Sara, Book 3 (14 page)

“Think about it, Sara,” Annette said excitedly. “Almost as soon as we started looking for the rope, amazing things began to
happen.”

Well, actually, kids, amazing things begin to happen the moment that you launch your desire. They begin even while you are right in the middle of your dilemma or problem or disaster. But you cannot see the evidence of all of this help that is lining up for you until you stop doing that thing you do—and let it in.

“Hmm,” Sara pondered, leaning back against the tree. They all sat there feeling wonderful.

“We’re such lucky ducks,” Annette said. “Well, I don’t mean lucky, I mean . . .”

Feeling lucky is a good way to feel, Annette. Feeling lucky is certainly a match to letting in what you desire.
Whether you are feeling lucky or blessed or appreciative, or just plain happy—you are letting in all that you consider to be good.

But when you feel unlucky or sad or overwhelmed or angry or blameful or guilty or any of those bad-feeling emotions—in that moment, you are not in the receiving mode.

Yes, “lucky” is a very good way to feel. I don’t know about ducks, however.
Solomon smiled.
Well, kids, I’m off. I’ll leave you here to count your blessings.

“Bye, Solomon, we’ll see you tomorrow!”

I’m such a lucky owl,
Solomon said as he lifted from the platform.

All three kids burst into laughter.

You’re right, Annette,
Solomon called back,
it just doesn’t have the right ring to it. Let’s see, what rhymes with owl? Howling owl. Not quite right. Allow. Allowing owl! I am an allowing owl, I am an allowing owl, I am an allowing owl.

Much better! I think I like it!

C
HAPTER
26

S
ara sat in the tree house waiting for Seth and Annette to join her. She leaned lazily back up against the tree, looking out
across the river. She just plain felt good. She breathed deeply and stretched her arms up over her head and felt little shivers
of pleasure move all the way up her spine. “I feel so great!” she called out from her perch. “I wish everybody in the world
could feel as good as this, if only for a moment. They would never want to go back to feeling less.”

It felt to Sara almost as if she were in a state of suspended animation. The earlier events of the day felt like long ago,
almost as if they had happened to someone else, and she felt no impatience about the day continuing to unfold. Annette and
Seth seemed to be taking longer than usual arriving at the tree house, but Sara felt not one bit of anxiety or impatience.
This moment in time felt perfect. There was nothing that she should be doing that she wasn’t doing, nothing that she wanted
to do that she wasn’t doing, nothing missing, nothing needed—everything was just right.

“Now this is how it’s supposed to feel,” Sara said right out loud.

You are right, Sara,
Solomon said as he landed on the platform next to Sara.
The way you feel right now—that’s the way life is supposed to feel in every moment. Perfect and expanding. Enough, but becoming more. Satisfied, but eager for something else. Complete— but never, ever finished.

Sara felt rapturous love pulsing through her as she looked upon her wonderful feathered friend. “Oh, Solomon, it feels so
good to feel so good. Whatever has come over me?” Sara laughed as those words came out.

Who you are has come over you, Sara. Or perhaps it is better to say, you are now allowing who you really are to be. This is your normal state of being. This is who everyone would be—if they could just let it be.

“I know you’re right, Solomon, and I do want to just let it be. I think everyone would want to let it be if they knew how
good it feels, and if they knew how to do it. Why don’t we always feel this way, Solomon? Why does it seem so hard to just
let it be?”

Pretend that you are a beautiful gem, an aquamarine, like the beautiful blue ocean. Little by little, from exposure to the elements of your environment, a light coating of dust and hard water mutes the beauty of that which you are. And because of the unnatural coating, you don’t see out as clearly as you once did, and others cannot see you as clearly either. But with a little bit of work, you can easily remove the unnatural accumulation of sediment, and you can then shine as brightly as you ever did—and feel as wonderful as you ever did.

As you sit in this clear, good-feeling place, it is easy to understand this—much easier than when you are sitting in an uncomfortable place. But just for a moment, imagine sitting here with a variety of thoughts moving through your mind: You are a young girl sitting in her tree house, waiting for friends. But instead of being lighthearted and clear as you are today, imagine that you are weighted down by many things, sort of like the sediment on the gem. In other words, your favorite teacher is leaving the school and you feel bad about that. You saw boys fighting in the parking lot and you worry that it may escalate into something really serious, like things you have seen on television. You heard your father complaining about his boss last night after dinner, and you realized that he is not having a very good time at work lately. You heard that your friend’s mother is very sick and you feel bad for her, and even a little bit vulnerable yourself. Can you feel how, with each unwanted situation that you ponder, your joy is muted just a bit more?

