2007-11-11. Cat and Mouse Games
Rio Rancho #151
Topic: Cat and Mouse Games
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Merium
TR: Gerdean
Opening
- Elena on Piano: “Wayfaring Stranger” [Played by Jerry Garcia with David Crosby, Paul Kantner et al during the PERRO sessions in 1971, some circulating tapes refer to it as a Crosby song called “Over Jordan”, but it is in fact a traditional song recorded by a wide range of singers including Burl Ives, Joan Baez, Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Emmylou Harris, etc.] “Happy Birthday” to Gerdean.
MERIUM: How are you this afternoon, my lovelies? This is Merium. I am glad to be here because you know I cannot resist a party! What a lovely party you have had, indeed, on behalf of your stalwart T/R and good buddy, Gerdean.
What fun you have with your holidays. Actually, it seems you go from one holiday to the next, keeping yourselves in touch with the heartbeat of your culture which you have cultivated as a community, as a nation, and as a world. Holidays seem to take the drudgery out of the rut and routine of maintenance.
Reneau: Give us an excuse to get together.
MERIUM: Indeed — under joyous circumstances. Always there are occasions to get together to work or do something productive. This is the nature of the human animal, to be busy, to be industrious, and so he is even industrious about his holidays.
You are coming into indeed just into the holiday season. You may be well advised that
Lesson
Holidays are not only a way of celebrating but a way of diverting oneself in revelry as compared to looking at the problems one faces in experiential living, and the more stressful the times of experiential living, the more revelry is needed. You may — this group in particular – may have a picture of the Bob Hope ministry and others as well, to the service men during the World War. What a hit it was to take the entertainment to the troops. It kept the boys going, as well as pinups of course, of Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe and other lovelies. These kinds of diversions and distractions are not always simply a bit of fluff but a genuine means of relieving the tension of existence, in particular during times such as when you are at war.
Just to say you are in for a very busy season. It behooves you to brace yourself in advance, lest you get completely carried away in the hysteria of illusion.
There is always, of course, the underlying reason for the season. All these holidays have a purpose, to honor and acknowledge something that has contributed to your national culture or personal accomplishment, many of them generic enough to reach beyond boundaries to encompass the family of man worldwide. And so I love a party. The potential in these occasions wherein you get together to rejoice over something of value is a triumph to the human spirit.
But I really came to you today to talk about Sincerity.
“Sincerity”
Sincerity is a quality that bears witness to your ideal. And generally, considered, your ideal is the highest thing in your consciousness. It may not have been attained yet but it is, even so, that which you hold up and out for all to observe and for you to aspire toward. It is indeed the impetus that compels you to attain your ideal, which gives rise to your industry and your need to reflect yourselves in busyness in an attempt to attain these ideals. And so a purposeful life has a great deal of heart as compared to those who are driven.
In the cacophony of life, in the demands to accomplish and acquire, as well as the song and noisemakers of merriment, the tonal quality of sincerity awaits. It is like the sound of the Master’s Voice, which all humankind recognizes. It is like harmony, that tonal quality of sincerity, and it becomes compelling to seek this tonal quality that is found in sincerity.
In a lifestyle that is bound up completely between the two fields aforementioned, that of vigorous work and vigorous play, there is often, too often, scant need to recognize or demonstrate sincerity. But it is one of those qualities akin to conviction that gives your presence Presence.
Everyone sooner or later tires of maintenance and of revelry, but sincerity is always a sound that harmonizes the soul … allowing for a sense of accomplishment, a sense of joyousness, and a sense of being at one and at home within thyself.
Parable of the Roadrunner
I rejoice in this quiet outpost in the desert. I saw through Gerdean today a roadrunner. What an enchanting little bird it is. [Group murmurs as to the neighborhood roadrunner.] You are somewhat like them yourselves. [Group chuckles.] Flitting here and there, bowing your head and lifting your tail feathers.
What a joy it is to know you people and to be here on this plane of existence to observe the fascinating lives you live as creatures of the realm. Each creation is so unique. And yours is no exception. So as I observe to you that I find delight and amusement, as well as occasion to overcome difficulty and emerge triumphant, I am certain that you also observe your lives as well, with its challenges and triumphs. I am more than curious to hear more about them. What have you been up to? Share with me your inner life and listen to the sound of your own sincerity as you share one with the other.
