I Want To Start Over

September 2, 2007

Samuel: Well greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: So how was your month.

The last one, or this one that just started? So far it’s only been two days, it’s good.

S: Well, I actually sort of meant the one since the last time we did this.

That’s what I thought.

S: How’s your month.

Intense.

S: Intense. Good. Busy.

And hot.

S: Hot. Lots of hot.

Yes, lots of hot.

S: But not in the good way. Sort of says it’s a bunch of boring people, don’t you think? Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Yes, it was hot. Tell me something exciting this last month that doesn’t have to do with your weather. All right? Exciting.

Well, I don’t know how exciting it would be to anybody else, but I took on a project that in one of my past lives Vernon would have taken on.

S: And she means past life in this life.

I decided that the outside of my house needed painting and repairing, and so I have become a painter and a construction person, and I have also learned how to cut crown molding for indoor corners. This is big stuff. For my bathroom.

S: Are you for hire?

Yes. Actually I have been amazed at what I can pull up on the Internet, find out how to do it, and do it myself. The old gray mare’s not dead yet. It’s been fun, even in the hot weather.

S: That’s wonderful. Truly wonderful. Why is it that I really like that story? Why is it wonderful, really wonderful? What is it I’m liking about that? One, two, three.

Because she’s willing to change and try something different, and just go out there and see if she can do it, and you know, if it doesn’t work, that’s going to be all right too, and she’ll figure out ways around it but she’s willing to try and make changes.

S: Very good.

Pretty much the same. Courage, creativity. It’s outside the box, because I have difficulty with that kind of stuff, doing that, and it’s really stretching yourself to go outside and do something that you really didn’t think you could do before, and didn’t even identify yourself as being able to do. And then creating a whole new thing. And also the fact that she said “the old gray mare’s not dead yet,” because I like the fact that she was not limited by thinking, “You know, I’m too old to do this, I mean I shouldn’t be out painting the house, you know.” But she did it.

She isn’t too old to do it and she did it. That’s great.

S: Heidi.

Every time, and I agree with everything, but every time we open ourselves up to learn something new and expand our horizons, we also open ourselves up to the Universe to let the Universe know that we want something greater and we’re in motion, and it works towards the Plan.

S: What’s the good thing about being in motion.

You’re a moving target.

S: All right, that’s true as well. Gwendolyn says, “It’s hard to hit a moving target.” Well now, my answer to that was more along the line—still working right with that without a problem at all—but it was more along the lines of it’s easier to direct something that’s already in action. And it’s harder to hit a moving target. So remember that. It’s really important when you put yourself into the box of “I can’t,” “I don’t,” “Should not,” when you give yourself labels it is by far more destructive than the label someone else can give you. “I’m not a painter,” “I’m not a carpenter,” “I’m not . . . ” fill in your blank, because the truth of it is, you never do know what it is you can do until you try it once. And if you have quite a store of really wanting to go with it, and you try it once and it’s not exactly what you hoped for, try it again. After the third time, put it up and say, “All right, I get it.” But if you don’t try, you’ll never know what could have been. Nice work.

Who else has something good? Aye.

This past month, I have been through a major transition, for me.

S: Actually, more than one.

More than one. Several. And I think that looking back on it, I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in a short amount of time in a long time. Like there’s just been a whole lot of lessons for me to catch myself. And I’ll admit that some of them have not been the easiest lessons for myself to become detached from, and stuff like that, but then kind of being on the . . .

S: Harder for your mother to detach from, though.

But being on the tail end of the month, looking back on it, I just feel so blessed like to have learned the things that I have learned already, and to recognize that I have more lessons to learn, but because I’ve gotten over some of them, [. . .] my hurdles kind of, I’ve learned that I can do and I can keep going, and it was a wonderful gift to have all that, even though at the time I wouldn’t have said that.

S: And for those who may not know you, what is it you did?

