Sara, Book 3 (10 page)

C
HAPTER
19

S
ara could hardly wait to meet in the tree house again with Seth and Annette. She was brimming with her new understanding about
well-being, and she was eagerly anticipating Seth’s fast recovery. She could hardly wait to tell Seth about the cells in his
body and how they know exactly what to do, and that he would be back to his perfect rope swinging self in no time. Sara was
experiencing a fantastic new feeling of vitality and enthusiasm.

As she moved from class to class, she watched for Seth and Annette. She practiced, in her mind, the conversations they might
have. She felt so excited to tell them everything that she had come to understand, about how, sometimes, when things look
as if they have gone terribly wrong—that everything is really all right.

Sara saw Annette coming toward her and moved to the edge of the hallway to wait for her. Annette didn’t look happy.

“What’s wrong?” Sara blurted out, wishing immediately that she hadn’t started the conversation on such a negative note.

“Oh, Sara. I just saw Seth, and he says that his parents have forbidden him to go to the tree house. They don’t want him near
the river. Oh, Sara, what are we going to do?”

Sara stood there, stunned. She just couldn’t believe what Annette was telling her.

Don’t take score too soon, Sara.
Sara heard Solomon’s voice in her head.
You have stood in many places that looked worse than this one—and things have always worked out before. Don’t give in to negative speculation.

Annette looked as if she were about to cry. And while Sara was still shaken by Annette’s terrible news, Solomon’s words had
soothed her somewhat, because Sara knew he was right.

“Annette, don’t worry,” Sara tried to console her friend. “We’ve had experiences sort of like this before, and everything
turned out all right.”

“I guess,” Annette said flatly.

“No, really, Annette. Mr. Wilsenholm owns all of the land where the tree house is. I think he owns about half of the town.
Anyway, when he found out we were swinging from his trees, he freaked out, and he ordered the trees along the river to be
cut down.”

“You’re kidding?” Annette said. “All of those lovely trees? That’s just awful.”

“Yes, but Annette, that’s what I’m telling you. He didn’t cut them down. He changed his mind. Solomon says we can change anything
around to the way we want it—just by changing our own thoughts.”

The bell rang and the girls both jumped. It was hard to pull away from this intense and important subject and go back to the
boredom of the next class. Sara wanted to explain to Annette how Mrs. Wilsenholm, after witnessing Sara’s amazing rescue of
her kitten from high in the tree, had convinced her husband that Sara and Seth were really very safe in the trees. How there
had been so many examples of things seeming to be going terribly wrong, and how Sara and Seth, with Solomon’s guidance, had
been able to change their thoughts, which changed the way they felt—which brought about wonderful solutions.

She wanted to tell Annette about the time that Seth’s family was being forced to leave Sara’s town because his father had
lost his job at the hardware store, and how happy Sara and Seth had been when Mr. Wilsenholm had offered him a job as the
foreman of his ranch. And, then, how
awful
they had felt when Seth’s father refused to take the new job, but then how he had changed his mind once he understood the
whole situation better. In the short time Sara had known Seth, there had been so much evidence of well-being in the face of
what initially felt like crisis.

“Everything will work out all right,” Sara tried to console Annette. “Let’s meet at the tree house after school.”

“I hope Solomon can help us fix this, Sara.”

“It’ll be okay,” Sara said again. “You’ll see.”

“Oh, I hope so,” Annette said, walking backward in the direction of her classroom.

I hope so, too,
Sara said under her breath, realizing that she wasn’t feeling quite as confident as she was trying to sound.

C
HAPTER
20

A
s Sara walked toward the tree house, she got madder and madder. She’d been thinking about what Solomon had said, about how
the human body heals, and how when you feel good there is less resistance so that the body can heal even faster.
Seth’s parents are so stupid,
Sara thought.
Instead of helping Seth feel good, they’re punishing him by forbidding him to do the thing he loves most in the whole world. They’re going to keep him from healing!

“Sara, wait up!” Sara heard Seth’s voice calling from behind.

She felt embarrassed that Seth would catch her right in the middle of the most negative thought that she had, maybe, ever
thought. She tried to change her mood quickly, but the look on her face gave her away.

“Sara, what’s wrong? You look like your cat just got run over for the tenth time or something.”

Sara laughed. “No problem. My cat has unlimited lifetimes.”

“I guess Annette told you that I’ve been temporarily exiled.” Seth tried to sound playful.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Sara, don’t worry about this. We’ve been through way worse things than this. It’ll blow over. I can’t do much fancy swinging
from the rope with these bandages, anyway.”

Sara looked at Seth. She wanted to look into his eyes to see if she could tell if he was really feeling as good as his words
sounded. He didn’t seem bothered, but instead, he seemed calm and confident.

“I know. You’re right, Seth. Everything will be all right. I know it will.”

“Sara, you and Annette have fun over there. I’ll see you later.”

Sara felt relief. She was very happy that Seth wasn’t angry at his parents, and that he didn’t seem to be holding himself
in a state of resistance that would keep his wounds from quickly healing.