Dialogue
Esmeralda: Well, Merium, I’m afraid my life is not very exciting to observe. It seems like I do less and less, and have less of a purpose. I know I’ve had a full life and … but it seems like I’m not doing much with it right now– So I’m very glad to be alive! And I’m very glad to have seen a roadrunner. And all of nature! Nature is terrific.
Reneau: Even on its bad days.
Men-O-Pah: He just danced across the lawn there, to say hello to us.
Esmeralda: Yes, he comes right up– I’m just not always out every day this time a year, but I think he has comes frequently.
Reneau: What do they eat?
Esmeralda: There used to be some people that used to live in this neighborhood that got him little balled up bits of raw hamburger and they would come up and eat it.
Reneau: Oh, so he is carnivorous!
Men-O-Pah: They are. They’re meat-eaters.
Reneau: Bugs. Snakes
Esmeralda: They say, ‘don’t feed natures creatures’ because then they begin to depend on you, and if you don’t continue, they are at jeopardy. So it’s kind of hard to know what to do.
MERIUM: Well, there’s a value lesson for you. If you feed nature’s creatures such that they neglect to feed themselves, you have created a problem.
Esmeralda: A hardship.
Reneau: Well, what about people that put out bird feeders? Would that–
Elena: That can do it.
Men-O-Pah: They’ll keep doing it.
Esmeralda: Well, I have quit recently, because I feel the birdseed is attracting mice so much. I just had to get rid of the mice and so I haven’t fed the birds for awhile … a few weeks.
Men-O-Pah: We clean up the mess they make. Or try to. And the cat gets near them.
Esmeralda: Yeah, but then sometimes … mice carry fleas and…
Men-O-Pah: So do birds.
Esmeralda: And there are so many pigeons here that– Pigeons love tile roofs. We didn’t use to have them until they started using tile roofs a lot in this area, and now the pigeons scare the small birds away, which are actually the ones that I wanted to feed. So I think there are problems. There are great joys that go along with it, but also great problems.
Men-O-Pah: We have mourning doves. We don’t have any pigeons.
Reneau: I used to have doves, but I think the pigeons have scared away the doves.
Paula: And we had a bad time. The cat got a bird the other day, one of the little birds, and she was carrying it; it was still alive and she brought it into the house and showed it to us. I started to spank her, but Men-O-Pah said, ‘She’s a hunter and she was proud of what she did; she wanted to show us.” And I said, ‘Yeah, but I feed those birds, and she was out killing them!”
Esmeralda: It’s inbred in her.
Paula: I suppose I shouldn’t have spanked her, but I did.
Elena: Well, next time, you can skip it.
Paula: I hope she never gets another one. But she got a mouse! And he got into the birdseed and all of a sudden, he got in the house! The birdseed was out in the garage and how he got in —
Men-O-Pah: The open door!
Esmeralda: They find ways.
Paula: And she’s walking around with this live mouse in her mouth, showing what she got, and then she dropped him on the floor, on the ground. Well, he was so beat out by then he couldn’t run. And he just kind of sat there looking real sad and looking at us, and then she grabbed him in her mouth again, like ‘Big Deal.’
Reneau: Did you put it outside? Did you put the cat outside?
Paula: I hope she took him out because we never did find the mouse again so I think he must have gone outside with her.
MERIUM: This is ordinary and appropriate behavior for animals, but by the time we evolve to man, we have potential for a new level of operation. If you were to replace those words of mouse, bird, cat, with words like countries, or political ideologies, you would have a new vision of what you engage in. Indeed animals can be barbaric, but as you resolve to be human, as compared to animal, you can make new choices about how to interact with your fellows and other creatures that share your habitat.
This is domestication, as you know, and civilization advances, slowly but surely. Even when it has setbacks, such as you perceive when you read the paper or watch the news and lament the current global situation. You are seeing it from and as the drama of the human animal. Look for that quality of sincerity in your leaders. Recognize what that sound sounds like. When you hear that sound that beckons you as being sincere, study it fearlessly to ascertain its motives, its intent, for sincerity in and of itself will cause you to follow but is it wisdom to follow that sincerity, that sincere voice, that tone, or is it folly?