Now make a decision: “I may think about my teacher leaving later, but for now, I think I’ll remember my favorite thing about him. I may wish for things to be different with the boys fighting in the parking lot, but for now I think I’ll just mind my own business and assume they are working things out in their own way; I wish them well. I want my father to be happy at work, but all of that is really up to him, and I’m sure he doesn’t need my help in figuring this out. He always figures things out. I want my friend’s mother to be well, but my worry helps not one bit. I think I’ll leave that to the work of her family or the doctors or the angels or to her Solomon.”

If any worrisome thoughts remain, just say, “I don’t really have to think about that now. Maybe later, but not right now.” Try to imagine releasing each worrisome thought, one after the other. Another, another, and another. And with each release, you feel a little lighter, a little brighter, and a little happier, until eventually, without exception—you allow yourself to be the bright, clear, happy person that you naturally are.

Everything that makes your life less than happy is because you are, whether you realize it or not, holding on to something that mutes the happiness. If you are angry . . . if you could just let it go, you would feel immediate joy. If you are sad . . . if you could just let it go, you would feel immediate happiness. If you have a headache . . .
if you could just let it go, you would feel immediately wonderful. Anytime you feel anything less than very, very good, it is because you have picked up some worrisome thought and you are continuing to carry it with you. You can stop right now—and put it down.

Sara smiled. Everything that Solomon was saying made so much sense to her. And, in her clear, good-feeling moment, she wondered
why anyone would ever carry anything around that didn’t feel good.

Well, sweet girl, I’ll talk to you later. Have a wonderful afternoon!

Solomon seemed to be as light as air as he lifted, almost silently, from the platform and flew off into the distance. Sara
smiled as she watched the ease with which Solomon moved through the sky. “That’s just how I feel,” she said out loud. “I love
you, Solomon.”

C
HAPTER
27

Intend to Feel Good

“S
ara, are you up there?” Sara heard Seth’s voice from down below.

“Yes, I’m here. I’m up here!” Sara shouted, leaning over the tree-house railing and catching a glimpse of Seth coming down
the trail toward the tree house.

Hmm, something’s up,
Sara thought to herself. She could hear, in Seth’s voice, that something was going on, and she tensed a little bit, not sure
that she even wanted to know what it was.

She tried to collect her thoughts and hold herself steadily in the good-feeling place that she and Solomon had shared only
moments before, but she could feel her light, happy feeling diminishing.

“Sara, I think something sort of bad might be happening, and I don’t want you to be upset.”

“About what?”

“Well, there’s a big crane up on the Main Street Bridge.”

Sara had no idea what Seth was talking about. She couldn’t imagine why Seth thought that that would upset her.

“Sara, I think they’re straightening up your leaning posts. I think they’re putting a new chain-link fence across the bridge.”

“Oh,” Sara said.

Sara’s mood had changed so swiftly that she almost felt dizzy. Leaving her coat and books right where they were, she scampered
down the ladder.

“Sara, I don’t think that’s a good idea. They’ve got everything all blocked off.”

“I gotta go,” Sara called back. “Coming?”

Seth had seen that determined look on Sara’s face before, and he knew there was no use trying to stop her. “Yeah, I’m coming,”
he said, as he scampered down the tree. Sara was running fast, and Seth had to really run to keep up with her.

There were many workers standing on the bridge, and bright orange cones had been placed across the roadway to prevent any
cars from passing. The giant crane was sitting right in the middle of the bridge, and Mr. Thompson, the town sheriff, was
directing traffic.

“Hey, you kids can’t cross here, today. You have to go around the block. I don’t want you getting run over or causing any
trouble.”

Sara stopped short. She wanted to shout back at him, “You’re the one making the trouble here, not me.”

“Oh, man,” Sara whined, “why can’t they just leave things alone?”

