I
t felt strange going to the tree house, knowing that Seth wouldn’t be there. Annette had said she probably wouldn’t be there either because her dad wanted her to meet the new housekeeper, or something like that.Sara decided to stop by Pete’s Drugstore to buy a candy bar. She stood in front of the candy display trying to decide which one to buy. She chose one, then changed her mind and put it back. She chose another, then changed her mind again and put it back. She laughed under her breath at her indecision. Through the years, Sara had happily devoured hundreds of candy bars. But today none of them called to her. “Oh, well, you look pretty good,” she said, choosing a Hershey’s Bar with almonds. She stood at the counter, waiting for Pete to come and take her money.
Pete was behind the soda fountain talking with people perched on the spinning bar stools.
He didn’t seem to notice that Sara was there, and he went on with his story, wiping the counter
absentmindedly as he spoke.
“Well, the young one is going to be fine,” Sara heard a woman in a white dress say. “But that older one. He’s gonna have some serious-looking scars. Such a pity. He was such a handsome lad. Hmm, kids. They never learn.”
Sara left the candy bar on the counter and walked out of the drugstore. She had completely lost interest in any kind of candy. She walked wearily to the tree house.
She sat in the tree house leaning back against the tree, with her knees pulled up to her chest, and rested her chin on her knees. It was a warm fall day, and the sound of the wind moving through the trees and leaves falling everywhere all around her muted all other sounds in her world. She breathed in deeply.
Well, Solomon, wherever you are, it’s just you and me today. Just like old times. Sara stretched out on
her back on the floor of the tree house looking up into the great old tree. Every now and again a stronger gust
of wind would whish through the trees, and a shower of golden leaves would rain down around her. Sara wondered how long it would take for the leaves to completely cover her body. She smiled at the idea of Seth climbing the ladder to find her still body completely buried under the fallen leaves. I wish he were here, she thought, as a stronger feeling of loneliness swept over her. Oh, Solomon, why do people get scars?
Sara heard a heavy rustling in the leaves overhead, and then a flutter of leaves floated down around her. Solomon plopped down on the tree house floor right next to her. Sara sat up, laughing and combing leaves out of her hair with her fingers.
Do all people get scars, Sara?
“I don’t know. Don’t they?”
Well, Sara, that’s quite a variable. Some do and some don’t. It really depends on their level of resistance. It depends on how well they are allowing the natural well-being of their physical bodies. You see, your bodies are made up of trillions of cells, each holding the vision of their perfection and of
their perfect place in the perfect whole.
“Solomon, do these cells think? I mean, you make them sound like little tiny people or something.”
They have different intentions, and they focus their consciousness differently than you do, but they are consciousness, just like you are, and they do think. They understand. They have powerful knowing. And, most important, each of them holds a clear vision of their perfection, and clearly and constantly asks for whatever is required to maintain that never-ending perfection. In fact, Sara, the life force that your body experiences comes because of the never-ending asking of these cells.
“Wow! But Solomon, if these cells know who they are and hold a vision of being perfect—then how come people get sick, or how come people get scars?”
It is only because people sometimes hold themselves in places of worry or fear or anger, where they are not allowing the energy that the cells are asking for to pass purely through them. Their worrisome thoughts cause a sort of static in their
bodies that doesn’t allow the Energy to flow through in a nonresistant way.
You see, Sara, every time anyone, even a tiny little cell in your body, asks for something—it is always given. So, when a body is injured, in some way, the cells closest to the injury calculate exactly what they need to regain their balance—and they send out immediate requests. And, instantly, the Energy begins to flow, and all other aspects of the body begin to respond, too. Special helping nutrients of all kinds begin making their way through the body, and the natural healing begins immediately. And when the person who lives in this body is happy or eager or appreciative, then the healing is allowed. But if that person is sad or angry or fearful, the healing is hindered or resisted.
“Hmm. But I guess it’s not the easiest thing to feel happy or appreciative when you’ve just had an accident.”
Agreed. It is more difficult then. But even so, with some effort anyone could do it, especially if you understand that your body has a natural healing
process. However, Sara, what goes wrong for most people is that instead of paying attention to their own situation and being aware of their own allowing, or resisting, and then noticing their own results—instead, they are keeping score of many other people. And when they see others not healing, they assume that that is just the way it is when a person is injured. They do not consider whether that person is allowing the healing Energy to flow. Most people do not understand the power of healing that is within their very own body. And so, instead of feeling strong and hearty, they feel guarded and vulnerable. It’s rather odd, too, with so much evidence of healing around them.
“So, are you saying that if Seth feels happy, he won’t get scars?”
That’s right, Sara. His body remembers how it was before the injury and, if allowed, can restore itself to that perfection.
“But Solomon, look at my scar.” Sara pulled up her pant leg exposing a long, narrow scar down the front of her shinbone. “I was standing on a tree branch, and it
broke. And I got this big old scratch when I fell out of the tree. How come I got this ugly scar?”
What do you remember about that day?
“Well, I tore my pants, and my leg was really bleeding. My mom was mad at me because I wasn’t supposed to be up in the tree. She threw my pants away; she said they were too ruined to be fixed. And then she put some stinging red medicine all up and down my leg. That really hurt. She said it would kill the germs. And then she wrapped a bandage around my leg. Around and around. It made it look like my whole leg was hurt.”
What else?
