Sara, Book 1 (14 page)
“That unhooks me, Solomon. That’s easy.”
I wonder where her rotten children are. Why don’t they come here and take care of her?
“I’ve wondered that, Solomon. And you’re right. That unhooks me, too.”
Aunt Zoie is a strong old woman. I think she likes her independence.
“Hmm. That thought feels better.”
Even if someone did try to take care of her, she probably wouldn’t like that.
“Yes. That thought feels better, too. And that’s probably true, Solomon. She gets mad at me when I try to do things for her.” Sara remembered how annoyed Aunt Zoie became when Sara impatiently tried to finish her sentences.
This wonderful old lady has lived a long, full life. I have no way of knowing that she is unhappy.
“That feels good.”
She may very well be living exactly as she wants to live.
“That feels good, too.”
I’ll bet she has lots of great stories to tell about things she has seen. I’ll stop and visit with her every now and again and find out.
“That feels very good, Solomon. I think Aunt Zoie would like that.”
You see, Sara, you can look at the same subject, in this case the subject of Aunt Zoie, and find many different conditions to focus upon. And you can tell by the way you feel whether you’re choosing a condition that is helpful or one that is not.
Sara felt so much better. “I think I’m beginning to understand this, Solomon.”
Yes, Sara, I believe you are. Now that you’re consciously wanting to understand this, it’s my expectation that you will have many opportunities to figure it out. Have fun with this, Sara.
T
hings just seemed to be getting better and better.
Every day seemed to have many more good things within it than bad things.
I’m so glad that I have found Solomon. Or that Solomon has found me,
Sara pondered, as she walked home from a day of school that had not included one negative incident.
Life really is getting better and better for me.
Sara stopped at her leaning perch on the Main Street bridge, and hanging way out over the swift-moving river, she smiled broadly. Her heart was truly singing, and all was very well in Sara’s world on this day.
Hearing loud, boyish screeching, Sara looked up to see Jason and Billy running about as fast as she had ever seen them run. They were moving so fast, as they ran past her, that she decided they must not have even noticed that she was perched there. And she watched them holding on to their hats and running at top speed past Hoyt’s store. Something about the way they were running made Sara laugh a little. They really did look sort of silly, running so fast that they had to hold their hats on.
Those two are always trying to break the sound barrier,
Sara smiled, but she noticed that they weren’t bothering her nearly as much as they used to. They hadn’t changed much, or really at all, but they weren’t getting under Sara’s skin anymore. Not like before.
Sara waved at Mr. Matson, who, as usual, had his head under the hood of someone’s car, and then picked up her pace as she headed toward Solomon’s thicket. “What a beautiful day!” Sara spoke right out loud, looking upward into a beautiful blue-skied afternoon and breathing in the fresh spring air. She usually found her spirits rising once the last snow was melted and the spring grasses and flowers began to grow. Winter was long here, but it wasn’t the passing of winter that cheered Sara so, but the passing of school. Three months of freedom, looming in the immediate future, was always reason for Sara to be glad. But somehow Sara knew that this happy heart wasn’t about school nearing another year’s end. This was about Sara’s discovery of her valve. She had learned to keep it open—anyway.
It feels so good to be free,
Sara thought.
It feels so good to feel good. It feels so good not to be afraid of anything.
“
EEEEKKKKKK!” Sara shrieked, as she found herself jumping high in the air to avoid walking right into the biggest snake she had ever seen, stretched out to its full length, which seemed endless, across the roadway. Coming down well on the other side of it, Sara found herself running at a dead run, one full country block, not slowing in the least, until she was certain she had left that snake far behind.
“Well, maybe I’m not as fearless as I thought I was,” Sara laughed to herself. And then she began to laugh even harder as she realized what had caused Jason’s and Billy’s burst of speed and lack of desire to stop and pester her. Sara was still laughing and panting as she walked into Solomon’s thicket.
Solomon was waiting, expectantly and patiently, for Sara.
Well, Sara, are you filled with some newfound enthusiasm today?
“Solomon, strange things are happening to me these days. Just when I think I really understand something, something else happens to make me realize I don’t understand it at all. Just when I decide that I’m truly brave and afraid of nothing, something pops up that scares me to death. Things are very weird, Solomon.”
You don’t seem to be scared to death, Sara.
“Well, I exaggerated a bit, Solomon, because, as you can see, I am not dead . . .”
What I meant was, you don’t appear to be frightened. You seem to be laughing more than anything.
