September 7, 2014

Samuel: Greetings, dears.

Greetings, Samuel.

S: What do you do when you go home after these meetings? What do you plan to do when you go home this evening?

I have a book I’m really engrossed in, so I’ll probably read.

I’m painting, so I’ll probably paint.

S: Aye.

I think I’m going to take a walk.

Put on more comfortable clothes.

S: That is called “jammy-fy.”

I’m going to clean house and pack.

S: I guess you are, yes!

One thing is to do a to-do list for tomorrow.

S: Very good.

S: Is meeting at this time working for you?

I liked the old time but I’m outnumbered.

Is it working for you?

S: It doesn’t matter to me. You call, I’ll come. Here I am. I was asking what it was you were planning to do because the energy that’s created when we are together like this affects you, and I was wondering what you do to rebalance. Because that’s really what you’re doing . . . true for anything that you’re doing. There’s a re-balance after that. So what it is that you choose to do after meeting like this would say a little bit of something about what you need for winding down, getting back to yourself. And that’s very, very important information for you to use most any time in your life. “Here is what I do to get back to myself. I put on comfortable clothes, I read a book, I take a walk, I do a painting.”

So I am going to ask again: what do you usually do—and this time do not answer out loud. What is it you usually do after, perhaps, a full moon ritual, after a Sunday-night meeting, first Sunday or otherwise? What do you do and why is it your choice?

September is very, very much a month for transitions, and although that’s not at all where I’m going tonight, I just want to remind you that transition is not only you’re moving into a different weather pattern, you’re moving into a different way the sun comes into the planet, schools are beginning, traffic patterns change. All of those things are true. But you also have the transitions in your own personal life that you should pay attention to. Not that you don’t have a lot of things coming into your life to pay attention to so just add these to that list. But what do you do when you want to relax? What do you do to put you into a different mood?

Let me come up with a couple. What do you do if you’ve been in a kind of an angry mood, what do you do to pull yourself out of that? I’m not answering questions. This is what I want you thinking about. I want you to know your patterns. What do you do if you’re very, very sad, for instance you just read the newspaper? That’s a pretty easy one. What do you do when you’re very, very sad to get yourself out of that mood? Well, of course it’s always going to involve, in one way or another, a change, right? Change of clothing, change of activity, change of mind.

What do you do when you want to be really happy? Is there anything that you need to change in a behavior for that? Remember that happiness is a choice, it is a function of your consciousness. What do you do . . . I’ll do this both ways. What do you do if you want to feel very sexual? What you do if you don’t want to and you are? Oh, come on, it happens! You remember. Think back. Think back. What do you do if you’re very, very tired and you want to perk up? What do you do when you have been very, very up and you need to balance that out? Maybe you’ve been a little on the hyper side and you need to get a little more relaxed. This matters not only because the more you know about yourself the more you’re going to be able to control what’s going on with you—although that alone is a very, very good reason, don’t you think—but generally speaking, this is a time of transition physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Many things are changing right now. Many things in your world, many things in your life. And that point of change can be very scary or very powerful depending upon how you are making use of it. Think about change this month and the power of it. And think about how you deal with change and how you use it in an empowered way by choosing, “I want to feel this way. Here is how I’m going to do it. I want to not feel this way and this is what I’m going to . . . ” And what changes you put into place. Last part of it? Look to see if you have patterns. If you taught yourself, “If I put on my jammies I will automatically be relaxed and at peace.” It’s a little awkward in the middle of work. “Just a minute boss, have to put my jammies on.” Maybe it is you have realized it’s very, very simple to put yourself into a good mood or a happy way of being. Or maybe you’ve found just the opposite: sometimes it’s just like jumping into a black hole.

This is a month of change. Cosmically speaking you have lot of interesting things going on. You have the last of what should be three of your great big moons. Super-moons sounds so silly.

Doesn’t moon have something to do as well with releasing your trousers, and that becomes also . . . . well never mind. If you’re really close to it, then it’s super-moon! [Laughter] Just keeping you awake; just keeping you awake.