I moved out of my house and have started college, and am living in the dorms now, and so for me some of the lessons were just, you know, not even . . . even though it’s not fifteen minutes from my birthplace, my home, it felt like a world apart at times. And so I found ways to still have independence, but still kind of bridge those worlds together.

S: That would be planet UK [the University of Kentucky]?

Big blue planet.

S: The big blue planet. So my baby has gone to college. Fortunately, it doesn’t require physical presence for the connection to remain. Have you found that as well? And that helps.

And one more.

And this is so like what you’ve been telling us for twenty years.

S: Oh, good.

Yes.

S: It’s an “I told you so”?

It’s an “I told you so,” and it seems like so simple and “duh,” but I woke up the other day, and I realized that I had really and truly created my life, and the beauty and the power of that is in knowing that I’ve created my life and I can recreate it the way I want to have it be. And so I was able to be detached, for the most part, with how my current life came to be. But the thing that gave hope is I realized that I didn’t have to live my life the way I was living it any more, and that I could have what I wanted, which was different than what I unconsciously created for so many years. So it was pretty big. And I know that we are always talking about, you know, you create your life, but for me I really saw how I did that, and now since I know I did it, I know I can do it again.

S: That’s not a little thing. It’s huge. Ah, Gwendolyn says “It’s the whole thing,” and it is.

So I’m going to quit my job [laughing].

S: Quit your job. Run off with a gypsy. Yes, and live in Alaska.

Prospecting.

S: Prospecting in Alaska.

But I just decided now I want fulfillment, and there’s no reason why in the world I can’t have it, because I can create it.

S: Done it once. Do it again. And having done it twice, you can do it again faster. And doing it three times, you can hardly keep up. Nice work.

Now, you see, this is why it’s such a pleasure to work with you. Into your life come things that, as you’re anticipating it ahead of time, or standing in the middle of it, can sometimes be overly painful, dramatic perhaps, reliably human—that pain thing. When you’re standing in the middle of it, it’s easy to focus on the chaos, the confusion, the difficulties. And, of course, when you do that, you’re going to be able to strike up conversations with most anyone else on the planet without difficulty, because people like to talk about all of the awful things going on, be it the weather, be it whatever your current form of suffering is; in fact I would imagine that some of you have been rather amazed once you caught on to you and were aware of that propensity toward discussing difficulties, how often you saw it going on. You woke up one day in the office and realized that the only conversations that any of the support staff has are just negative, gripey conversations. You woke up in your marriage one day—oops—and realized that all you did was just . . .

Whine and complain.

S: Whine and complain. You woke up to realize that you had been a pretty strong part of that whining and complaining, and choosing to change that. Pretty much changes everything.

When you determine that what you want to do is live, that’s right. You have the gift over the next few days or few weeks, depends on how quickly you are to grab a hold of it, you have the gift of seeing all of the things that have been keeping you from living. All of the pleasures that put you to sleep, all of the habits, even all of the disastrous, painful, difficult things that you have become so used to that you don’t do anything about because you don’t think you deserve it anyway.

You—yes, every one of you—have so much to live for, but you only get to do that if you want to. Now, that’s not saying that you can’t wander around alive, it’s just reminding you that it’s pretty normal, certainly in this culture, to wander around overly stressed, overbooked, overwhelmed, not living. And the only thing that gets you out of that . . .

Hamster wheel.

S: That’s the one. Hamster wheel, yes. Had the picture, not the label. The only thing that gets you out of that hamster wheel is your decision to live for a change.

What’s coming up?

Trip.

S: Trip, yes. From here to your home.

Labor Day.

S: Labor Day, yes. One of those high holidays if you want it to be. What’s Labor Day about? You laugh, any of them, if you want them to be.

It’s when the pools close.

S: It is when pools close.

It’s kind of sad. It’s the end of summer.

Swimming pools close.

Everybody takes their dogs to swim.

S: And the last day what?

You can wear white.

S: The last day to wear white. It’s got to change now. Did you hear about that? And what does that do for formal dress under a suit coat?