“Well, that Saturday, our family went to the swimming pool over in Fowlerville, and I wasn’t allowed to go in the water. And I remember how hot it was, and my bandage was all stuck on my sore. It really hurt when my mother took it off. I couldn’t even take a bath, for a long time. And—”
That’s enough for now, Sara. Looking back on all of that, would you say that you were feeling more
happy and eager and appreciative, or angry and disappointed and sad?
“Well, that’s not hard to answer. I was pretty mad at myself for falling. I should have been watching what I was doing. And I was mad ’cause I ruined my pants, and I knew I would be in big trouble for that, for falling out of the tree, and for even being in the tree in the first place.”
Sara sighed a big sigh. Just talking about it took her right back to how she felt on that unhappy day.
Sara, ordinarily I would not encourage you to spend so much time remembering something that didn’t feel good to you, but since you are asking about this most important subject of allowing your physical body to heal, it is important that you understand what it is that you do that keeps it from healing.
“Well, Solomon, are you saying that if a person could just feel good, that their injuries would heal and wouldn’t even leave a scar?”
Sara sat quietly, rubbing the scar on her shin. This scar had been there for over two years. It was hard to imagine it not being there.
Feeling good, Sara, is the answer to all good life experience.
Sara absentmindedly continued to rub her leg, trying to remember more about that day she fell from the tree: A family from the city had come to have lunch and spend the day with Sara’s family. They came once or twice every year, and Sara never looked forward to it. It always meant more chores involved in getting the house ready for company, and so much extra time shopping and preparing the food. And while her parents always enjoyed their friends, Sara didn’t enjoy their children at all: a boy, her little brother’s age; and Kay, who was a year older than Sara. Kay was a city girl, with very pretty clothes, and as far as Sara could see, a very snooty attitude. She made constant comparisons between her perfectly lovely city life and Sara’s obviously substandard country life. Sara always did her best to be polite in the face of what always felt to her like deliberately rude comments, but when Kay
remarked how unfortunate it was that Sara’s town didn’t have a market where suitable food could be purchased for special occasions, Sara’s patience was suddenly gone. She remembered turning on her heels and running out into the backyard, determined to do the least city- like or ladylike thing she could think of to do. And, in an attitude of fury, she climbed up into the tree, hoping never to have to look this disgusting girl in the face ever again.
Sara. Thinking back, is it not easy to see that falling from the tree was an accurate match to the way you were feeling?
“Yeah, right,” Sara laughed. “That was pretty clear.”
And so, when you consider the way you were feeling, and the amount of resistance that was within you before you fell out of the tree, is it not easy to understand that the resistance would be greater still after you had fallen from the tree? For then you are hurting, your pants are torn, and your mother is angry.
thoughts temporarily drowned him out. Sara could still see Kay’s gleeful face looking down at her as she lay there on the lawn, with the wind knocked out of her. “It was as if every rotten thing Kay had been saying about our family all day long was true. I was the perfect proof of it, lying right there on the ground in front of her.”
Solomon was quiet. He knew that Sara understood perfectly.
Sara looked up at Solomon and sighed a big sigh. “Well, it’s no wonder we get scars. It’s not easy to let the well-being flow.”
Solomon laughed. Well, Sara, it gets easier and
easier. But it does take some practice.
Okay, Solomon, I guess I’d better get going. Thanks.
You are most welcome, Sara.
“Solomon,” Sara said quickly, wanting to catch Solomon before he flew away, “was Seth in a bad mood, and that’s why he got hurt when he tried to save Samuel?”
Actually, Sara, Seth was in a very good place when Samuel fell into the river. It was because he
was feeling so good—and was so clearly connected to his Guidance System—that he was inspired to take that path on his way home that afternoon. A less connected person would not have found Samuel to begin with.
“But Solomon, I don’t get it. If Seth was so connected to his guidance system, then why did he get hurt so badly?”
Sara, don’t let the drugstore crowd influence you in reaching negative conclusions. From broader perspective, things have worked out very well.
“But Solomon, couldn’t Seth have saved Samuel without getting hurt?”
Certainly, Sara. That is a possible thing. But you must not assume that something terribly wrong has happened here. Wonderful opportunities are sometimes masked by seeming difficulties. It is only when you understand that well-being truly does abound that you are able to discover the life-giving nuggets that are all around you.
seems to me that—”
Sara, do you remember when your furry friend knocked you off of your crossing log and into the river?
“I’ll never forget that.”
And how do you think other people feel about that incident, Sara? Do you think they were happy that you were pushed into the river, and that you floated for miles downstream?
“No, Solomon. They think it was awful. They think I was stupid for being on the crossing log to begin with. They don’t think I should be near the river at all.”
And what about you, Sara? Are you sorry you were pushed into the river?
Sara’s face lit up in a big smile of understanding. “No, Solomon. I’m not sorry I fell into the river.”
Why not? Why don’t you feel the same way that others do about your raging-river experience?
“Because when I got out of the river that day instead of being afraid of the river and what might have
everybody was always saying about the river to try to scare me turned out to be untrue. I felt like I was safe, anyway, no matter what they all thought. Solomon, that’s when I knew that the river wasn’t a threat to me. I think that was my first real taste of my own well-being. I wouldn’t take any of that back for anything, Solomon. Not any of it.”
So, are you telling me that sometimes when you are looking at something from the outside, you might not really understand its true value?
Sara smiled. Solomon was so wise. He understood everything.
And that only the person who is living the
experience can really know the full value of it, or the reason for it?
Sara, Seth’s experience, like yours, will provide so much value for him. Value that will continue to unfold for many years to come. Well-being always abounds, Sara, no matter how it looks at first, or to those on the outside.