It’s a month in which your relationships are going to be called into, and then there is a blank word in this sentence. Called into action, called into change, called into deeper awareness—you will have to see how it plays out in your life. But relationships are going to be big on your list. Remember that relationships aren’t just sexual relationships. They’re also work relationships, and they are “barely know this person, but we say hi when we pass in the hall,” relationships. They can be casual; that’s the word I should have looked at for that one. They can be casual relationships; they can be a very minor, they can be very serious. But relationships are going to come into call. And here is the scary part. It’s very, very likely that your temper will, too. So those of you that know that you have temper issues, “Down, down, down!”  And pay attention in the news because, globally speaking, those same two issues are going to be coming up. Union, or breaking up of unions, or difficulties, friction within unions, or beyond friction to out-and-out behaving like spoiled children.

It’s an important month in what’s been an important year. And it’s transition.

All right. Be comfortable because tonight I’m telling you a story. It’s been awhile.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, in a land far, far away, there was a very, very good ruler, a king, because back in those days rulers were mainly kings. And this king had a firstborn son that was going to inherit this kingdom, and the king called the son into a private discussion and said, “Son, you need to be learning how to be the wise ruler, a good leader, how to take care of this beautiful land, and these wonderful people that are going to be looking to you for help, for security. And I hate to tell you, but right now I think I’ve just been a little too easy on you. I think maybe . . . maybe you need to get away to be able to become this person that this kingdom is going to be needing.”

Well, the prince said, “Sure. I don’t mind. What do you want me to do?”

The king said, “I want you to go trekking around the kingdom. I want you to be meeting people, I want you to have adventures. I want you to experience life. And I’m going to send with you four individuals so that you won’t be alone and to help you along the way. Each have their own special skills. And I’m going to make a quest out of this. I want you to find the key to what you’re here to do.”

And of course the prince, being a prince, said, “A key? You mean, like this? A key?”

“Maybe,” the king said. “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll know it when you see it. But if you don’t, do not worry. I’ll help you out.”

“All right. Do I need anything before I go?”

“No, just come back here tomorrow morning fully rested and ready, and I’ll have your four friends and everything that you need ready and you can go off from there.”

So, the prince of course did exactly that, and the next morning made it into the room with the king and saw a very odd kind of assortment there: saw a very, very old person, and a very, very young person, and two other people, one that he knew and was already friends with, and one that he did not know. And he thought, “All right, these two I get, but this old person and this child—how are they going to be of help? This older person really doesn’t have the strength to go trekking about this kingdom. There might be trouble keeping up. And this child . . . my gosh, what are we going to be doing with a child?”

The king said, “Here is what you have. Take care. Begone. Adios.”

“But, but but . . .”

“See ya.”

“Are you sure?”

“Bye.”

And so the prince, thinking of course that this was not what he signed up for, that he was actually being saddled with these people, except for the one that was his friend, because that was all right. But the rest of these, they were just going to be excess baggage, and it was going to be difficult, and what the heck was he going to do with them on the trip, and were they going to . . . And you know, all the ways that you can think when something’s been pushed up on you that you don’t really want, or maybe, to say it another way, when it’s not exactly looking like what you had in mind for it to look like. But off he went, being a good obedient son.

Now the prince had many, many interesting adventures, starting pretty much immediately, when his friend said to him, “This is going to be great fun! We’re going to get to travel all over the kingdom, we’re going to meet so many people. This is going to be great!”

The one who was not a friend said, “I hope this is going to be okay. Do you think that we’ve got enough of what we’ll need? Is there enough food here? What about . . . where are we going to sleep? What are we going to do? I’m kind of worried. And the sun’s out and it’s kind of hot, and I can’t get too much sun without starting to feel sick. I’m a little worried about this.”

The child said, “I can’t wait! I’ve been wanting to do something like this for such a long time. I’m thinking of it like I’ve run away from home, and I’ve found my friends along the way. This is going to be great! I’m looking forward to it.”

And the elder said, “Everybody just hold your horses. Right? And let’s take it a step at a time to see how it goes.”

And the prince is thinking, “Oh, boy.”

Nonetheless, off he went.

They traveled about two days. Now this is a very large kingdom. You can actually travel for months and never reach the ends of this kingdom. They traveled about two days before they hit on a village. They came to the village, and the prince said, “Well, right here in front of us is a village, the first one we’ve been to. What do you think we should do first?”

