August 6, 1995

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: Well, this should be fun. [To a member of the audience] Well, I’ve looked forward to this for a long time. Welcome home. And am I playing with you tonight? Good. Aye.

How about a gift. All right.

Well this gift started with Mary telling me I’m a recluse, and my boyfriend coming over …

S: That’s the pot calling the kettle black.

Well, true, and my boyfriend comes over and says to me, Oh you have so many beautiful friends. Why don’t we spend Christmas and you can have all your friends around. And what got was it was it’s the connection at Phoenix, and the love, and the many friendships that I have, and the ability to be able to come and have friendship and then go away to South Africa or Timbuktu or wherever I go, and come back and know that I have this circle of love and this circle of family, and your love. That someone else sees that invisible, visible love and friendship—and really magnified this year since the Power Trip.

So one is the gift of friendship that exists here with your love, and two is the Power Trip, sickness and all.

S: So what did you think of his suggestion?

Oh, pretty good.

S: Aye?

I was floored. Yes.

S: Aye. One of the things that I’ve talked to many people about of late is a very interesting sort of thing that seems to be happening very much in your lives, and that is the tendency to emphasize one small arena so much, that the rest sort of starves around you. Let me explain what I mean by that. One most obvious version of that tends to be so involved at work that the goings on at work are all that you have. That your happiness—can’t relate at all, eh?—that your happiness rises and falls along with how good things are going there. That you are so bereft of a life anywhere else in that circle, you’re so bereft of experience that can distract you or take you away from that, in that circle, that the only thing that there is to do is to focus around that work situation.

Another example of that might be that you’re involved in a wonderful, passionate, delightful, grand relationship—you wish. Well, you’ll laugh right now, then you come and talk to me and you’re not laughing then, are you?—so there you are involved in such a delightful, loving experience and you’re having such a grand time within it, and then, as life happens—oh, perhaps you don’t stay together. Maybe he moves away, or maybe you do. Or perhaps it just wanes like the moon. And that relationship is no longer there in your life, and yet there was so much of you in that grieving process of that loss that the whole rest of your world is gone. Nothing else can make you happy, because all you have is the heartache from that slice of your life.

Or another version of that might be … what?

A house.

S: A house or children or, or, or, and you can keep filling in the blanks of the slices of your life. That when you become too invested in it … what do I mean by that? Too invested.

You give too much of yourself.

S: Too much of yourself. All right. That works. Too much of your attention. Too much of your emotional self. Too many attachments. Maybe it actually means investment as in you’ve got so much money invested in this. You have so many bills that you cannot do anything but stay in this job, because it pays the bills, no matter how much you hate. Or perhaps it’s that you’ve done all of this schooling, and having paid so much for all of this schooling, you’ve got to stay in this job you don’t care for, because you’ve invested so much in it. There’s a lot of versions of this. And when that part of your life that you’ve given so much of yourself to the exclusion of everything else, when that part of your life starts demanding too much of you in a negative fashion, your life breaks down fast. Your life breaks down fast, because you’ve not given anything else to your life, and allowing friendships can preve … prevent? Shall we try that one again? Shall prevent that from happening. Love includes, and it expands. It does not keep you drawn into one small arena. It allows you to touch many. And what’s more than just one? What’s the advantage of a multitude of friendships?

Well, if you lose one, if someone dies, you have the rest to fall back on.

S: Well, if you lose one of those friends, or perhaps they die, there are others that you can fall back upon, literally perhaps.

Because your life has complexities, you have different needs and you have different friends that you can call on, depending upon the circumstances.

S: Good. Aye. Because as like is attracting like, which is an spiritual concept that you learn in spiritual kindergarten, as like is attracted to like, so the different aspects of you, draw like from others. So the different experiences of your life draw like from others. You have those friends whom you hoot and play wild with. Hoot? Hoot? Hoot and play wild with, you have those friends you talk about deep spiritual subjects with. You have the friends that you have at work, and you have the friends that … and on it goes. And don’t you love it when you have a big party and you bring them all together? And you start watching them interacting sort of like, really? Really? Isn’t that nice, because it’s all the different phases of you. Yes. Absolutely. More.

I was going to say you get to see other life styles. I mean everybody has different kinds of jobs, and we’re, I think, maybe a little different. I mean there are things that are the same, but still they are different. So you can see different places.

S: And a very important aspect of it. It gives you perspective. A wider perspective. For one thing it very often shows you that maybe it could be worse, and maybe it could be better.