Well it’s mainly white shoes. You’re not supposed to wear white shoes.

Or white pants.

S: Or white pants?

White pants, yes.

S: There’s rules about this is there?

Except for a special working here.

S: Unless you’re doing a working here, and then you can wear all white. I see.

Some people don’t care and wear white for weeks after.

Rebellious.

S: And what marks that change when you wear it for weeks after instead of saying, “Wear it all year around.”?

It’s the weight of the clothing.

S: The weight of the clothing. So if it’s a heavy-weight white, you’re all right, but if it’s a light-weight white, you’re not all right.

These are cosmic rules.

S: Cosmic rules. Ken, love, when you are in front of judges or very fancy courtroom situations, or even speaking situations across the world that you have done, have you ever worn a white shirt outside of Labor Day when you did that?

I’ve always worn a white shirt, no matter what.

S: Now, you see, why does that not work?

That’s a dress shirt, like you’d have a suit jacket to go with it. It would be like a woman wouldn’t wear a light summer dress. Would you wear light-weight summer pants in November?

S: And does it work the same way with white socks?

Oh, no!

You can wear white socks all year round.

You never wear white socks.

When you do sports officiating, you wear white socks to officiate.

It’s all pretty silly.

You can’t make sense out of it.

S: Oh, darling, I’m making big sense out of it. You’re doing exactly what I wanted so this is good.

Lakshmi.

Well I think it was just a conspiracy by one of the leather manufacturing, shoe manufacturing companies, that stocks of brown and black shoes that they couldn’t sell, and they created this thing saying, “You cannot wear white after Labor Day,” so that everybody had to buy them.

S: Well, what about a white such as Jim’s? Show. Yours is white, but there’s other color in that, yes? Is that all right?

Sure.

As long as it’s warm.

But it’s a summer shirt.

S: And summer’s not over until autumn happens, and the autumnal equinox doesn’t happen until quite a bit down the September road.

David.

If you’re a computer nerd, you can wear whatever you want, whenever you want, because you’re not bound to the Lords of Fashion.

S: The Lords of Fashion.

A geek.

S: Lisa.

You can wear white in the winter if it’s monochromatic, and it’s wool.

S: So if it is a wool fabric, that makes the difference, aye?

Some of this tradition came about in Victorian times, in which there was very strict structure about when you wore white, and the more higher up you were in society, you followed the rules.

Is any of this going to be on the quiz?

S: You’ll have to tell.

Philomena tells me that I am blessed to have been transplanted from one culture to another, because I . . .

S: Lucky you! One of the easier things to do in life.

Because I don’t live in India, so I don’t follow those rules, and I don’t follow most of the rules here because, one, I don’t know many of them; I’m like, “Oh, is that what that means?” even today. And some of them I really don’t care, because people don’t expect those things of me, because I am not American.

S: And that’s the one I was going to point out with what you were saying. It was that you don’t have to care, so you don’t.

I do care when I have something invested in that. For instance, when I was working, I used to be a big rebel that [said], “I don’t have to wear these suits to go to work,” and “Why do I have to dress this way?” and all that, and then I realized that’s the only way I can relate to those people and that’s the only way I can have them respect me and listen to what I’ve got to say. So I chose those things.

S: Costumes.

Costumes, yes, versus “You expect me to do what?” But I can always feign ignorance. “Oh, is that so? Tell me more about that.” So I totally deflected it, and they don’t care any more.

S: These are survival tactics, and although the rules about wearing white or orange or black, or whatever, are not exactly my point, my point is that there are rules that you obey and there are rules you don’t obey, and your reason for knowing and choosing them tells you about how you feel in that situation. It tells you about what you feel your connection is with a situation, and all of that is about you taking a look at what you feel about you. Are you courageous enough to defy this cultural norm of white after Labor Day? Are you strong enough to keep it for the sake of something you need to do? Get along with somebody who’s very strict about that rule, for instance, because that matters to you. Why do you follow the rules that you do? Why do you choose not to follow some of them. And for all of the . . . [Picks up jewelry from the table] Well, I like that.