And the friend said, “Let’s go right down the center. Let’s kind of get the lay of everything, and let’s see who we meet, let’s see how people respond. This should be fun. Let’s do it.”

And . . . what shall we call this person? Adult #2—the other one—said, “All right, but be careful, you know? You never know when you’re in places that you’re not familiar with, what might happen. You might get mugged, you might have somebody come and steal your goods, or . . . or . . . something. You don’t know where you’re walking; you might trip and fall and hurt yourself, and then the whole trip would just be bound by having to drag you along, and . . .”

And the child said, “I think it’s going to be fun. Look at all these great places. We could make a game out of it. Let’s play hide and seek first, all right?”

The elder said, “Come one, one step in front of the other. Just go, just go. And we’ll deal with it as it comes up. Now what’s the first thing that you need to do?”

The prince said, “Well, it might be nice to re-fill our bags of food and find a place to stay.” So they went on their way doing that.

And that pretty much became the days as they would travel along from village to village. And in every village they would meet people. Sometimes they’d have to do a little bit of work. Sometimes they would have to be treated like the king’s entourage. Sometimes they just decided they didn’t want to hang out in the town and spent the night out in the open. Sometimes they had horses with them, sometimes they walked. This continued. It was just life. Day by day, life.

One day, they were getting close to one of the biggest towns in the land. And the child came up to the prince and said, “You know what? I’m a little bit worried about this place. I’ve never been to a place this big and this different. It’s all going to be new to me. And I’m a little scared.”

And the prince smiled and the prince’s friend wrapped an arm around him and said, “Don’t worry. You’re with friends. This will be all right. You’ve never been led astray so far. If you get worried about anything, just come to us. We’ll take care of you.”

Adult #2 said, “But you better be really careful. Don’t make any missteps, don’t irritate anybody. In fact, it might be better if you just did not talk to anybody. And you pay attention to how safe you are the whole time. You take care of yourself, because nobody else will take care of you. You’ve got to be responsible for yourself. You do that.”

The elder said, “It might be kind of scary, it might not. Just take it step by step. Do your best. See how you go.”

Well, don’t you know that they went into town and surely enough, they actually did run into problems. They ran into—I don’t know what—a bad section of town, maybe, and without even realizing it, the child was suddenly gone. And they looked, and looked, and looked. And while they were looking one of them had their money stolen, and another had the food supply stolen, and it was actually quite awful. They felt like they were being stared at. They’d look at a home and the windows would close very quickly and the shades would close very quickly. People weren’t being friendly. It was nothing like the rest of the trip had been, which really was kind of fun. So far they had gotten along pretty well. They’d been meeting new people, exploring.

They continued walking through, trying to find the child, when they looked into a square they were coming up to and they saw the child hiding behind a building. A building. There was a very large group of people looking kind of angry. The prince casually went over to the child and said, “We’ve been looking for you. I’m glad I found you. What’s the problem here?”

And the child said, “I’ve never seen people that are as unfriendly and unhappy as these people. There’s something horribly, horribly wrong here. I don’t know what it is. All I wanted to do was get away and I got chased by some people, and I finally just had to hide. I did not know what to do. It was quite awful.”

And the prince said, “I will protect you, don’t worry.” And the child, so trusting, took the prince’s hand and they walked away from the crowd back to where the others were waiting.

Adult #2 said, “You have ruined this trip for me! Everything was going fine and then you ran off!”

And the child said, “I wasn’t running off! I wasn’t running off! I was just running ahead like we always do and I got frightened and I had to hide.”

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m sick of this. I am not taking part anymore. I’m leaving.”

And the prince said, “How about we meet up in a couple of days. Just walk it off. You might feel better that way.”

And Adult #2 did just that—went off.

The prince said, “I need to find out what’s going on here with these people because this isn’t good.”

Now I’m going to shorten this story a whole lot. Turned out that the people were quite angry. They were wanting to rebel against the local tax collectors and local government because they felt as though they were being cheated, that they were working so hard and doing so much and yet seeing very, very little for it. Food was very, very costly. It was very, very expensive to find a good place to live. Clothing, all of the costs were going up. They were paying out more than ever and seeing nothing for it. And they finally reached a place where they could not take it anymore. I did not even mention that crime had gone up, as it always does when people are not having their needs met.