How many of you have found in life, as you’ve been talking to your friends, that it seems like everybody had a dysfunctional childhood. Everybody. That people have come out of the most amazing circumstances and learned to glow as they grow. Have you been finding that? That’s what expanding your base does for you. It gives you insight. Helps towards answers. Opportunities that you may not have known existed before. Friends are a very powerful and wonderful gift that you give to yourself, and the time that you spend with your friends and the number of friends that you have is absolutely a reflection of what you believe about you. That’s a good one. Friends are an opportunity also to make a powerful difference in this world, because how many of you ever came here because of a friend? Aye. Lots of hands go up here. How many of you experienced something that was new and exciting and fun in your life—well, not that this isn’t, but to continue on in the process—because a friend drew you to it? How many of you connected with a deep love in your life because of a friend? How many of you have a deep love in your life that is your friend? And onward and onward it goes. How many of you have found that some of the most important lessons you’ve ever had, somewhere or another, had a friend attached to it? Maybe even the losing of the friend. Maybe even the war way. So it happens. It is an opportunity to grow and glow.

Another gift. One more. Aye, dear.

Over the past several years I’ve felt squeezed at work, and I’ve felt squeezed at home in my relationship, and I was wondering, what am I going to do. And I have created a wonderful job opportunity in Jackson, Tennessee that will allow me to commute back and forth and see my spouse when I invite him to come see me, and to get involved in an area that will allow me to do training, and improving and use my gifts in a way that is a win/win for me and the company. I’m really excited, and I get to buy a new house, and new furniture.

S: How did this come about, love?

It came about through asking for help, and praying with my feet moving. By making phone calls, and visiting people, and writing letters, and saying thank you. And just being appreciative when all these doors started opening. There’s a wonderful man who I called to ask to be my mentor and coach, and he said, I’d love to. And he sat down with me for a year, and helped me figure out what I wanted to do, and when I figured out what I wanted to do—to which he said, yes, I’m glad you reached that conclusion—he picked up the phone and made it happen. He also said, Tell me about the people that you have pissed off in your career so I can do damage control. He has really been an angel to me, and I just appreciate it, and it’s because I prayed with my feet moving. I called and said, Would you and he said, Yes. And it’s just been amazing, the people want me to come, and my family doesn’t want me to leave, so I just feel good about it.

S: Being unsettled did not leave in you a state of “well, here is what I deserve. I’ll just learn to buckle under it and deal with it.” Not having things at a way that allowed you to be the happiest and to shine the brightest, did not give you an opportunity for a martyr’s crown. I keep telling you, they’re not giving those out any more, you know. They’re not giving them out any more. It’s not worth the effort to try for them. It became an opportunity for you to begin to dream. What if? What about? The dreaming created the process of manifestation. You developed your goals out of the dream. Your vision out of the goals. And more often than not, it’s starts that you’ve got the vision, and from the vision you create the goals, and then you see your dream coming true. But when you’re at a point in your life—and this is an important one—when you’re at a point in your life where you’re not certain what your vision should be, perhaps because—as certainly is the case with Teri, there are so many doors that can open—when you’re not sure what it should be, start with the dream. The what if? The why not? The what about. And then put feet on those prayers.

Give me a gift out of her gift. A message to you out of that gift.

That if you keep your dreams to yourself, no one else knows that you have them, and they may have the keys that open the door that you would love to go through. So ask.

S: Very good. Was that loud enough to be heard out in TV land?

Uh huh.

S: Aye. That when you keep your dreams to yourself, you may never make connection with the person who can help unlock that door.

Aye?

Well, she began to pray, but immediately she started taking action which you have told us many times. Just act. The Universe can only move when you act.

S: Or that it’s so much easier to move something that’s already moving. To direct it, to shift it, than it is to get it moving. That’s physics. That’s easy. Oh, but what if, what if, what if I make the wrong move? What if, what if, I go ahead and start acting, and it’s awful? What if I make a mistake? What if … it’s wrong. It’s much, much better if I just absolutely control everything that’s going on with me to ensure that nothing ever goes wrong. What about that?

The same kind of thing. It’s easier to deflect something that’s already moving instead of trying to get it moving.

S: That’s right. That’s true too. You can deflect more easily as a moving object.

Considering that’s a large place where I live, I’ve decided that if I …

S: The version of fear of failure.

Yes. If I give myself permission to make one decision, why can’t I give myself permission to make all the decisions. So if I can make one change, and it’s not what I want, then I can change it again.

S: Lovely.

So I don’t have to make the permanent, ultimate decision.