“Well, I am laughing now, Solomon, but I wasn’t when that great big snake was lying in my path, just waiting to bite me. I had just been pointing out to myself how brave and fearless I am now, and then in the next moment I felt instant fear and began running for my life.”
Oh, I see,
Solomon replied.
Sara, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s perfectly normal to have a strong feeling response when you’re faced with a condition that’s not pleasing in some way.
It’s
not your initial response to something that sets the tone
of your vibration—or of your point of attraction—it’s
what you do with it later that has a lasting effect.
“What do you mean?”
Why do you think the snake frightened you so, Sara?
“Because it’s a snake, Solomon! Snakes are scary! Snakes bite you and make you sick. They can even kill you. Some of them wrap around you and break your ribs and smother you so you can’t breathe,” Sara reported proudly, remembering the details from the scary nature film she had seen at school.
Sara stopped to catch her breath and tried to settle down a little bit. Her eyes were flashing and her heart was pounding.
Sara, do you think that these words that you’re offering here are making you feel better or worse?
Sara had to stop and think for a moment because she wasn’t even thinking about how her words were affecting her. She was just excited to explain how she felt about snakes.
You see, Sara, that’s what I meant when I said that it’s what you do next that is most important. As you’re talking on and on about this snake and other snakes and all the bad things that snakes might do, you’re holding yourself in that vibration
—
and it’s becoming more and more likely that you will attract other uncomfortable experiences with snakes.
“But Solomon, what should I do? I mean, that big old snake was just lying there. And then I saw it. I almost stepped right on it. And then, there’s no telling what it would have done to me . . .”
There you go again, Sara. you’re still imagining—and holding as your image of thought—something that you do not want.
Sara was quiet. She knew what Solomon meant, but she didn’t know what to do about it. The fact of the snake was sooooo big and soooooo close and soooooo scary that she couldn’t find another way to approach the subject. “Okay, Solomon, tell me what you would do if you were a little girl who almost stepped on a big snake.”
Well, first of all, Sara, you have to remember that your goal is, first and foremost, to find a better feeling place. If you have any other goal, you will get very much off track. If you try to figure out where all of the snakes are, you will feel worse. If you decide to be so alert that you never see another snake up close, you will feel overwhelmed. If you try to learn to identify all snakes in order to label them good and bad, you will feel the impossible task of sorting all of that out. Sifting through the conditions will only make things worse. Your only goal is to try to approach this subject in a way that makes you feel better than you felt when you were jumping and running away from the snake.
“How would I do that, Solomon?”
You could say something to yourself like, “This big old snake is just lying there getting some sun. He is happy the winter is over, and the sun feels good to him, just like it feels good to me.”
“I still don’t feel better, though.”
You could say something like, “This big old snake isn’t the least bit interested in me. He didn’t even look up as I ran by. He has many other things to do than bite little girls.”
“Well, that does feel a little better. What else?”
“I sure am alert.”
Solomon continued.
“It’s good that I saw the snake, or sensed it, and jumped over it so that I didn’t bother it. The snake would do the same thing for me.”
“But would he, Solomon? How do you know that?”
Snakes live all around you, Sara. They are in the river. They are in the grasses where you walk. When you pass by, they get out of your way. They understand that there is enough room for everyone. They understand the perfect balance of your physical planet. They have their valves open, Sara.
“Snakes have valves?!”
They certainly do. All of the
They certainly do. All of the beasts of your planet have valves. And their valves are wide open most of the time.
“Hmm,” Sara pondered. She was feeling much better, now.
You see, Sara, how much better you feel? Nothing has changed. The snake is still lying right where you last saw him. The condition hasn’t changed. But the way you feel certainly has.
Sara knew that Solomon was right.
Sara, from now on when you think of snakes, you will feel positive emotion. Your valve will be open, their valve will be open. And you will continue to live in harmony.
Sara’s eyes shined bright with her new understanding. “Okay, Solomon. I’d better go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Solomon smiled as Sara skipped down the path. Then Sara stopped and yelled back over her shoulder, “Solomon, do you think I’ll ever be afraid of snakes again?”
Well, maybe, Sara. But if you’re ever frightened, you know what to do about it.
“Yeah,” Sara grinned, “I do.”
And eventually,
Solomon added,
your fear will be completely gone. Not only about snakes, but about everything.
As Sara walked home from the thicket, she looked off into the new spring grasses alongside the road, and she wondered how many snakes were hiding there. At first, she shivered a little at the frightening thought that snakes were hiding in the bushes along all of her private trails, but then she thought about how nice they had all been to stay hidden and out of her way. How nice they had all been not to jump out and scare her like Jason and Billy so often did.