Doesn’t come in white.

S: Well it seems to have changing colors though. White could possibly be one of them.

You choose your boundaries, even though it might seem that some of the boundaries have chosen you. Why do you choose the boundaries you do?

Now, where I’m going tonight is about Labor Day, so the first thing that I want to ask you about is what does [sic] rules like this that I’m discussing, these little cultural idiosyncrasies or these global, unspoken proclamations, what does that have to do with Labor Day?

Labor Day is about honoring labor, about work, about service. So my service here is being a Guardian, so when I look at my service and honoring my Guardianship, I think about what are the rules that I choose to follow.

S: All right, don’t keep going or you’re going to cover the whole message and then I won’t have anything left to say.

Can I give you an example?

S: Sure.

In India, one of the cultural expectations—or norms you can call it—is that the sons take care of the parents. And especially if you are the only son, the parents live with you or you live with your parents. And Srikant is an only son. Srikant is my husband for those of you who don’t know, and he lives here, and his parents are in India. And they have this expectation—always they have had it—that he would come back. For a long time they judged me as the one who was keeping him from going back, but now . . .

S: Evil child that you are.

I know, oh yes. But I think now they know that he also chooses to be here, for whatever reason. So they send us these messages to put us on guilt trips. “See how hard it is for us. Such-and-such person . . .”

S: You have to get in the car to go on a guilt trip. Choose not to.

So “Such-and-such person went to the U.S., and they made all this money. They come back and they bought this house, and they are living with their parents. Why are you after money?” You know, all these things, you know? And so previously I would have been feeling very guilty that my choice of doing this work is the only reason we live in the U.S., [and] is keeping Srikant from doing what he may have otherwise chosen to do. But when I came to know from my mom that his mom said something about how her son was not there to take care of her and all that, and I had no buttons pushed, and I thought, “That’s really sad for her to be in that state.” Because I chose somewhere along the way I chose to not be confined by that cultural rule or expectation, but I still have compassion. But I know that what I am here to do is this, and this is a choice I’m making, and in the bigger scheme of things.

S: And is it hard—and of course, just having heard that small part of the story, the answer may seem rather clear—is it hard to go against cultural norms?

Yes and no.

S: And the yes is?

Yes is because I see it as a changing thing. Things change all the time. I go back to India after two years, I have a culture shock, because things have changed so much. I wear clothes that they look at me and go, “Why do you cover so much of yourself?”

S: And no because?

No because there is still that part of me that feels the pain, and I see how hard it is for them to have to manage things by themselves, because the society is built on the system where the children take care of the parents. There aren’t many old age homes. Even where there are, people don’t look at it as a positive thing. It is something they get pushed to because they are the unlucky ones who go to the old age homes, or the assisted living places. So it’s very hard to see them deal with those things, but also—I’ve come a long way with this, Samuel—I know that it’s part of a bigger cycle so that makes it’s easier, but it’s still hard because it tugs at my heart.

S: Sure. Sure.

You do not have to have grown up in India to have some of those cultural agreements, do you? Can you come up with a couple that might be experienced in your life?

It’s just as hard for people here to put their elderly parents in homes.

S: I don’t know. It might not be so hard for some.

It’s always a struggle, you know, if you reach the point that you can’t take care of yourself. It’s always a struggle, and I don’t think it’s a lot different than India really.

S: Did any of you grow up with the idea that the children are supposed to take care of their parents in their old age? Did any of you males grow up with the idea that you have particular strictures put upon you that are different than, perhaps, on the females? Aye. And some of the females, did you grow up with some particular strictures that said you can do this and you can do this, but you cannot do that? Did any of you grow up with the keen desire to make your parents happy? For whatever reason, to please them? And do you still do that? Do you still feel that?

If they’re dead or alive, yes.

I can’t get in there. I don’t have anybody to put anyplace, or take care of.

S: And is that a good place or a hard place to be in?