S: Aye. If I can give myself permission to make one decision, why can I not give myself permission to make more decisions requires an awareness of the decisions that have worked. How often do you pat yourself on the back for what you did right? Do you do it as often as you feel frustrated or guilty or angry for the things that you feel you did not do right?

I was remembering something that you said recently at a workshop. You said perfect balance is perfect stagnation.

S: It’s so safe to just not move. It’s so powerful to step out which is what I’m talking about, my love.

And the beautiful thing, the gift from Teri’s gift for me, is that you can do damage control. I mean here she gave this beautiful gift, and of course in my mind my vision is of course Teri never does anything wrong, and she’s just ideal in every way, and then here’s this mentor, this wonderful angel for her who’s saying, Now tell me how you pissed people off so I do damage control. I go, Oh, she’s human after all.

S: Really? However, there is a point in that. Now and again, oh maybe one tiny experience in your whole life, maybe just that, but now and again you’re going to find that when you’re out there doing your absolute best, somebody gets mad at you for doing it. There you are, doing what is right and into your path pops somebody who’s whole lesson in life is to test your resilience. Have you had that happen? Aye. It may have absolutely nothing to do with how perfect you are when the people around you are getting angry. There, that was said for the benefit of those who still need that straight and perfect path.

The other point to be made in there is that a very major part of the human experience is learning communication in relationships. And what that means is you’re going to make a whole lot of people angry because you’re not dealing with them right. Because you’re being—what’s the nicest way to put this?—stupid. Have you had that happen too. Where there you just went right in to somebody you love the most, and just treated them the worst. Have you had that happen? What do you do then? You make sure that you look for somebody who can do damage control for you, eh? And what if you cannot find a bulldozer big enough? What do you do then.

Grovel.

S: Grovel? Grovel. Grovel. I suppose that works now and again, don’t you think? Somewhere along the line it’s very, very important that you recognize that if your desire is to work in this world, that if you have a place of service on this planet, that if you do indeed believe that you have come here to make a difference either one by one by one or one thousand by one thousand by one thousand, if you are here to work in the world—and guess what, beloveds, you are—and you continually find that the people out there are just so thin skinned, that they’re just so irrational and stubborn about so many things, that repeatedly you keep finding that you’re running into the same sort of unreasonable individual cloaked in different skin, over and over and over. Darling, it’s probably not them. It might be you.

I’ve said it enough of late that you ought to know it by heart by now. What is communication?

Speaking to a receiver.

S: Yes, speaking to a receiver which says a whole lot.

Listening.

S: It’s being heard. Frank?

It’s knowing what you want to say and being able to pass that on to someone else.

S: Communication is not the art of saying what it is you would like to say. It’s not the art of learning how to speak. It’s not the art of learning how to communicate your thoughts in a way that allows you to feel that you’ve said it well. Communication is not your good ability to speak. Communication is the art of being heard. Which puts the focus on you to be a part of the skin of the person you’re talking to. To be able to use illustrations they’ll understand. A tone that will not push their buttons. That indeed you are responsible when somebody you are talking with does not understand, gets upset, flies off the handle. You are responsible. Don’t you hate that? And if you were in spiritual kindergarten learning that like attracts like, that would not be the case. And across the board in this room there are a whole lot of people thinking, I think I’d rather be in kindergarten. But the bottom line is, the more you know, the more you are responsible for. All right, I’ll never come again!

Communication. How do you know when somebody’s a really good teacher? You have a college professor coming in to talk to the fourth graders about … how about music theory, Suzanne?

Oh dear. A mismatch if I ever heard one.

S: And yet you know how much the teacher knows by the ability to put it into the language of the fourth graders. That’s why the more you know, the more you are responsible for.

Good work, my friends. Good fun work. Aye. And it leads right into to what is probably a fairly brief point that I’m desiring to make tonight. Paula’s back there saying, Oh sure! He’s never made a brief point, ever. He’s not likely to start now.

What kind of difference are you making in your world? What kind of difference are you making in your world? A very wonderful holy day has just passed. Do you know what it was?

Lughnassadh.

S: Lughnassadh. Which is—for the Celtically handicapped—which is?

Lughnassadh.

S: Aye, but what is it?

First harvest.

S: Yes. Yes. That’s a good bottom line for it all. First harvest. What does that mean? Any farmers in here.

Well, it’s giving thanks for crops having developed through the summer and being safe and growing well.

S: The crops have been developing. You’re going to be able to live through the winter. It’s time to pick the greatest amount of what you’ve been growing. Take a quick look at your life, my friends, because what you’re living is what you’ve been growing in your life. I want to change to a new crop! I don’t want to keep picking the same stuff. Perhaps the land that it’s been growing on is worn out now, and it’s time to …

Move on.