Sara felt awful. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she felt this bad. In fact, this felt especially bad, since
only a few minutes ago she had been feeling so good. But it wasn’t easy to feel good when something really really important
to you was being destroyed.

“Come on, Sara, let’s go to the tree house. Let’s talk to Solomon. Maybe he can help.” Sara followed Seth back to the tree
house. Her body felt so heavy she could barely drag herself down the trail. Her emotions ranged from feeling so angry she
wanted to knock the sheriff right into the river with her own two hands, to feeling absolutely powerless to do anything about
it at all. And she felt embarrassed, mad at herself that in only a few short minutes she had gone from feeling the best she
could ever remember feeling in her whole life to feeling as bad as she could ever remember feeling.

Well, hello, my fine featherless friends,
Solomon said, in a chipper voice, as he landed on the platform.
A little sediment has clouded your clear view, Sara?

Seth looked puzzled. He had no idea what Solomon was talking about.

Why don’t you explain to Seth what I mean, Sara?

Sara didn’t look up. About the last thing that Sara felt like doing was to explain to Seth about clear, bright aquamarine
gems.

Solomon sat quietly, waiting for Sara to begin. Seth was quiet, too.

Sara scowled. She couldn’t find the beginning place.

Well, Sara, maybe a good way to begin would be to tell Seth how the whole gem story came about. Tell him how you were feeling, and then tell him about our gem conversation.

“Well,” Sara began slowly, “I got here early today, so I sat here all alone for a while. And the longer I sat here, the better
I felt. It was like I didn’t have a care in the world, and everything in my world felt just perfect. I felt so good. I felt
like standing up and shouting it right out loud. I almost did. And then I wished that everybody could feel like that. I wished
that I could always feel like that.”

“And then Solomon told me that we would all feel like that if we weren’t finding all kinds of not-good-feeling things to think
about. He said that we are all like beautiful, clear gems. Clear and bright and beautiful, but that over time, as we find
things that we don’t like, things that we worry about, that it’s like, we get covered, little by little, with sediment. But
that anytime we want, we can polish off the sediment and go back to that clear, good-feeling place.”

Sara looked at Solomon. “That’s just how it happens, isn’t it, Solomon? Something happens. Something that we can’t do anything
about. And we watch it happen. And it makes us feel bad. And sediment gets on us and changes us. That’s why, as people get
older, they’re less happy, isn’t it? They get all covered up with sediment.”

That is how it happens, Sara. Little by little, people find things to worry about, and they feel less and less joyful as they find more and more things to worry about.
But you know, Sara, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to let the sediment pile up on you, muting your clarity and your joy. If you polish your gem a little every day, you’ll remain bright and clear, and anyone can polish themselves off anytime they want to by reaching for thoughts that feel better. You don’t have to think thoughts that make you feel bad, Sara. There are plenty of other thoughts to choose from.

“I know, Solomon, but I just think it’s rotten that they’re ruining my leaning perch.”

Well, Sara, you can think that thought; you are certainly justified in thinking it, because there is truth to it: It is your leaning perch. And you have adored having it. And they are removing it. All of that is true. But the question I want you to ask yourself is: “How do I feel when I think it?” And if the answer is, “I don’t feel good,” then choose another thought, and accumulate no sediment.

“Like what?”

You could think about how you have this wonderful tree house that really is so much more than the leaning perch was. You could think about how you can come here whenever you want to. Think about the swinging rope, or your friends, Seth and Annette, or about me, Sara, your dear, adorable, dead (turns out not-so-dead) allowing owl friend.

Sara laughed. So did Seth.

Think about how the river still flows, and how the sun still shines, and the rain still falls, and the food still grows, and the moon still rises, and how the tree house still stands. And think of all of the millions of other wonderful things that, if you had time to think about them, would make you feel good, because they are just the way you like them. And then that uncomfortable feeling will just lift right up off of you, leaving you bright and clear and naturally good-feeling. That’s who you are, Sara. Nothing else will ever do for you.

And in time, you will come to the place where nothing matters more than that you feel good. Looking at facts or pointing out truths will become far less important than finding thoughts that feel good.

