Yes, I saw the new Transformer movie over the holiday.  I stood in line waiting to enter the theater for about an hour.  Next to me, stood a father and his three daughters.  The girls were bubbling over with enthusiasm.  All three had brought along their favorite transformers.  They kept asking their father questions about the movie and he kept saying, "I don't know.  I haven't seen it yet."  It was cute.  I happened to sit fairly close to this family in the auditorium and was able to hear the girls cheering and laughing throughout the movie.  The youngest girl, about nine, stood up at the most exciting points and squealed.  They all left the theater with big smiles and happy sighs.  They kept chattering about their favorite parts and arguing about who they liked best. 

This movie was attended by young and old, everyone applauding at the very end.  Everyone yearns for transformation on some level. We can relate to the various vehicles in the movie that appear ordinary and hum drum on the surface, who with a moments notice, are able to transform into all powerful giants.  Fascinated by the idea of pure coursing energy animating the metal autobots, we cheer as they conquer their enemies and protect those who are smaller and vulnerable.  This movie is a wonderful illustration and reminder of the fact that we too are animated by pure energy coursing through our bodies, energy that can be channeled to transform and heal our lives.
 

I love holidays, for they are usually family centered times.  Each Holiday has an energetic basis.  For example, Thanksgiving is the "earth" energy holiday.  We honor our earthy needs for food and shelter, spending time with our families sharing the spirit of gratitude.  Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza are "watery" holidays filled with the effusive emotion of goodwill, giving and love.  It is interesting that frozen moisture (snow) is also the physical element associated with these holidays.  July 4th (in the US) is the holiday associated with "fiery" passion, conviction and celebration of our freedoms.  Time is spent honoring this day with fire works, and loud boisterous celebrations.  Labor Day, Memorial Day and Martin Luther King Day are all US holidays that focus on the "airy" quality of self-expression.  We move through the world with others, voices raised in a spirit of solidarity, memorializing our workers, our soldiers, our civil rights.  New Years is an "etheric" holiday of transcendence.  We make resolutions for the coming year based on our desire to evolve beyond our present condition.  We resolve to become the best that we can be by enlisting our conscience, our powers of higher intellect and motivation.  The elements surround us, infusing our everyday lives and special days of celebration with power and meaning.

I once lost my keys when shopping for groceries.  My oldest child was only five then and loved to join me in  perusing the shelves and picking out our food for the coming week.  We had been at the store for about 45 mintues and I was done!  I wrote a check, grabbed my purse and headed for the parking lot while pushing the cart full of grocery bags.  Arriving at the car, I couldn't find my keys.  I looked through my purse, my pockets, then checked out all the bags to make sure I hadn't inadvertently dropped my keys there.  Finally, I concluded that I must have left them somewhere in the store.  My son and I retraced our steps, searching every aisle.  No keys!  I started to panic.  I could call a locksmith to open my car, but then what about getting into the house?!  Worse case scenarios raced through my mind.  I approached the check-out station once again and asked the store employee if any keys had been turned in.  She called the main office, she checked her drawer.  No keys!  It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I had left the keys in the ignition.  I hurried out to the car, pushing the cart, with my breathless worried child straggling along behind me.  As I bent to peer in the driver's side window, my little guy said, "Mama, aren't those your keys?"  I quickly turned to look where he was pointing.  There they were, nestled deeply in the outside pocket of my purse.  I squealed with delight, gave him a hug and quickly loaded all of the groceries into the car.  I kept telling him what a brilliant boy he was and laughed at how silly mama was to have not seen them there.  As I was about to lift him into his car seat he asked, "Aren't you going to go tell the lady that you found your keys?"  I didn't want to return to the store, but I had given the woman at the checkstand all my information and she had asked me to let her know if I found them.  I sighed.  I returned to the store that day and lied to the store employee.  I was embarrassed and pretended that I had found my keys on the ground underneath my car.  Whereupon, my son corrected me in a very loud voice, reminding me that he was the brilliant child who had seen the keys in my purse.  I skulked out of the store midst laughter from the woman behind the counter. 

It's an amusing story today, but the truth of the matter, is that this was the very first lie my son experienced.  Sadly, it wasn't a lie told by a stranger, but a lie heard from the mouth of his very own mother.  I've heard adults say that ALL children lie.  They seem to wag their heads and declare this fact as if children are inherently liars.  I know that this is not true.  Dishonesty is a learned behavior.  I've carried the burden of my "white lie" for 18 years now even though my son forgave me long ago.  I don't want to forget that children are little blank slates.  They trust us and confide in us if we are trustworthy.  They lie to us and manipulate only if they have experienced lies and manipulation themselves.