S: …burn and start over, aye? What else is Lughnassadh.

It’s an active time, because it celebrates the sun god in you.

S: It’s an active time …

It’s like the deep part of summer.

S: …because in this part of the world it’s very obviously in which the sun is most active. The sun which represents strong light force. It’s also representative of strong god energy here at the planet.

You also said it was a time of fertility.

S: A very fertile time, aye.

The beginning of change.

S: A time to create and as first harvest, it’s time to replant. Start planning for the fall crops.

It’s a quarter point. It’s midway between summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. So it’s a point of instability and therefore a very powerful time.

S: Good. Good. Because as you all know in your own lives, when you’re unstable you’re much more powerful aren’t you? At least that what you keep making me think by staying so unstable and yet remaining so powerful.

Do you come here for abuse from a ghost? I think not. All right, I’ll behave. Then again … as long as Paul’s here, I don’t have to.

And that is exactly—certainly for this end of the planet—where you’ve been dealing with summer and sun. It absolutely is that time in which your whole biological system that works in force with, in function with, in parallel to … somebody could help me better here. That works …

Alongside.

Centered with.

S: …alongside, centered … yes, all of those things. The earth cycles. You too, right now, are harvesting what you have been doing over the last three months. Think about your last three months. Look to what is going on in your life right now, and if there parts that you absolutely enjoy and delight in, make a point within your heart of seeking out what seeds you planted, gather them up and prepare to plant them again. If you got a good harvest—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—if you got a good harvest, plant it again.

But what about if you’re not happy with what you’re harvesting? Then it’s also time to start looking at what made it grow. Does it not have such a good foundation to planting in the first place. Maybe the seed itself wasn’t a good one. And look that through, because now is the time to begin planning what you’re wanting to bring into your life in another three months. Yes, indeed, you are a farmer. Farming the very fertile fields of your own life.

But Lughnassadh is much more than that. Moving it out of that idea of planting your dreams and harvesting your service in the world, into planting your dreams and harvesting your service in the world—because that’s all I ever talk about—it is a time of two things. Gratitude for what has been, and planning for what will be, because these are the two keys to manifestation. Gratitude for what has been, and planning for what will be, and particularly for those who celebrated this holiday as a holy day, because it represented an opportunity to give to the tribe. And that is of vital importance right here, right now. I’m going to make a very bold statement right now. As earlier during the gifting, I made the statement that the happiness that you have in your life, the friends that you can rely on and enjoy is a parallel of what you believe about yourself.

Along that very same line, your ability to make a difference in the world or simply to continue on in hiding—and I don’t give any other choice there. I don’t offer that there are a lot of different options within that. You are choosing to make a difference in the world or you are choosing to hide under the covers, in the house, in the sand, whatever. Your ability to make a difference in the world is absolutely tied in.

And some of you are already shaking your head. I’m not sure if you’re one step ahead of me and listening to me within your heads, or if you’re agreeing thus far. And I’m going to change how I’m saying it.

You will not make a difference in the world if you will not get out in it. Your ability to make a difference in the world is totally related to your ability to give to the world. I am not talking again to kindergarteners here. This is not a statement that is made to the newly awakened. It is a statement to those who believe that maybe they have something the world could use. It is a statement for those who have a sense and have had it since they were wee babes, that there is something special about them. It is a statement for you who are open enough to wisdom and knowledge in whatever form it might come that you are able to be sitting or watching this or hearing this, because my work is not with the babies. It is to you who have come at this time, in this planet, to help it in whatever way you can. See it and you at its highest possible level. And it will not happen unless you are willing to give to the world. What am I saying there?

Two things. One of them on the most obvious front is where I started all of this. What are you doing that’s going to make a difference in your world. Now, think about that for a moment. Think about it. If you were to die right now, how would you be remembered, and is that going to make a difference? And is it worth the loss? And I mean it just like that. Is it worth the loss? What is it that you are giving up to remain so hidden? Do you remember the first time that you accomplished something you did not think you could do? Perhaps when you learned to ride a bicycle. Anybody remember that? Can you just briefly sort of explain it to me. You know I’ve never been on one.

The process is one of balance. Correct?

And falling.

S: And falling.

And getting back up.

S: Sounds like walking. Aye. What’s the joy of it? What do you enjoy? What …

Freedom.

Success.

