Surprisingly Sweet

This candle burning next to me smells surprisingly sweet. The label says "Spun Pumpkin Sugar", but when I picked it out the other day, relaxed on sleepy humor and the peaceful breeze that envelopes a life nourished so perfectly well, all I saw was the "pumpkin" part. I assumed there'd be a spice or burnt tone added in to round out the scent and make it more full, but this candle is all sweet. It transforms a room into a nectar nook. It changes the intention of my pen, sweetening the ink's path to voice something slightly different than originally intended.

For the first time in my life, Autumn doesn't feel bittersweet. The leaves are beginning to reveal their secret nature----the mystical power they had all along to deepen, melt, blend, and breathe into color. They are enormously unafraid. In fact, they're quite the opposite. They are celebrating the change, welcoming it, and allowing the subtle shifts, shimmerings of breeze, and coyote-choir nights to howl in the natural transition.

How do we, as a human race, end slavery and abuse? We never really ended it. It only hid in systems and took on different faces. The answer is not fighting. I learned that a while ago. "Revolution" sounds similar to "solution", but all it really brings about is more anger, pain, and destruction----more wounds to heal. The answer is not dividing either. To divide and self-alienate is to put oneself at risk, and that's what many of the enslaved people were learning to do. Society had become that bad. People had become that intolerable, but many times, was it even the people? Or was it the energy and the lifestyle they were operating from?

"He's just a kid. What does he know?"

"Oh, don't listen to grandpa. He's crazy."

"They probably only bullied you because they were jealous."

"We need more admissions."

Like the candle light flickering in this room, steadily warming the aura, I hold steady too now, trusting the natural way, trusting that continuing to be who I am, shining light in the dark places, and holding warmth in a half-dead world will eventually guide in the peaceful change. The colors that I have reigned in and discovered within myself will, in time, be shown all over the world, humble light to humble light, unexpectedly sweet to unexpectedly sweet. We don't need more admissions. We need to allow the natural flow of employees letting go. Jealousy is not a reason----it is a sinful and disgraceful way of living. To dismiss someone as "crazy" and to not listen to them is to dismiss them as ever having existed at all. And the kid? You watch. He's going to change the world. That's what kids are born to do----they just need the support and belief.

So, how will he do it? How will the kid change the world? Simple. By not letting it change him. By being green enough, soft enough, sharp enough, nimble, flexible, sensitive, absorbent, resistant, resilient, and wise enough to hold onto the green----onto the light-filled heart----until it's time to sense the subtle shifts. Will he be affected, deadened, clipped, and flake? Or will he hold on and reveal his brilliant color? Will he be one of the few who braves the winter, a golden flicker who refused to fall, refused to be like the rest, and remained fully feeling and fully being?

The sweet from my candle will never be so sweet to blind my nostrils from the truth. Pure beings with pure intentions and the strength to retain it all are rare. This is why I was alone for so long. This is why the solution is not the kid, but the general allowance of the natural way. Nature will handle death----it was never humans' responsibility to kill or save. Nature will handle healing----that's where healing comes from. Nature will even handle the energy and lifestyle problem. I felt it today at the DMV. I felt it in the brilliant mixture of people and needs, and the seemlessly skilled, understanding, and respectful solution-building that came about in the crowded room full of strangers.

How were we all in such good moods? How were we all so together yet separate? Because, the energy was love, and the lifestyle was based on the fact that we all care, appreciate, and need one another. There was no "us versus them". No stress either since they changed the policy to "appointment only". Simply people getting stuff done so that the living can continue, outside of the walls, and even pleasantly while within for that hour or two. Solutions and support. Preparedness and confident skills. Independence and empowerment. Interconnectedness and real-time rewards in a tiny world full of respectful, heart-centered, and grounded people working together.

In the tiny microcosm world where everyone is seen and no one is a problem, we all go home full. Together, we sense the shared winds of truth and change, and we do not fear, because even without this candle, the air is surprisingly sweet.