Well, it’s a good place. It depends on how you look at it.

S: Yes, that’s true, because the other side of those questions would be who in here tends to be that kind of person who tends to be a helping sort of person, who is sharing and giving? Maybe you’re one of those who gives a little too much, but still is a giver, and be it a parent or be it sibling or be it a friend, you would be there to do whatever you could anyway. How many of you see yourself that way? This isn’t a trick question. It’s all right to say “Yes, that’s me. I’m one of those.” Waiting for the foot to fall, is that it?

Shoe to drop.

S: Oh, I was so close!

Today it can be white; tomorrow it can’t.

S: That was great. That was great.

You have that same imperative, but it’s not so hard for you because you tend to be somebody that gives and does anyway. Yes? But lucky for you, there are other cultural values that you may not find quite as natural to follow. And it could be any number of things.

Getting married. If you’re a female, if you’re not married by a certain age and have a child, you’re not going to have any grandchildren. Stuff like that.

S: The age of marriage and having children, and becoming a grandparent. That sort of thing. There are any number of rules you live by, but you may not think about. You may not realize that it’s one of those things that you don’t think about, but follow anyway. You don’t realize, perhaps, that it’s even one of those unspoken sorts of rules. There is a lot of that in living.

You follow the path that gets you where you want to be. And if it’s getting you there, or has got you there, maybe you look at it and say, “Well, it’s not so bad because it’s brought me this far.” But maybe it is so bad. Maybe that denial mechanism, which can be so very useful, helpful, healing even—useful because you can pretty easily tuck something you’re not ready to deal with away until you’re strong enough and clear enough to deal with it can be useful that way. But that requires, every step of the way, your awareness that “this is a rule that I am choosing to see differently. This is an action that I am going to take differently. This is a choice I am making.”

Labor Day, and I do have a limited encyclopedia here, but was not about having all of the family over for a picnic, it was about honoring workers—correct?—who had for a very long time in your country a very hard life. Yes? And now you have come so far, and done so much, made use of excellent technology, and arranged to be able to work around the clock again, haven’t you?

We’ve got Mexicans to do that for us, yes.

S: You can bring in illegal workers to do what you won’t do, and to work around the clock for you in other countries. Yes, it’s handy, isn’t it? And you make those choices, and you make those choices in order to have what it is you want, to get where it is you’re wanting to go, to have what you want. What does your labor say you want?

And you may recognize that over the last few months, I have had a constant message going. Anybody recognized it?

Choices.

S: Choices. Commitments. That’s good. That’s easy. That’s not it. Although that definitely is it insofar as the Lifescapes events are concerned, but . . .

What do you want? Why do you want it?

S: What do you want? Why do you want it? Easy enough. Yes. Yes. Know you. Know what you want, and why you want it. And why does that matter? Because that adds into what I’m pushing so hard these days. What does it matter? Why do I want you to know what you want and why you want it? What difference does it make?

Well, you have to understand your motivations.

S: Yes.

And your motivations may not be based on the person who you are today, but the person who you were twenty years ago.

S: One of the reasons is because the more you know about why you do what you do, the more easily it will be that you can change it to something that is going to empower who you are right now. And, baby, empowerment counts.

There is . . . I want to say that it’s a New Age thing, but I don’t think it’s a New Age thing any more—self improvement; self empowerment, yes? And you can improve your managerial skills, and you can improve your love life, and all you’ve got to do is go buy groceries and you will pass all of the manuals that convince you that thinking good thoughts is weird because nobody else does it. No conversations that you can have in this office, no people to develop close relationships with, you’re just going to be standing out in the field alone.

Out standing in your field.

S: That was it, you’re just going to be outstanding in your field. If I can convince you that your kindness makes you a target, if I can convince you that being loving puts you at risk, if I can convince you that the way you use a keyboard on your computer is wrong and you would be so much more efficient if you did it right, if I can convince you in any way that you are not enough then I am going to have power over you. And so much of this society tells you all the time you are not enough. And if you would work harder at it, you’ll get it. And that includes really good, spiritual stuff, too, like if you worked at your visualizations more—that’s a joke; you know if I try really hard to get meditating right, I’ll do it; wrong. You see it’s a joke. Never mind. Even spiritual things, such as . . . give me one. Being impeccably honest in all things at all times.