One thing for certain is that you cannot tell who to listen to if what they say grates on your ear. And so people study the sound of sincerity to use it as a tool to lead, and this is wise. This is part of leadership. But do take the time to see where you are being led. Well, have I led you into a corner?
Led Versus Driven
Elena: No, actually, I was going to see if anybody else has something to say before I chirped up. You talked about purpose and being driven, and you asked us to share about ourselves. I’m just worn out with trying to decide what my next step is, and I’ve just decided to take from now until the beginning of the year to kind of kick back. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while anyway, throughout this year and so I am going to try to spend more time with myself and not push any decisions or make any decisions or put myself to task for anything. I’m going to take myself off the hook, I believe. Those are my intentions. It’s not very long between now and the first of the year.
That’s what I think I should do. If I can’t tell right now, between being driven and having a purpose, I think I’m kind of driven right now, to tell you the truth, and I’d like to be more purposeful.
MERIUM: Would you like some counsel?
Elena: Yes!
MERIUM: I already mentioned how busy it’s going to be now, during your holiday season, and so you can’t really do anything meaningful in the midst of that chaos anyway. But rather than assign yourself an arbitrary starting point, at the beginning of the year along with a lot of other people who make New Year’s resolutions and look to the New Year as a good place to start, give yourself that time of year rather to relax and reflect so that when the spring thaw begins, which is generally around mid-February, you will be able to feel the life stirring within your branches, within your limbs, so that your own purpose will be revealed naturally, rather than you having to arbitrarily assign a decision to it.
I don’t know if you understand what I mean here but it would be the difference of letting the human make the choice and letting your morontia reality make the choice.
Elena: Let it unfold.
MERIUM: That’s right. You do yourself a disservice to stop for the holidays and then pick up when the time is right for you to germinate. Allow yourself to reveal itself. You don’t need to drive yourself. It will show you “the way.”
Elena: Okay. That hits a nice chord in me. I like that.
MERIUM: That way, you can use the seasons to your benefit, and when springtime is in full bloom, you will be in full sway with what you know to be the right and good thing for you to be doing at this time. So you will have a happier life and be more effective, even more productive.
Elena: Well, I like that.
Esmeralda: I like hearing that, Merium.
Reneau: It gives your angels time to organize things and get a little more together for you.
Elena: That’s good. Because I have really been striving forward, thrusting, trying to get forward, beating myself, so I think that sounds good.
MERIUM: You are at a time in your life where you are pondering the next couple of decades of your life, in terms of how much time you have as compared to how much you want yet to accomplish. It is a natural passage for intelligent mortals on this planet, in your culture, and so you are right in keeping with what one could expect from you at this time. Rejoice in the fact that you still have ambition and drive, that you have not succumbed to complacency … yet, for you do indeed still have much life left within your limbs and many fruits can yet be produced.
Elena: Thank you, Merium. I appreciate the guidance.
These Precious Days
MERIUM: For you, Esmeralda, and ‘the honeymooners,’ “As the days dwindle down to a precious few” they are to be savored. You may not feel as though you have any ambition left or anything exciting going on in your life, but your reality is shifting. You too are preparing for another passage and you are now aware of mortality. Because you are closer to the statistical time of decline and departure, your challenge, of course, is not what to accomplish in the world but what to accomplish within yourself so that you will feel ready to leave when you are called.
Much of this should be/can be in appreciation of each moment. By being aware of each moment as it unfolds, each very quiet, unassuming moment, is in itself a miracle, because you are able to exist within it. This awareness of existing within the moment has lasting value. It helps assure you of your existence in time and space and once this becomes a part of your super-consciousness, you will and do recognize that this consciousness will continue to exist in millions and billions of moments from now, although it may not be in this form. And so you are able to serve yourself by preparing for your transition, just as Elena is preparing for her next transition, her passage into another decade of accomplishment and wish fulfillment on her world of origin.