The prince listened to what they had to say, and he thought that what they were saying was probably true, and he skirted along the side and went to the town mayor and talked to him about what was going on. The mayor explained, “Well, you see, our town has had a great influx of people from the rural areas, and things have changed a lot, and it’s put quite a burden on . . .” and on and on and on.

The prince gave him a couple of suggestions about ways that might could be helpful in dividing up what was available, making better use of what’s there, even a few ideas they’d gained along the way with regard to how to better grow crops so that you yield more. The mayor went out, talked to the crowd he’d been avoiding, and said, “We have some ideas of things to do. Here’s what we’re going to be looking at.”And basically just enumerated everything the prince had been talking about. Didn’t give the prince a bit of credit for that, but the prince did not mind. He was very pleased that something that he could say was useful. And he went on his way.

The child was relieved, but a little way down the road realized that he’d made it through something he did not think he could do, and he felt better for it. And he said just that. “I could not have done it without you. Thank you for your help. This was a really hard thing for me, but now it’s over. Should this ever come up again, I’ll know what to do.”

The prince said, “Like what?”

The child said, “Well, like not leave my friends, for one thing. Not run off.”

The elder said, “This was a good experience for all of us. We’ve realized that some of the things we’ve learned along the way can be helpful in these new places and that’s good. But I’ve got to tell you, this place has kind of worn me out and I think it would be helpful if I took a break for a while.”

The prince thought “All right, Adult #2 is gone, and now this elder is going to be gone, and I’m going to be here with this child and my friend, and that’s it. Can we do this? All right, let’s go.” And on they went.

Believe me, that was the short version of that. And they continued.

A couple of days down the road they met up with the disgruntled Adult #2, who had had a good break, met some nice people, took a good bath, got some clean clothes—jammified, I’m sure—relaxed. And everything looked better, everything seemed better. He just had one thing to say to the prince: “I told you this was going to happen. You just remember you were warned. I was the one who knew. I’m sticking with you because you need me. And by the way, where’s that old one?”

“Well, he got really tired and had to wait. We may not see him again, or maybe later down the path. Who’s to say?”

They continued on their way and when it was time to go into the next village, the child piped up and said, “We should stick together and take it step by step and see what happens.”

And the prince said, “Ah, the elder is with us.”

The friend said, “Listen. Don’t you worry. You’ve been doing some really good work here. I’m really proud of you.”

And Adult #2 said, “But don’t let your head get too big. You watch out. We’re relying on you to know what you’re doing. You take care.”

Eventually, after truly what seemed like a lifetime of this, the somewhat bedraggled group met up once more with the king. And the king had a great big smile on his face and said, “Welcome home son. Did you find the key?”

And the prince said, “I’m afraid we did not.”

The king said, “Well, tell me about your journeys.” And after hours of talking about all that had been experienced, all that they had done, the king said, “How about your companions? How were they?”

And he thought for a moment, the prince did, and he said, “My friend was great. Always there, always supported me, always helpful. Really easy traveling companion. It was nice. The elder finally got too tired for as much as we were going to be doing but not before we all learned some really good thing from the wisdom that one provided. The child was a delight. I thought the child was going to be quite a burden. I’ll be honest with you dad, I thought he was going to be quite a burden. But instead the child seemed to infuse a bit of magic into it all. Rainy days, the kid thought the rain was fun and an easy way to get a bath. And on sunny days, the clouds were animals showing him things, and the ground was talking to him. It was really fun seeing the world through that kid’s eyes.”

The king said, “What about Adult #2?”

“Well you know, dad, I figured out pretty early on that the survival skills this one had were really important. But he was awful for my self-esteem. He questioned every decision I made and brought up the most fearful possibilities of every situation. He nagged, he was negative. I’m not really sure why he went.”

And the king said, “Well, did he go with you the whole way?”

“The whole way with the exception of two days. He needed a break.”

“How are you with him now?”

“Well, I figured out how he works, and how he thinks, and I’m all right with him now. And if he’s real negative, I just back away for a bit. I then I re-translate it in my mind and cut it about in half and I know, ‘Watch out but it’s not deadly danger.’ And that seems to work pretty well.”

The king smiled . “Son,” he said, “I think you actually did find the key.”