Sara ducked off the road onto the path leading to the tree house, and Seth continued on down the road toward his house, but
it just felt wrong that Seth wasn’t going to the tree house. Sara felt very sad.

As she came around the last bend of the trail to the edge of the water, she could see Annette standing out on the platform
of the tree house looking up into the treetops. Sara left her things at the base of the tree and climbed up the ladder to
the platform where Annette was standing. This all seemed so wrong. Seth should be here!

It seemed like only yesterday that she and Seth were happily swinging from the rope in their very own tree house, sharing
a deliciously private friendship and amazing secrets, and now, in the blink of an eye, Seth had been banished from the tree
house, and even from Solomon, and here was this new girl, instead. Sara hadn’t liked it that Seth had invited Annette in to
begin with, but now it seemed that Annette had replaced Seth. Seth was gone, and Annette was here.

“Hi, Annette,” Sara said flatly. When she heard her own voice she wished she had tried to sound more cheerful.

“Hi, Sara,” Annette replied. She didn’t sound any more cheerful than Sara.

“Well, here we are,” Annette said.

“Yeah,” Sara replied.

Solomon sat perched high in the treetops on the other side of the river, watching the girls settling in, and once they were
comfortable, he flew across the river and glided softly to the platform. Plop!
Well, hello, my fine, fearless, friendly, freedom-loving, female, featherless friends!

The girls laughed. “Solomon, are you always this happy?”

Well, yes, Annette, I guess I always am. The alternative is unacceptable.

Sara looked at Solomon. She admired his consistent philosophy of always looking for things to feel good about. She wished
she could be more like him.

“Unacceptable?” Annette responded. “You make it sound like it’s always your choice?”

It always is.

As Sara watched Annette’s intense face, pouting in response to Solomon’s reply, she remembered so many times that she and
Solomon had exchanged the very same words. Sara could easily guess what Annette would say next, because Sara had said it herself
so many times:

“But Solomon, sometimes things just happen that you can’t control, that make you feel bad!”

I know it sometimes feels that way, Annette, but that is never true. In time, you will come to understand that you can always control the way you feel.

Sara knew Solomon was right about this, for she had proven to herself so many times that she could change her focus and therefore
change the way she was feeling. But as she listened to Annette talking with Solomon, she couldn’t help but think about Annette’s
mother dying, and how awful that would be. And how impossible it must be to focus on something else in order to feel better.

“But Solomon . . .” Annette protested.

Sara pulled her legs up close to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. She closed her eyes to try to brace herself in
readiness for the painful, heart-wrenching words that Annette was about to speak about the death of her mother.

“Solomon,” Annette continued, “how can Sara and I feel good about swinging from this wonderful tree house when our friend,
Seth, who made this tree house, isn’t even allowed to play here with us anymore?”

Sara opened her eyes and stared at Annette in amazement. The terrible, uncontrollable thing she was talking about wasn’t the
death of her mother, but Seth’s banishment from the tree house!

Solomon smiled deeply into Sara’s eyes as he enjoyed this extraordinary understanding washing through her.

Sara didn’t know how, but somehow, Annette seemed to have left the pain of her mother’s death behind her. Solomon had talked
for many hours with Sara about the power of turning your attention to other life-giving things in order to feel good in the
now, no matter what—but Sara had never really understood it so clearly as she did in this moment.

She sat back against the tree, eager to hear Solomon explain to Annette, as he had to Sara so many times before, about staying
connected to the stream of well-being no matter what is happening in your experience. And, about how you have control over
the way you feel—because you have control over what you give your attention to.

Solomon began:
Everything that happens is a good thing.

Both Sara and Annette looked hard at Solomon. Neither spoke. He surely did have their attention.

The things you would call “good” are good because you feel good when you focus upon them, and then more good, just naturally, follows. The things you would call “bad” are actually good, because when you give your attention to them, a clearer awareness of what you would rather have is focused within you. Your desire for the good is born within you right then. And in the moment that that desire is born, the good begins to come to you.
Because, in your newly focused desire, there is asking that is always answered. You just have to figure out how to let it in. That’s the key, right there: to allow it or to let it in.

Sara smiled as she listened to Solomon. There was nothing she loved more than to hear him explaining how things work. He had
told her that words do not teach, that it is life experience that teaches, and that the very best of all is when you’re able
to put the two together. Sara loved it when Solomon’s words explained to her what her life experience was showing her. She
remembered Solomon telling her that you never know more clearly what you
do
want than when you are living something that you
don’t
want. But Sara loved Solomon’s different way of explaining it to Annette:
When a new desire is born within you, it is always answered. You just have to figure out how to let it in.

I like to call this the “Art of Allowing,”
Solomon continued,
the “Art of Letting It In.”

“Letting what in?” Annette asked.

Letting in all that you consider to be good: clarity, life force, well-being, health, balance, focus, abundance, Seth, back in the tree house . . .

“So you’re saying that it’s a good thing that a bad thing happens, like Seth being banished, because it makes us want what
we had in the first place even more?