Being really rigid in your spiritual practices to the point that if you think you’ve missed a day then you’re not enough, you know.

S: Thank you. You—same evil speaker isn’t it?

[. . .]

S: If I can convince you that you are broken, then you are going to seek being fixed—which is another interesting thought there, but not to do with this.

Talking about you, Hapi.

S: Aye, and a lot of people here too. I did not ask you to raise hands now.

And as a result of that, you’ve got a whole library to choose from of people who have moved away from the cultural norms and have determined that they were broken, and now they are fixed because they did these things, and if you do these things, you too can be fixed. And so you put yourself to work eating only these foods, or doing only these exercises, or . . . always looking for something to work to make you fit, to take away that blemish that says you don’t belong, to take away that sense of fear. You’re happy to get the next good thing until sometimes there are people who what they have in common is that they’ve all done the next good thing, they’ve all followed the next good diet, they’ve all done the next good type of exercise, they’ve all . . .

You have worked hard all of your life, and working hard all of your life, ideally, has brought you pleasure, has brought you security, has brought you dear friends, happiness in all kinds of ways—laughter, joy. You have worked hard all of your life, and as a result you have so much to show for it. You have that fulfillment that comes from following the rules. You have the prosperity that comes from working hard at good work, from the years of schooling, and the—I’m going to say something rude—and the prostituting of yourself, looking the other way, putting blinders on, not saying, not feeling. You’ve worked hard all of your life to reach a point where you hope you’re not going to have to work any more. And I hope it’s been good for you, and I hope it fixed the broken parts, and I hope that you have the prosperity and the fulfillment and the elevation in society, and all of those lovely, good things that you have worked so hard for. “Samuel, not me. I’ve never worked for any of those things.” I promise you you have, even if you are, or maybe were once, a hippie beach bum—could not resist that one, sorry. Even if you think of yourself as being out of mainstream, this society has told, in one way or another, you are broken, and you have done what you could to fix yourself.

And as a result of all of that, you are finding yourself now sublimely happy. You know that what you are all about is making a difference in the world, and every day you have people coming up to you saying, “You have touched my heart, and given me a reason to keep on going.” This is payback for all that you have put in for so long. And, of course, that’s what you celebrate on Labor Day, all of that good labor. All of that good labor that really isn’t so much the point.

I did what I could to really punch a hole in a balloon in this last event by very sweetly saying, “The Universe does not care what you do,” which sort of goes against what you would want to think. And, of course, what I was saying by that was “The Universe does not care if you are rich or poor; it does not care if you drive this car or that one; the Universe does not care if you are the head of your class.” Again?

A janitor.

S: A janitor. It does not care. It wants you here. It wants you here having to go through all of this stuff that you go through, all of the rules you follow, all of the rules you break, all of the work that is worthwhile to you, all of the work that isn’t, all of the relationships that mean the most to you, all of the relationships that you have learned don’t. The constant, constant process of “worked yesterday; not today; something different instead,” of change and growth. It doesn’t matter what you do, it matters that you do. And I am adding to that: it shouldn’t be so hard, and it’s hard because you’re not doing it for you.

The very same thing done because you want or done because you’ve been told it’s the right thing to do can have very different registrations within you. You may never clean your house, but you happily clean up after an event here. You may pretty well keep to yourself in most of your life, and yet there are one or two places where you’re funny, delightful, free to be the best you. The Universe wants that too. It wants you free and playful and imprisoned. It wants you, it doesn’t care how. And the fact is, it doesn’t even care why. It wants you. Isn’t it nice to be wanted?

