Free Sara, Book 1 by Esther And Jerry Hicks

school!” Sara blurted out loud as she slipped back into the feeling of anger that had begun the very moment she had walked onto the school grounds. She walked along, looking mostly down at her feet, recalling the details of this wretched day.
    She had arrived at the front gate at the same moment that the school bus arrived, and when the bus driver opened the doors, a herd of rowdy boys had almost mowed Sara down, bumping her from every direction, causing her to drop her books, spilling the contents of her bag. And worst of all, her theme paper for Mr. Jorgensen had been literally trampled. Sara gathered the crumpled, muddied papers into a pile and stuffed them into her bag. “That’s what I get for caring what the stupid paper looks like,” Sara had grumbled, now regretting having taken the time to rewrite it a second time before folding it carefully and putting it into her book bag.
    Still trying to get things back together as she walked through the big front doors, Sara wasn’t moving fast enough for Miss Webster. “Move along, Sara, I don’t have all day!” the slender, and mostly hated, third-grade teacher had snapped at Sara.
    “Excuse me for being alive!” Sara had muttered under her breath. “Good grief!”
    Sara must have looked at her watch 100 times during the day, counting the minutes to some freedom from this rampage of meanness.
    And then, at last, the final bell rang, and Sara was free.
    “I hate school. I really hate school. How can something that feels so terrible be of any value to anyone?”
    Out of habit, Sara made her way to Solomon’s thicket, and as she made the last turn onto Thacker’s Trail, Sara thought, This is the very worst mood I’ve been in ever. Especially since meeting Solomon.
    “Solomon,” Sara complained, “I hate school. I think it’s a waste of time.”
    Solomon was very quiet.
    “It’s like a cage that you can’t get out of, and the people in the cage are mean and are looking for ways to hurt you all day long.”
    Still no comment from Solomon.
    “It’s bad enough when the kids are mean to each other, but the teachers are mean, too, Solomon. I don’t think they like being there either.”
    Solomon just sat there staring. Only the occasional blinking of his big yellow eyes let Sara know that he wasn’t sound asleep.
    A tear slipped down Sara’s cheek as her frustration welled up within her. “Solomon, I just want to be happy. And I don’t think I will ever be happy at school.”
    Well then, Sara, I think you’d better get out of town, too.
    Sara looked up, startled by Solomon’s sudden comment.
    “What did you say, Solomon? Get out of town, too?”
    Yes, Sara, if you’re leaving your school because there are some negative things there, then I think you should get out of town, too, and out of this state and out of this country and off the face of this Earth, even out of this Universe. And now, Sara, I don’t know where to send you.
    Sara was confused. This didn’t seem like the solution-seeking Solomon she had come to know and love.
    “Solomon, what are you saying?”
    Well, Sara, I’ve discovered that in every single particle of the Universe there is that which is wanted and the lack of it. In every person, in every situation, in every place, in every moment — those choices are always there. Ever present. So you see, Sara, if you’re leaving one place or circumstance because there is negative in it, the next place you go will be pretty much the same.
    “You’re not making me feel better, Solomon. It feels hopeless.”

    Sara, your work is not to look for the perfect place where only the things you want exist. Your work is to look for the things you want in every place.
    “But why? What good does that do?”
    Well, for one thing, you would feel better, and, for another thing, as you begin to notice more things that you want to see, more of those things begin to become part of your experience. It gets easier and easier, Sara.
    “But, Solomon,