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Annalia's Simply Splendid Flight- From Another Side of Day

by Candace Croft

244 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-1289; ISBN 1-55395-573-0; US$19.50, C$22.42, EUR16.02, £11.21

Want to take control of life and live your dream? Follow Annalia on a personal journey that transforms her world from a nightmarish act to one shining with divine promise. Take instruction from Lazy Lapis who directs a child to reach within self and wisely use innate magic powered by HeartLight. A self-help novel, this tale with study guide demonstrates how to perform a switcheroo and turn any monstrous scene into a happy ending. If a young girl can produce a dream, anyone can.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Annalia envisioned her life as paradise. Everything was heavenly until three furies stormed onto her lane, center stage. They nettled her and got under her skin. Ruled by monsters and fear, the girl's life was shrouded in darkness. Who has not walked in Annalia's shoes? All children of life encounter beastly characters and thorny obstacles. Listening to the spiritual guide who whispered wisdom of the ages, Annalia learned lessons to break free from dark night and move into a brighter day. Do you know the role thoughts, emotions, and free will play in conquering life's demons? Annalia does. Are you able to translate universal signs that pop up giving direction along the way? Do you know how personal resources might be used to weed a beastly mess from life's plot? How they might uproot a dream? Annalia learned how by mastering divine magic. Can your spirit soar aligned with its Star Code even when gravity-worshippers attempt to weigh it down? Can you shine your HeartLight to illuminate the way out of a nightmare? Annalia can. This self-help novel provides life lessons taught by Lazy Lapis, the Dream Magician. Return with Annalia and her guide to The Forest of Perpetual Night that lies on the far edge of Tabankhu. Master the craft and turn in an inspired performance daily. Recognize horrible happenings-black holes, shifting landscapes, bottomless abysses, physical afflictions, sinkholes of despair and dead-end mazes- for what they are, simply life tests, nothing more or less. Refuse to wander through life as a Sleepy Noggin. When you show that you know what you know, you will be cast as a star in a living dream. If a young girl can star in life, you can, too. (A study guide is included as an appendix.)

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About the Author Candace A. Croft, Ph.D., CFLE is the Dean of Health and Service Occupations at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. Prior to her current position, Dr. Croft was an associate professor and chair of psychology at a Midwestern, liberal arts college where she taught classes in lifespan development, transpersonal psychology and integrative health, and interpersonal skills. Dr. Croft also has taught at DePaul University, managed a wellness center, served as a research director for two national health organizations, and practiced psychotherapy. She received her doctorate from The Pennsylvania State University in Health and Human Development, her Masters from the University of Arizona in Child Development and Family Relations, her B.A. from Saint Olaf College, and has achieved certification as both a family life educator and an aromatherapist. She has been involved with spiritual healing and energy work for over a decade. Dr. Croft holds memberships in several professional associations, including the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the National Council of Family Relations and its sections on Religion and the Family and Family and Health, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She serves as a media contact for life adjustment and whole-person, spiritual development. As an Executive Producer and Creative Consultant, she won film awards at the Houston International Film Featival and the New York Film Festival and has judged films at the Chicago International Film Festival. She was elected a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Omicron Nu honor societies. Other honors include listings in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in America, Who's Who Among America's Teachers, The World Who's Who of Women, 2,000 Notable American Women, Who's Who of Rising Young Americans in American Society and Business and Who's Who Worldwide. She has also received awards for excellence in teaching. Dr. Croft has authored several articles in such professional journals and popular magazines as Spirituality and Health, Sedona Journal of Emergence, Journal of Adolescent Health, Family Relations, Pediatrics,Health Values, Journal of Genetic Psychology and Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing and has served as a reviewer for the journal Pediatrics. She authors the monthly column, Living With Heart, for the online publication www.tristatewoman.com. Presentations and workshops have been given before various groups, including the National Council on Family Relations, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the Association for Continuing Higher Education, the American Psychological Society, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association, the National Institutes of Health, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, as well as numerous college, church, community and alumni groups. Selected as a distinguished faculty lecturer, her presentation, The Shaman Within, highlighted the alchemical power of personal health.