Because sometime in your life you’re going to realize that all that you have been working for is not the slightest bit of what your life is truly about. That all of these Labor Days that you’ve experienced up until now have all been about playing the games the world has asked you to play. You’ve done it. You want to keep eating, you want to keep having a roof over your head, you play the game. The game is college, job, children, grandchildren, whatever it is. Maybe the game is, every week get your spiritual instructions, find out which god of the week is acceptable this week. Maybe it’s simply do what you see everyone else doing and you’ll be all right. Is that enough? Well, it may have been so far, but I would like for you to take a look over the last year of your life. I can promise you that over this last year—no big psychic awareness here—I can promise you that over this last year you have been taking a real look at what does matter to you, and why does it matter to you. You’ve been taking a look at “Just how broken am I, and how much do I need to do to get me fixed?” Still sounds funny to me.

You have weathered loss of all kinds. You have lost parts of your own self. You’ve become aware of things that may have surprised you. You’ve worked hard, haven’t you? You have worked hard to find a better way. Has it been enough? Does it matter? Are you happy enough with what you’ve found from what you’ve gone through? Has it helped this last year? And I know some of you sitting in here have had amazing epiphanies in just the last week. You’re very welcome. And I will ask, “Is it enough? Is it going to stick? Is it worth it?”

This is an amazing time, and you will always do what’s easiest to do, even if it’s not really what you want, even if it’s not necessarily fulfilling, enlightening, enriching, you’ll do what’s easiest to do unless you take a look at all of the work you have put into your life and you’re willing to say, “I want to start over.” Title: I want to start over. And that means taking a look at your life and figuring out what works for who you are now, that isn’t about fixing something broken, but is based on recognizing that you’re not broken! Maybe a small bit damaged, but not broken. Just a little bit.

This Labor Day could be a birthday. When you started doing the work that really mattered, which means, of course, that you had to figure out what it is that mattered. You’re a remarkable being, and you can spend the rest of your life experiencing life as it is right now for you. You’ve worked hard to get here. You can spend the rest of your life, right where you are, or you can start over, because things won’t change if you don’t. Nothing stands in your way but you.

I often call right action good work. You might need to fire yourself, and take on some good work to fully live. I can’t hold up that list that’s going to tell you what it is you need to do, because, you see, it’s your list. You’ve got to figure out what it is that you want to follow. Does it give you what you want?

This year is a very big year in so many ways. Maybe this will be the year in which you celebrate cutting the ties to the slavery you have allowed in your life for so long. You have been a cruel taskmaster. You have set up a life of working hard for things that don’t matter all that much for you, closing down who you are and what you are, thinking that it’s the easier way, and it’s not. It is by far the hardest one, isn’t it?

Labor Day is a celebration of workers. So think about all the work you’ve put in. If you get too depressed have a family cookout. It puts everything back into balance. And start over. I’m not saying quit your day job. I’m saying you’ve been working for a cruel and difficult boss—your name here—you’ve put in an awful lot of work to become who you are right now, and I’m here to tell you that you need to make a few changes in there so that you’re not tied into something that isn’t you, so that you’re not living somebody else’s dreams, so that even your own ten years ago, five years ago, yesterday, so that you’re not believing yourself to be the plain old nine-to-five rat—hamster, no rats too—that you’ve made of yourself so that you can like yourself enough to keep doing it.

Not fun and games tonight—sorry. It’s . . .

Hard work.

S: If it was meant to be easy it would not be called work, is that it?

I don’t know, I don’t have a job.

S: I know, and you’re so happy.

I encourage you to get to know the real you, to see what the real you wants, to see what the real you needs to be the real you, to take a look at all of the areas of your life from the inside out that are about what you’ve worked so hard to be and achieve and do, and maybe notice that it was somebody else doing all of that. Do not be afraid to change your work place. Do not be afraid to start over. It takes consistency and vision, and vision and consistency. Otherwise you’re just running the wheel.

Labor Day, next year, might could be a birthday. It’s up to you. So, what are you stuck doing? And what are you doing stuck?

Glochanumora.