When you are gone from here, you will not see things as you have enjoyed from here. These dazzling autumn days of yellow-gold cottonwood leaves with a backdrop of azure blue are something your eyes can feast on as a prayer of thanksgiving. It is not wasted time to behold beauty, truth and goodness. By now you know you are a part of it. You have claimed it. You own it. You have contributed your life. You have given all you have, and you have every right to sit back and rejoice in your accomplishments. You need not start another business or start another club unless you want to.
Esmeralda: Oh, thank you! (Group laughter.) No, I’m actually happy with my life, Merium. I just want to be sure I’m doing Father’s will, and it’s not always easy to know what Father’s will is. So I’m actually comfortable, sitting back. I really am. I enjoy my daughters. I always did. I’m actually quite happy with my life. I realize it’s a transitional time, and a preparatory time, but it’s nice to be here as long as I should be here and it will also be nice to go on to many things.
As long as my daughters are okay, and I think they both are, then everything is fine. And I have had a good life. My daughters have been a large part of it and I think I have been greatly blessed. And I think I am still blessed. I think the morontia world will be wonderful.
Personality Survival
MERIUM: I heard you earlier say you just want to make sure that you are doing what is necessary to … what was it?
Esmeralda: Father’s will. And at this stage, I’m not sure what the Father’s will is. I don’t know if He wants me to be doing more than I am, or just preparing myself and/or my daughters for my not being around.
MERIUM: They are well trained. They will be fine. You will, too. The only thing you need to do is make certain your commitments are made. And it seems you have done that long ago. The gift of eternal life is acquired. Yes, it is give to you freely, but then you need to work with it, and to the extent you have been consciously involved in creation, you will survive. My concern has always been the survival of the individual personality. Not just his or her qualities that have value, but the actual personality. That is what God needs from you. And so if you are prepared to commit your personality into the keeping of your highest consciousness of Deity, then you will inherently work toward cultivating and perfecting that end. That is perfection hunger that is born into you. God wants to return to the Source from whence He came and He wants to bring you along with Him.
Esmeralda: Well, I want that, too.
MERIUM: Then you’re in like Flynn.
Esmeralda: Thank you, Merium.
MERIUM: What did I hear over here from the Santa Fe contingent?
Reneau: Do you have any advice for me or my daughter? I just seem to be work, work, work, work, working here. Letting things take care of themselves, I guess.
MERIUM: Well, letting things take care of themselves is actually walking a very fine destiny path. When things fall in line and you have no problems to deal with, you must be doing something right.
Reneau: It’s not that I don’t have problems.
MERIUM: I was going to say, then assuredly some would come along so that you have something to keep you hopping, to keep you from being bored silly with the maintenance of human existence.
Reneau: I find opportunities come along to help other people or encourage other people or some way you can do your own little … extend your hand kind of thing to help out people. Some are grateful, some are not; I just try to keep harmony. Ha! I too feel like my life has been blessed. I do feel that I have many, many, many, many blessings in my life, so my problems are not that severe or bothersome, I think. I do worry about my daughter. I think she could probably use a little help. I think things are coming her way, too, so, any suggestions?
Paula: Yes, don’t worry about things!
Reneau: No, I don’t.
Paula: Things have a way of working out. I’ve watched that happen.
Reneau: I’m not without talent and resources, so….
Paula: And you young people here, you have your whole lives ahead of you! I probably don’t have all that much time but I don’t know. People in my family live into their 90’s and some over 100. And I have had my physical here a little bit ago. She said I was ‘very well preserved.’ She said, there was nothing wrong with me. She said I was in very good health, so I figure Men-O-Pah is stuck with me. I’m going to stay alive! I think. Unless a truck runs over me, I feel fine.
MERIUM: Even if a truck were to run over you, you would get up and dust your feathers off and trot off to the next party.
Paula: Could be!
Men-O-Pah: I’ve been away, as you know, to corporate wars again, and to solve all the problems laid out, and fortunately I solved it. I don’t know how long I can keep doing that. I think the time is short, I’ll have to let go of those things. I notice my ability to work around the house, some of the things that would take me five minutes now take an hour. But I can still do them. I guess it’s better to be able to do those things than not be able at all. And something you were saying about working? There’s something noble about working. It’s good. I think it is.
