Epilogue
We are not usually born with visible scars from our past lives or with full awareness of what our spiritual gifts are. We are born at the mercy of those in our environment, just as they were born at the mercy of those in their environment. How we take responsibility varies depending upon the version of mercy we ourselves were first shown. Yet, when we discover more deeply that we are spirit, a new understanding of responsibility matures within us. Some of us are better equipped at responding to the various actions of others, whereas some of us jump straight into reactivity, taking things personally and unable to see a bigger picture–unable to see Anu for who he is.
“You are bad, therefore you must take responsibility,” becomes, “You reacted and it affected me. It is my responsibility to listen to the Great Spirit for guidance, and to learn the lesson that is there for me.” Or, “I reacted and it affected you. It is my responsibility to listen to the Great Spirit for guidance, and to learn the lesson that is there for me.”
In the old version of responsibility, the little boy is responsible for hurting the little girl. The little boy is the perpetrator and the little girl is the innocent victim. In the new paradigm of responsibility, both children are to listen to the Great Spirit for guidance and to uncover the lesson that is there for each of them.
When we don’t acknowledge spirit, subtle energy and the many ways human beings can become the effect of energy, we cannot possibly take responsibility in a way that heals us and allows a ripple effect of healing to spread out from us.
Feeding into the polarity of good and bad, right and wrong takes front and center stage and we become the effect of the seesaw tipping side to side, naturally never being able to transcend it. We fight for a sense of stability by being ‘right’ but in order to do so, someone else must be ‘wrong.’ We must always live in competition, fighting for our space while upholding a huge source of collective pain: the separation of ‘us’ vs ‘them’–the absence of Anu.
In any story you read, try to observe each character rather than identify or side with one that you like. In this story, for example, can you see through the eyes of each character without becoming any of them? Can you see each of their limitations? Where do you make judgments about each character and why?
Author’s Note
Unlike some of the other stories that I’ve written—some shared in this blog, others yet to be shared—this story came through while I was in a lot of physical pain. I was taking ibuprofen leading up to a root canal procedure, but was still waking up in the middle of the night from the pain. Amidst this humbling experience, there was a day I sat down at the table and listened to very healing tribal chanting music that a friend had introduced me to. As my favorite part of the music passed, I began to see mental image pictures that were not of my life or memories of this life. I do a lot of clairvoyant meditation, so this was not alarming. I just said hello to the images that showed up and pretty soon I had a knowing that these pictures were telling me a story.
When the creative energy flows it takes precedence over all other things—even physical pain. I opened up a new document and just began to type out what I saw starting from that very first mental image picture of the boy perched over the stream yelling something. In the flow state, I do my best to remain in the present moment, meaning that I don’t go to what was before that scene and I don’t start thinking about what will happen. In fact, the thinking mind is turned off and I direct my awareness to each piece that is being shown to me. From that little boy’s image, it opened into the words he was yelling, and then to the mystic grandmother who had herbs in her hands and looked up to stare at him.
As the author or transmuter of this story, I have to be tapped into the wisdom that says not to identify with any one character. I, myself, am asked to see through the eyes of each character without becoming any of them. I need to be able to see each of their limitations and remain tapped into that lens of discernment rather than judgment. Had I judged Anu from the start and taken sides with the little girl, I would have never learned what his gift was and the powerful gift he gives us all through being himself. The gift of being ‘Anu.’ Later, after I’d written out the whole story and turned my thinking mind back on, I decided to google the meaning of the name ‘Anu.’ One of the meanings is ‘mercy.’ This touched me deeply as it brought the story full circle.
In the past when I’ve worked with small children and interacted with them, I’ve recognized moments when emotions have taken over or they’ve matched some other intense energy and the energy is expressed through them. In other words, I’ve had the awareness of when children channel energy that is not their own. We are the most forgiving and have the most mercy towards children when they do this even though many of us are not taught about energy mechanics beyond a general understanding of what emotions are. Some children are extremely empathic and pick up on the emotions of others, often times confusing them with their own.
I myself am very empathic. One stand-out memory I have of channeling energy that was not my own was when I visited ground zero of the atomic bomb site in Nagasaki, Japan. By that time I had already visited Hiroshima where the first atomic bomb had been dropped. I’d had a ‘normal’ somber experience then, and I assumed this second site would be similar. It was not. The moment my foot stepped on the ground zero area, an intense amount of emotional pain and sadness entered my body and a flood of tears just poured out. I remember feeling startled when it happened because I wasn’t having a sad time in my current life, so the sadness was so sudden and very tangibly not my own as it coursed through my energy channels and found expression through me. This was during a time before I learned about energy work and clairvoyant meditation, so like many people the only way I could talk about what happened was to own the pain and sadness as if it were mine. However, it wasn’t. And it often isn’t for many children as well.
When parents, teachers and other authority figures are blind to how energy works, we end up disciplining and labeling children based solely off of the behaviors they demonstrate rather than honing the ability to discern when they are channeling something else and help them reclaim their energetic space. Anu is a beautiful example of an extremely empathic child who is tuned into the intense energies stuck in physical locations and objects. We could receive him the best when he channeled the energy of the blue ostrich feather, but when he became the energy near the stream or the energy trapped in the object and pushed the little girl, could we still see him for who he truly is? Or do we create labels and barriers?
The hardest thing about being very empathic is living in a world that still isn’t able to openly acknowledge energy let alone energy-sensitive people. As I write this, I see a mental image picture of a disability placard hung in people’s cars, except it’s a yellow colored one meant to help others identify those of us who walk around largely feeling disabled by our natural sensitivities! Awareness is never about condoning any particular kind of human behavior. Awareness is about discerning what is really happening rather than letting the analytical mind run rampant and slap labels on every thing, situation and person involved. As more of these powerful short stories find a voice through me, I see that I’m in a unique position to tell them as I can both transmute them into written form and illustrate the images that come through as well.
This story is such a potent teaching for many of us gaining more awareness of energy and how it affects not only ourselves, but everyone and everything around us. As the author of this story, it really was a gift in and of itself simply to have it come through me, especially during a rough time. It has left a question that still sits in me and guides my awareness:
If Anu had never been seen for who he truly is by that little girl, he would not know his real name—he would not know divine mercy. What happens to a child who remains unseen his whole life and so easily becomes the dark energies stuck in his environment?
