“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(She was gloomy and afraid. She’d had a pain in her side lying there, and was afraid that it was something serious — but when I put her on her back she began to feel better, and thought the pain might only be from gas. Yet her mood persisted through lunch — of which she ate little, by the way. When I asked her if she was up to her old tricks, she said, “I know what I’m doing — but that doesn’t mean I can’t goof up once in a while.”

(4:00. After finishing the session, Jane told me now that she’d also been very blue last night, and “really got scared” this morning at the pain in her side, “imagining all sorts of things.” I couldn’t say too much, considering my own panicky reaction when I shoveled snow yesterday, but I did remark that we’d slipped back into the old ways of dealing with events.

(Now Jane corrected the quotation she’d received from Seth as I was leaving last night, and that I’d tried to remember: “The way toward health is simplicity itself. You can make plans for the future, but do not worry about the future. Live each day.” Besides being excellent advice, I’m citing the quote here because it triggered the opening lines of the session today.)

In a basic way, it is against nature’s purposes to contemplate a dire future, for all of nature operates on the premise that the future is assured. Nature is everywhere filled with promise — not only the promise of mere survival, but the promise of beauty and fulfillment. Once again, that keen sense of promise is innate within each portion of the body. It triggers the genes and chromosomes into their proper activity, and it promotes feelings of optimism, exuberance, and strength.

(Note: Just as Jane had had this dream, I’d read an article in the Star-Gazette to the effect that a few blocks near downtown Elmira, including the apartment house we’d lived in at 458 W. Water Street, had been designated a Historical Preservation Area by New York State. I meant to save the article, but forgot to. I think the area is bounded by Walnut, West Water, and Church Streets, back toward downtown.)

Indeed. I may or may not return, again according to those rhythms of which I speak — but know that I am present and approachable.

Now: If you examine your feelings about parenthood in general, you will see that they bear an astonishing similarity to your feelings about your painting and our work. Only the focus is different. You are indeed both parents of an amazing body of work, and the psychic parents of innumerable people of all ages. You have set aside, however, the conventional idea of a family, as symbolized by your (car) dream of the other evening. You are actually exchanging one kind of a family for another, vaster concept, that also involves parenthood, however — but a psychic rather than a physical parenthood. The letters you receive are often like letters children write to their parents.

(I told Jane that we have to follow it — that we simply must dump all else and trust the body, that nothing else makes any sense any more, that it’s the key to our futures. She agreed, of course. She said she’s going to start with Day One tomorrow, and take it from there, trusting the body, not dwelling upon the past, and leaving the future open. It is simplicity itself, I told her, and we must never again forget it on a consistent basis. Slipping up once in a while won’t mean anything then. But part of our success will depend on keeping these simple goals always in mind, before us.