The prince was a little confused. He said, “Dad you told me to go out there for learning how to be a ruler. I’m not real certain I learned very much about that. ”

And he said, “No you’re wrong. You’re very wrong. You came into this world in the best possible situation. You were from a royal family. Everything that you’ve needed has been given to you. You’ve never had any kind of conflict except maybe with your little friends playing over a toy. You’ve had it pretty easy. I knew that what you really needed was to get out into the world, to walk until your shoes started to wear out, to not know where you might lay your head at night, to have to ration your food to be sure you had enough.”

“Da, none of that was really hard. That came naturally. None of that was very difficult.”

“I sent with you four very important companions. I sent your friend that you might be comfortable, that you’d have the support you needed no matter what the situation was because a good friend knows you, knows your faults, but loves you and supports you anyway. But to balance that, I also had you bring along someone that you did not know and who absolutely was not going to support you. That in fact might even stir the pot and cause a little trouble, because that’s where you’re going to find out what you’re made of. Are you going to shrink under that load? Are you going to learn to hear and act on what you can and let go of what you cannot? Are you going to take on that same attitude and become unhappy and negative? And you did not. In fact, you learned how to deal with just that kind of personality. I gave you a child to keep your eyes fresh. A child that reminds you of another way of seeing the world and of how little you need to be happy. And I sent the elder with you so that you’d learn that wisdom comes from a well-lived life. And that life does not mean a life that has come with no hardship. It’s the life of someone who’s trekked through the kingdom.”

“But, Da. He did not stay with us the whole time.”

“Nay. He left when he realize he had passed on what he needed to pass on to you, that you were gaining wisdom from your experiences, that you were choosing to look at things in a positive, happy, magical way. That you were not just listening got his naysayers; you were becoming a problem solver and you were looking out for the needs of others.”

The prince said, “They were all good companions.”

The king said, “I know. So tell me. What’s the key?”

The prince did not know. Do you?

Do the best you can where you are with what you have, and you see the strengths and the weaknesses and you adapt and be flexible. Give and receive.

That we always have all four of those people, aspects of ourselves, inside us, and it’s a choice as to what we use.

S: Yes, yes. The prince was there to learn to lead. Did he learn that?

Yes.

S: How do you know?

Because the four followers stayed with him. And he learned to listen to their counsel and to filter out what he needed. But ultimately he made the decisions. If he wasn’t the leader, he would have been dead.

S: Right, right.

I have told you over and over and over that you are here to learn to live love. So it’s very easy to think, “Well now, the key was going to be he was learning to love.” But that wasn’t the case. Now, I will tell you he was learning to love. That’s true. What he was really learning to live as the guardian he was meant to be, that he was destined to be: the guardian of that kingdom in spite of negative input, times of fear, easy times and fun times. Yes, in spite of easy times and fun times, because they can knock you off the path as quickly as the dark and difficult ones.

To lead a kingdom or a world into a new time, it requires you first to recognize that it’s your job. You are the prince or the princess and you are coming into this place where your leadership is needed.

The first act of a leader is to accept that leadership. The second act is to act. But when you act, you have got to pull together all those pieces of yourself: the bright ones and the dark ones; the fearless ones and the fearful ones; the supportive and the careful. And you’ve got to run it through your own experience and make a decision. The key to leadership is not being afraid to be your best you. And being your best you might be very different tomorrow than it is today. And thank goodness it’s very different than yesterday’s version.

You’re not here to rule the world. You’re here to open the door. It takes supporting. It takes a little bit of magic. It takes a lot of wisdom and it even takes some friction to move through. It makes you a leader. A leader does not think only of themselves. Guardians usually do: “Oh no, oh no! Not me, Samuel!”

But these next few months are going to be a quest, a really wonderful opportunity for you to become the leader that you are destined to be.

I started out this night talking about transition. This story is very much about a transition of a coddled prince becoming a valuable leader and next ruler. This world has never needed what only you can offer it more than it does now. But you cannot give it if you are afraid, if you do not trust that you’re enough, if you’re so worried about where you’re going to sleep and what you’re going to eat that you do not move beyond yourself.

This story is a saga. It goes on and on and on. Stories within stories within stories. And each one of you is at least a chapter. Each one of you have your quest, and each one of you are searching for that key.

Glochanumora.