MERIUM: Indeed.
Paula: Noble or not, it wears you out!
Men-O-Pah: Well. Paula: He came home and he’d be beat at the end of the day.
Esmeralda: He could have been ten years ago, too! I remember before I retired, many days I was really tired. Then there were days when I worked 14 hours and came home doing just fine.
MERIUM: This is the process we have been talking about, this mother nature and the seasons, the animal life and slowing down so that you can see each moment. And passages. And this being an older group, that is to say comprised of elders, has a different purpose and a different statement to make than those which are still dominated by youth and ambition. There is absolutely nothing wrong with work or youth or ambition. Neither is there anything wrong with recognizing limitations. But yes, it is very difficult for the noble beasts to admit they can no longer do what they once did readily.
There is no shame in this process, and yet it is unsettling, for it is often a constant reminder of what you no longer have. However, these long reflective days of such beauty provide the soul, the psyche in perspective. If indeed you have all lived your lives fully, as I believe you have, then you have nothing to regret in letting go which, as the scripture says, are the things of youth that today no longer serve. What serves today is your experiential wisdom.
As Paula says, don’t worry about it. But when you are in the thick of worry about it and it is the most important thing to you, to not worry about it would seem like irresponsibility somehow. So yes, work is noble, and creates good character, but it is also true that the material vehicle tires and parts wear out. The joy of living today is in recognizing the perfection of the moment and your place within that perfect moment. That is the reality, which is enduring, even eternal. I have no counsel for you, Reneau, or your daughter. You are doing what you need to be doing and learning how to love it.
Reneau: You mean my job?
MERIUM: Acceptance of all those things that trouble you, challenge you or bring you joy. Accept what is. Including how you interact with it. You have called yourself air-headed or addlebrained or “Libra,” but you are also — or rather — open to what opportunities avail themselves. You may appear to be flitting and irresponsible to some, but would a hummingbird spend much time on a plastic flower? No. It would recognize at once the artificiality and go on to some other blossom.
Each creature has a pattern that works well for its best interests, and each creature sooner or later learns its limitations, like the mouse in the paws of your cat. By staying alert to the possibilities of escape, survival, the very next moment of conscious existence is enough to constitute the will of God. Praise God! Be joyous! Carry with you a divine countenance of simply joy.
Esmeralda: There’s an awful lot to be joyous about.
Reneau: It’s easier if you don’t read the newspaper or watch the news.
Group: Yeah! Amen to that!
Esmeralda: You know, I recommend looking outside at night, at the beautiful moon, and sometimes the stars are so bright. And every once in awhile you get a star that isn’t a star but an airplane. But the nights are beautiful and the days are beautiful. And we’re surrounded by beauty in all things, and the love of God.
MERIUM: The love of God surrounds us. Esmeralda: That’s the most important thing that surrounds us, I think.
MERIUM: The Power of God protects us.
Esmeralda: But he protects all these … the birds and the mice and … he has it all in hand, so you don’t have to worry, Paula, if Cricket catches the mouse.
Paula: You know, I think the Lord was watching over the mouse. Because I think he must have gotten away. But how he got in the house, I don’t know.
Men-O-Pah: Through the door.
Paula: Anyway, she entertained us with the mouse. She wouldn’t hurt him, but she would take him over, in her mouth, very gently. She didn’t bite him. She just kind of played with him. Then she would have him in front of her, and she’d take her paw and swat her. The mouse probably didn’t know what to do! He was probably having a heart attack. And she was playing with him. She didn’t know she was supposed to kill him. She just played with him.
Men-O-Pah: She fully intended to kill him later. Paula: But she had more fun showing us.
Closing
MERIUM: I am going to cut you loose so you can play cat and mouse games. There’s got to be games at a party.
Paula: She thought it was a game. She just played with him. The poor mouse was about to have a heart attack.
Esmeralda: But you know, cats love playing.
MERIUM: See you next time!
Group: Thank you, Merium.
MERIUM: Bye-bye!
