think that could be a difficulty? And yet right now, in your country, there is a generation of next-presidents who know nothing about being responsible for their income, for managing their money, for taking care of themselves in a way that’s responsible and adult-like.

Money is all about how you relate to God. And the way that you relate to God is the way that you relate to father. And yet you tend to forget. God is some far off impersonal being that can hurt you if you’re not doing real good, and that’s how  money is. You have to be good and work hard and earn it through struggle and toil or you won’t get that you need. God is father because that tiny child that you once were, that masculine presence in your life, was all things to you—all-knowing, seeing, caring. And perhaps you were raised by mother and not a father. It’s still the same: I will guarantee to you that that feminine being exhibited a lot of masculine characteristics to be what you needed. In the very same way, if raised by a single father, I can guarantee that that father exhibited feminine characteristics, roles.

So think about it for a few minutes. Relationship with father? If it was an easy, fun, loving one, where you knew you were loved and you learned you were loved and knew how to give love, then your ideas about God—and I’m saying God and not Source in the Universe here—separate entity: culture’s view of God is back to the box—then your view of God is very likely to be of a loving, involved being in your life. And your view of the power of money in your life would be that it’s not so hard to come by. It’s not a trying, difficult problem. But if it’s “was aloof, disappeared, I felt betrayed, or abandoned,” and your view of God is “there may or may not be something out there, shows up occasionally and disappears again.” And money is the same way. If you really let yourself get the power that money has in your life and how it activates your fears, your ego, your sense of self-empowerment or not, you can keep yourself from some really foolish behaviors.

There’s one more way that I see a lot of Guardians foolishness. What you do in relationships is amazing to me. I have seen more foolishness in relationships, actually particularly lately, even more than money. Once again, I’m going to bring out Bonnie’s box. Your idea of what makes up a human relationship has strict parameters. You can only do this much, only say this much, only go this far. Here is what is allowed and not allowed. This is what others are like, all of them. Here is what I am like to all of them. And I’m here and they’re there and ne’er the twain shall meet.

Or you are in a relationship and time after time I hear the “Well, we’ve just sort of grown apart.” Of course you’ve grown apart, you have to make an effort not to. Of course you’re not who you were back then. A relationship is an act of courage every day. A relationship is an act of choice every day. It doesn’t just happen. You make it work or you make it fail. “Well actually, I’m not the one that makes it fail. It’s that this person just has so many different interests and they’re not spiritual. And somebody with my high frequency needs to have somebody who is a bit more involved in the things I’m interested in. And yes, a bit more evolved.” I want you to take a quick look around this room, and as looking at all of the faces, I want you to remember every one of them is you. Every one of these faces is you, every one of these beings has some of the same vital perspectives that you do. I guarantee everybody in here wishes to love and be loved. “Hello! I like to love. Anybody want to be loved? I like to be loved, anybody want to practice loving?” Everybody in here is afraid of you, because although they know in their heart that when they look at you it’s themselves, you are different and it’s scary. Because what if you don’t think I’m right all the time? What if you don’t like my favorite TV show? Supernatural! I’m afraid of you because you make more money than I do and that means you’re better than I am. I’m afraid because you’re more educated.” Everybody in here is you, and what you have in common is the desire to love and give, and the fear of being loved and given to. And that’s foolish. When you can focus on what you have in common and the what-you-have-in-common are good things, you’re going to have the start of a good relationship.

But you can’t let it drop there. Do you remember what it was like in the beginning? Well, when did those things stop? You used to make an effort to listen to one another and occasionally you even laughed together, and you were playful and went places and had friends. And now you just stay home? And you don’t have common interests? Get a dog. And you don’t laugh? And you wonder why it was so hard? Because you quit.

“Samuel, my problem is I’m shy and have trouble making friends.” Well, be one.

“Hi, my name’s Owen. What’s your name?”

[…]

S: Don says, “What if your name’s not Owen?” For children, it might be just that easy. But really, there’s another step beyond a name. You’ve met a lot of people in your life. How do you get a friend?

Find a common interest, and then take steps to make yourself available to spend time with that person.

S: You find a common interest: “How’s it you know the host of the party?” “Where did you do to school?” “Do you enjoy this kind of art?” And then you’ve got to be vulnerable. You’ve got to be positive.

There is something to be said for chemistry. There are people on this planet that no matter how hard you try you’re not going to make a good connection. That’s rare. More often the only reasons you don’t have more people in life is you’re not willing to try. All right, think of an interest you have and find out what you can do to find out more about the thing you’re interested in. Maybe you start trolling the airport and you find out there is a club where people make and fly airplanes. You go to the club, meet a few people, and then take a step. Secret: Ask for a bit of their knowledge. Seek their wisdom. “How did you do that? Can you show me a little more about what this is about?” And that goes back to people like to give.

Money and relationships. By the way, guess what the number one thing that throws off relationships is? Money. It’s not because you don’t have enough of the money. It’s because you don’t have agreement about what to do with it and about it. What you need is to believe in yourself. Trust that you are not alone here. Seek connections with others.

Happiness is a symptom; it’s not a destination. Having what you need to be happy, anything—peace, enjoying your life—is not going to be because you finally hit a certain level of the bank account, and it’s not because you’ve friended six thousand people on Facebook. It’s because you’ve come to love and accept that you are enough, you challenge yourself to do your best every day, to be the example of what the world can be. You do not function by back-up-against-the-wall crises, but a constant process of manifesting your needs. You don’t determine that everything you have that will make you happy can be found in this list of attributes. You have friends to whom you can give love and from whom you can receive love. And that makes happy happen.

Guardians have a responsibility to show what can be at the best. So what does your financial picture and relationship say about you? Are you a fool or not?

Money and relationships. Money and relationships. The heart of them both is either going to be fear or love. And that’s up to you. Ouch! Supposed to be light-hearted, funny, and playful. And all of this was “Got God in a box. Not enough money. And I’m rotten at relationships.” You can change that.

I haven’t said this in a while so I will now: you can change that because you can change the world. But you will change this world by changing yourself. And you can only ever change yourself with love.

Glochanumora