Where have you gone Dr. Seuss?

By Shari Downhill

Four words that rankle me…“There is no hope.” 

Too many people; Too much pollution; Not enough time; Too much greed; Too much…Too little…Too much…Too little…On and on like a pendulum it goes.

Oh Dr. Seuss, where are you when I need you?

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple,” Seuss chortles in my ear.

Sigh…

Then something happens to get my attention, to pull me out of my early morning depressed stupor.

“What was that? Ah, yea, I Remember now.”

My hand is stopped in mid-air reaching for a jar mayonnaise on the top shelf of the refrigerator. I can feel a place at the top of my heart, near my sternum. The angels are talking to me again.

It’s something that happens when I genuinely ask Spirit a question. Oddly enough, Spirit ALWAYS answers and often sounds a whole hell of a lot like Dr. Seuss .

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not,” the wise one says.

But I am overwhelmed by a mountain of unfinished tasks. I’ve been floundering in a muck of futility. “I need some sun,” I try to convince myself. “That’ll cheer me up. Pump up my serotonin levels.” And with that egoic nudge to my gluts I’m tumbling down the slippery slope of “I need…,” self prescribing things, people and experiences that will make me happy, fulfilled and content.

That is, until I feel The Breath in my face. I’ve actually asked for angelic assist on this…Asked them to apply the spiritual shock collar when I’ve again wrapped myself around the “I need…” axle.

The Breath

I remember taking my children to a community sponsored event to create child safety portfolios. These were supposed to come in handy if our children were ever abducted. Scary thought. Scary enough to fill a local school’s lunch room with fearful young mothers and their toddlers. The portfolios would contain our children’s fingerprint cards and Polaroid pictures. It seemed important and relevant at the time.

In that odd and fearful environment a spontaneous silence took hold, thick and anxious. Crashing through that silent window came a sound like a melon hitting concrete. The silence turned into a vacuum sucking my attention toward a mother picking her toddler up from a crumpled heap on the floor. She held him high in the air like a young child would hold a limp cat, mirroring the blue frozen shock on her baby’s face. The little boy had fallen off of a bench and landed on the back of his head. Though there was no blood, his face was frozen in a scream, stuck like a screen door with a faulty pneumatic closer.

Though I knew this woman to be very capable, she was momentarily paralyzed. “He won’t breathe!” she finally wailed. “He won’t breathe!”

I yelled at her from across the room, “Blow in his face!” But she remained as still as her baby. “Blow—in--his--FACE!” I yelled louder.  She finally recognized the bellowed instruction and blew forcefully into the small scrunched blue face.  The baby inhaled sharply.

 I’ve heard it’s an instinct response but I’ve never researched it. I just know my mother taught the trick to me and it worked. I’m sure my mother was taught by someone else, who was taught by someone else, who passed the knowledge on.

Angelic Assist

Knowing full well that this works, I’ve given the angels permission to use it on me when they need to get my attention. And they do.

“It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
for the places and people you're lucky you're not.”

Have I mentioned that the angels adore Seuss? Yea, well, here’s the deal - Why reinvent the wheel?  I also find they enjoy rhetorical humor, at least the ones who hang out around me.

“Thank goodness for all of the things you are not!
Thank goodness you're not something someone forgot,
and left all alone in some punkerish place
like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.
Thats why I say "Duckie!
Don't grumble! Don't stew!
Some critters are much-much,
oh, ever so much-much,
so muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”

 I can’t help it, I am forced to smile. My Uncle Whitie could do that – make me smile when I’d been on the edge of tears seconds earlier. Maybe my Uncle Whitie has been coaching the angels.

I’m back standing in front of the refrigerator in my robe, hand reaching toward the mayonnaise.

As I touch the cold shelf in front of me I feel The Breath and inhale. I remember why I am here. I am present and listening closely to my heart. I remember that is where my Truth is. That is where the idea that I am separate from God has no foothold. It is where I find a deep and respectful Love for myself and the world I have co-created – sometimes intentionally and sometimes thoughtlessly. The Breath reawakens me.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You!”

I grab the mayonnaise and finish making my daughter’s sandwich.  I notice the smell of the bread, the sweetness of the fresh strawberries and the coolness of the yoghurt container in my hand.  Rather than rushing through putting her lunch together, I begin to enjoy it. I smell the fresh coffee and feel eyes on me. I turn around to see our dog, Belle, standing near lending her support.

What about all of those things that you need to do?” my ego whines at me. “Doesn’t that STRESS YOU OUT?”

Well, yea, it did before the angels reminded me that being present in every moment is the only thing that I REALLY need to do.

But, damn, priorities are double edged and sharp. I think I’m on top of things when I build a task list, prioritize them and insert neat little boxes to be checked off at completion.  That approach seems to make sense, but I find myself listening to angels instead. As messengers for Spirit, they have a much different agenda, and it never seems to match my task list. So, seldom do the tasks get done completely. Guilt seeps in…and I succumb once again to the Great Forgetting.

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

When will the vicious cycle end? When will the Great Forgetting stop? When will I be strong enough in Spirit to Remember for more than a few measly seconds before guilt, worry and insecurity seep in?

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”

“That’s the trouble, isn’t it? This whole cycle of needs and wants, desires and demands, the constant striving for a thing we call “happiness” that falls so short of the joy possible if our hearts were only tuned to Spirit.

That leads me to the practical yet sad truth behind The Law of Attraction, the phenomenon enticingly explained to the world by Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret. The truth is we can manifest anything in our imagination. The Law of Attraction is as real a universal law as gravity. But, there is a dark side. Or, as my friend Aisha explains, a duality that we often fail to consider. There is always, without fail, a consequence for everything we do, say and think. It’s Quantum in nature. But, that’s another story…

The Truth of Yuzz…

And there is a larger consideration. The idea that just because there is desire coupled with the ability to manifest that it is the wise thing to do. I will repeat this because it’s the most profound thought God has gifted me with today – My imagination, and my idea of what is best for me falls far, far short of what God has in mind. My conscious imagination is fetal and limited, though I wish that were not true.

Why then, would I not wait to see what Spirit would manifest on my behalf? Sounds simple enough, but it strikes terror in my heart.

Wait? Don’t lay down any plan? Stand at the mouth of the void expectantly? I think I would feel safer standing naked on the side of a busy highway.

“My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz. It's the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz. You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking around!”

So, I’ll wait here…and try very hard to Remember to Remember to Remember…and be grateful for patient angels who utilize the wisdom of Dr. Seuss to comfort and encourage me.

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way.”

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”

~~~~~~

Quotes are from various Dr. Seuss books from my youth. I am forever grateful to Dr. Seuss for his creative healing.