Sara was quiet. She felt better, that was certain, but there was something that was still troubling her. Solomon had helped
Sara and Seth feel better about many things, and in each case, once they began to feel better, things seemed to turn around
and the problem was fixed. She remembered when Mr. Wilsenholm was going to cut down the big trees where the tree house is,
and how Sara and Seth really worked on getting into a better-feeling place—and then how everything changed and the trees weren’t
cut down. They were even given permission to play in the trees. She remembered how Seth’s father was planning to move Seth’s
family out of town, and how Sara and Seth focused their clear thoughts from a good-feeling place, and then how miraculous
things happened that allowed the family to remain in Sara’s mountain town. The list went on and on.

Finally, Sara’s question was clear: “But Solomon, you always help us to feel better and then things change for us. You’ve
helped us fix so many things. How come we can’t fix this?”

Solomon smiled.
Sara, I have not been teaching you to fix things. What I have been teaching you is how to put yourself in a position, in a vibrational position, to allow your natural well-being to come to you.

“But Solomon, they’re going to destroy my leaning perch. My favorite place. They’re going to ruin it.”

Sara, how would you feel if several other kids from your town discovered your leaning perch and wanted to go there every day?

Sara scowled. “I wouldn’t like that.”

But what if they really like it? What if your leaning perch became their favorite place to be, also?

“Oh, I get it, Solomon, you think I should be willing to share. I know, I should be willing, but—”

Would you try to organize it so that you could all have your turn? Would you pass rules that say you have to be a certain age or a certain size to lie in the eaning perch?

Sara continued to scowl. “Solomon, I don’t get what you mean. That all sounds like way too much trouble. I’d probably just
go somewhere else, but—”

Sara, you are absolutely right. It would be too much trouble to try to organize everything in a way that would please everyone. I don’t think you could do it if you tried for a hundred years. But something that you can do, that really isn’t very hard at all, is to take your attention away from whatever it is that is bothering you and put your attention upon something that feels good. It does require some effort, especially in the beginning, but in time you get very good at turning your attention toward things that feel good. And before you know it, you do feel really good.

“But Solomon, I still won’t have my leaning perch.”

But Sara, isn’t the reason you want it only so that you could feel good?

“Yes.”

And if you do feel good—well, isn’t that just as good?

Sara was quiet. She could see that Solomon had a point. “But I thought you were teaching us how to get things to turn out
the way we want them.”

I am teaching you that, Sara. But getting things the way you want them is not about fighting others who want things differently. Getting things the way you want them is about finding thoughts that feel good so that you then allow, or let in, what you do want.

Things always work out for the best. That is the way it is supposed to be. But, if you are fighting against something that you do not want, you aren’t allowing things to work out well for you.

“So you’re saying that if I find thoughts that feel good, they won’t destroy my leaning perch?”

I’m saying that if you find thoughts that feel good, you’ll feel good, and your learning perch will be a non-issue.

“But, Solomon, I don’t want my leaning perch to be a non-issue.” Sara felt agitated.

Solomon smiled.
What about making your happiness your main issue? Your only issue? “Nothing is more important than that I feel good.”

“And what will happen to my leaning perch?”
Whatever it is won’t matter to you.

“Why not?”

Because you’ll be happy anyway.

Sara began to laugh. She could see that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Solomon on this one.

Sara,
Solomon continued,
people often believe that things have to be a certain way before they can feel good. And then, when they discover that they don’t have the power or the votes or the strength to make things be the way they need them to be, they resign themselves to unhappy, powerless lives.

What I want you to come to understand is that all of your power is in your ability to see things in a way that keeps you feeling good. And when you are able to do that, you have the power to achieve anything you desire.

Everything that you desire is trying to make its way to you, but you must find the way to let it in. And you cannot let in what you desire when you do not feel good.
Only in feeling good can you let in those things that you desire.

Sara was quiet again. She was beginning to understand what Solomon meant.

You live in a big world, Sara, with many other people who may want things to be different than you want them to be. You cannot convince them all to agree with you, you cannot coerce them to agree with you, and you cannot destroy all of those who do not agree with you. Your only path to a joyous, powerful experience is to decide, once and for all, that you intend to feel good, no matter what. And as you practice turning your thoughts to things that do feel good—now you have discovered the secret to life.

“Thanks, Solomon. I think I get it. For now at least.”

Anytime, sweet girl, anytime.