Exactly!

“Well, wouldn’t it have just been better if he had never been banished to begin with?”

Well, it may seem so, but not really, because this new contrast causes you to define, more clearly than ever before, what you desire. And without the contrast you would miss all of the fun of focusing it back into place.

And you would miss the motion forward into an even better place.

Annette didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, Solomon—”

You see, girls, the best part of your wonderful physical life experience is figuring out new things that you desire. You are like pioneers, out here on the leading edge of thought. You get to decide the direction that you would like to go—and then, all kinds of Universal forces assist you in making it happen.

Sara smiled as she listened. She remembered Solomon explaining all of this to her before, and he had called those Universal
forces, the “fairies of the Universe.”

Solomon looked at Sara.
You might call them the fairies of the Universe.

Sara giggled. She loved it when Solomon read her mind.

“I still don’t get it,” Annette whined. “It just seems to me that—”

As a result, of what has happened here, Solomon asked,
if you were speaking directly to the fairies of the Universe, what would you tell them that you would like them to do?

“We want Seth to be able to come back to the tree house.” Annette whined.

Good,
Solomon replied.

“But Solomon, isn’t that just putting us right back where we were in the first place, I mean—”
You are right about that, Annette. So now I will ask you, is there anything more you might ask for?

“We want Seth’s body to heal,” Sara added.

“Yes, but Solomon,” Annette protested again, “we’re still just right back to where we were before. Like, what’s the point
of getting hurt so that you can heal, or getting banished so that you can get unbanished. I don’t get it!”

Sara frowned. Annette was making a good point.

Well, girls, why don’t you think about it for a while. The first step is to see if you can discover any new desire that goes beyond just getting you right back to where you were before: What do you now want more than ever before? And meanwhile, I think I’ll ponder all of this from a broader view.
And with that, Solomon lifted, with his powerful wings, and flew away.

The girls sat looking at each other.

“Thanks a lot, Solomon, you’re a big help,” Annette teased.

“Yeah,” Sara said, smiling.

“What do we
now
want?” Annette repeated Solomon’s words.

“I want Seth to come back!” Sara began.

“I want him to be all healed,” Annette added.

“And no scars,” Sara said. “And I want his parents to leave him alone and let him do what he wants.”

“Yeah,” Annette added. “I want adults to stop treating us like children. I mean, we know a lot more than they give us credit
for.”

“Yeah,” Sara added. “And to trust us more.”

“And to listen to our ideas more.”

“To not boss us around so much.”

“To let us be free!” Sara and Annette sat looking at each other.

“Well, I guess we did get clearer about what we want. I mean, I guess I’ve thought of all of those things before, but never
so clearly as now,” Annette said.

“I know,” Sara said. “That was neat.”

Solomon glided in from across the river and swooped down onto the platform next to the girls.

Well, girls, from the rockets I witnessed shooting out of this tree house, I’d say your desires have reached a bright new level. I’d say you have done an excellent job of Step One.

Sara and Annette smiled.

And now, girls, let’s work on Step Three.

“Step Three?” Annette said. “What happened to Step Two?”

Step Two is not your work, Annette. Step Two is the work of the fairies of the Universe. Here’s how it works: Step One is: You ask. Step Two is: The fairies of the Universe answer. And Step Three is: You must be in the receiving mode of what you are asking for.

You see, girls, the wonderful contrast of your time and place causes desires to bubble up within you. And once a desire is born, even if you don’t speak it with your words, the fairies of the Universe hear it and immediately go to work on answering your desire.

“Solomon, do they always answer?”

Yes, Annette, without exception.

“Solomon, that doesn’t seem right. I mean, there are lots of things that lots of people are asking for that they aren’t getting.”

Well, Annette, if that is true, it can only be for one reason. They must not be in the receiving mode of what they are asking for.

Sometimes it takes a little work to begin to let it in.
But it is usually not as difficult as you believe that it will be. Keep reaching for a thought that feels good until you find one. And then reach for a thought that feels even better. Eventually, you’ll be in the place of letting it in.

“But Solomon, what if we try and try and just can’t find one?”

Then swing from your rope and think about other things. The most important thing is to let it in, so if you can’t feel good about one subject, then choose another subject that is easier.

And remember, until you are certain you are in the place of letting it in—don’t try to make anything happen with your action. Have fun with this,
Solomon said. Then he suddenly lifted from the platform and flew away.

“I guess we could swing,” Annette said softly.

“I guess,” Sara replied quietly.

Neither of them really liked the idea of swinging happily through the trees when Seth wasn’t there to enjoy it with them.

“I guess moping around won’t help Seth.”

“Yeah, I guess. You wanna go first?” Sara asked, untying the rope and handing it to Annette.

“Okay,” Annette said, putting her foot in the loop at the bottom of the rope. She held the rope with her hands and stepped
off the platform and soared silently out across the river. She didn’t hang upside down. She just swung quietly back and forth,
back and forth. Sara watched from the platform and wondered why Annette didn’t perform her usual tricks.