S: Freedom. Success. Exhilaration. You’re moving along. You’re able to guide your own path. You feel the wind blowing through your hair. You’re doing it yourself. You’re in the big leagues now, eh? No longer on your training wheels. No longer in the training wheels. No longer on the tricycle. How nice. Can you remember that? The absolute welling of joy. What’s another sort of example like that?

Driving a car. You get your driver’s permit and all of a sudden it feels so strange when you’re doing it for the first time, then all of a sudden you learn how to do the clutch, and you can go places without asking permission.

S: And you realize, I’m doing this. I’ve got it! Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Good. What’s another?

Word perfect on the computer.

S: Becoming word perfect on the computer. Aye. But every one of those experiences cost you. They cost you. What did becoming word perfect on the computer cost you, love?

A lot of mistakes, and a lot of time, and feeling pretty stupid for a while.

S: A willingness to make a lot of mistakes. It cost you a lot of time. It cost you a certain amount of self esteem. Yes indeed. And yet when you succeeded it’s so delightful. What did it cost you to learn to ride a bicycle? You said it earlier.

Skinned my knees and …

S: You skinned your knees and you hurt your head and you were frustrated a lot. And in learning to drive a car, what’s it costing you?

Banging into somebody else.

S: Goodness. A whole lot of money!

Getting the car, and what the consequence would be if you messed up.

S: Aye. Everything that you have done, sweet darlings, it has not been achieving the end that has given you what you desired. It was the overcoming power that you developed within the process that gave you the delight in what you had.

Again, I’m not talking to babies here. On the other hand, on the physical level, maybe so. No, impossible, because a child is willing to fall and fall and fall to learn to walk, but the adult steps back and says, Oh I haven’t the time to do this. I cannot risk the skinned knees, because other people will see it, and they’ll know what that means. Or what if I look foolish? And as a result they get to hide.

This world is changed by the squeaky wheels, by the people who are willing to step forth and give it a try, but not be upset if it did not work exactly the way they saw it. Big key there. As long as success depends on it happening your way in this world, you get to be non-successful. I’ll try to say that better. You get to be without success if you believe success must come in your specific package of expectation. I am going to grow the most perfect stalk of corn it is possible to grow, and it is going to have five ears on it, and they each are going to have three hundred kernels upon them. And when it has four ears with varied amounts of kernels, you have lost, you don’t get a meal, you starve yourself and your tribe by tossing out the result.

The opportunity to give to the world takes away, it does not add to, it takes away the pressure of non-human perfection. Let me say that again. The opportunity to give of yourself what you have, who you are, what you do, to the world, actually takes the pressure off of you, because for everything that you do perfectly or imperfectly, there is somebody for whom what that offering is, it’s perfect. How many people have you locked out of your life? How many people have you not shared your gifts with? How much has the world been slowed down because you put the judgment on you that said, I’m not enough, I don’t have enough to give, I cannot do it perfectly, so I will not do it at all? And it’s a bitter harvest. It’s a stunted and bitter harvest.

One by one by one this world will be changed, because one person has chosen to move forward and live. To be. To do. Because one person has chosen to make friends from all walks of life, and try interesting new things, and see what they can do to enjoy the process—as my beloved Gwendolyn says—to enjoy the process. To sacrifice self-esteem in order to gain true power.

You can change this world. You can make a difference in your world first by making a difference in you. And then looking at the world you’re living in and giving you to it. And, you know, this world is so remarkable right now. It’s at such a potent place. This world has so many remarkable openings for you, and it’s not even hard to see where they might be. Turn on the television. Listen on the radio. Look when you drive. Walk around your neighborhood. It’s not even hard to figure out.

You are going to be remembered by the effect you’ve had on the lives of others. That’s it, plain and simple. If there are not others in your life, have a really strong burial vault. Maybe your bones’ll last that way and they’ll dig you up later and remember you by your perfectly preserved bones, because that will be the only hope. You make a difference in this world by being in this world, and it’s the only thing that does it. And there are no excuses for you who are so awake and see the needs to do anything other than put forth yourself, with love, at every opportunity. Who knows, beloved, perhaps the Universe has just been waiting for you to find out the special gifts you have for bungee jumping, or healing your head after you do that.

You don’t know what you can do until you give it a try, and the bottom line is you are here—that means you’re responsible for giving it a try. No way out.

I thought it’d be kind to leave you with that. One by one by one you can change the world, but you only change the world by changing yourself, and you’ll only change yourself with love. Love is the easiest and the hardest thing that there is to do. That’s the easiest and the hardest statement that there is to live.

Glochanumora, my friends. Happy, happy trails.