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Sample Excerpts

ACT ONE, Scene Eight

Everyone knew something was wrong with her, but no one deduced what. It remained Annalia's secret. She felt too silly and scared to talk about it. No one guessed she was visited every night by the Horror, the Terror, and the Fee-Faw-Fum who chased her through blackness and frightened her, keeping her from getting any rest.

Late one night, long after Annalia had climbed into bed, pulled the blankets up to her nose and waited for monsters to arrive, after she had knelt with hands folded and head bowed out of reverence, fear, and desperation to lift a petition into the sky the way she had been taught,

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take,"

and after she had added a heartfelt postscript of her own creation,

"But if not, and you have any angels to spare,
I could use some help with the beasts in my nightmares;
I know you're busy,
But thank you for being there and listening,"

she received a surprise that compelled her to sit up and drop her protective cover.

Instead of the nightmare she dreaded, as if in answer to her prayers, a beautiful golden light greeted her. She watched, her eyes as perfectly round as the incandescent globe on which they were fixed, while it floated softly and silently from the height of the ceiling to the foot of her bed, sparkling with the splendor of a star whose rays were backlit white with light. Hovering above the floor, it lingered, double-checking and cross-checking its location to avoid touching down on mistaken ground.

Assured that it had been called to the right place at the correct point in time, the emanation began to change. First, its radiance softened, then dulled. Next, it stretched out of shape, elongating until it was oval in form. The light dispersed and, as it did, a touch of magic became clear: From its center a concentration of brilliance reminded the young girl of starlight cross or a descending dove, perhaps. She wasn't sure which. She could see both. Annalia closed her eyes as the splendor expanded and passed over her like the puff of a breath, wrapping warmth about her, dismissing her fears while restoring her calmness, brushing over her face with the soft tickle and stroke of a feathery wing.

When she opened her eyes, the light at the foot of the bed was gone. In its place was the sprout of a man totally unlike fiends that haunted her throughout the night and completely unlike any other man she had known. Yet somehow, he seemed familiar, providing a safe and friendly presence. His copper skin burnished with golden radiance and, although small in height-measuring no taller than the girl herself from his heels to the crown of his head-it could not be said that he lacked stature for, without speaking a syllable or doing one thing, neither his authority nor his position was ever in question.

A long silk robe of sapphire blue that was flecked with gold, identical to the stone he wore in a ring, flowed in waves around him and blended into the gold-white emanation surrounding him. He sported one of those smiles that spread joy to everyone in its path, urging them to grin in response and wonder what was so amusing. The color of his eyes matched the blue of his robe, both sparkling with unadulterated energy.

"Splendid. Simply splendid," he said, obviously pleased with his arrival.
"Who are you?" Annalia asked, her voice a mere whisper.
"Who am I?"
The traveler repeated the question as if wondering about it himself. He stopped tending to his attire and, focusing on the child in need who had brought him there, thought for a bit while brushing his beard that billowed like a cloud before him, extending its fluff outward into his light.
"Who am I indeed! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lazy Lapis, the Dream Magician."

Where or from whom do you seek guidance? Discuss the guidance received from each source.

ACT ONE, Scene Eleven

. . .With his left hand, the guide grasped the stone. With his right, he clasped the young girl's. His hand felt velvety and leathery like it had been roughened before being softened through repeated exposure to life's tannins.
The Dream Magician recited:

"Stone of milky white with energy Right and Just,
Into your powers our travels we entrust,
To the far side to The Land of Heart Light,
Transport us safely to The Forest of Perpetual Night."

The two travelers stepped through the dusky outskirts of The Forest of Perpetual Night where they stumbled upon a slumbering nest of Sleepy Noggins. Snoring, wheezing, sleeping Noggins. A restful place with a rhythm all its own . Sleepy Noggins who were Nogginheads, all eggheads with droopy, drowsy eyes. They perched on tree limbs and propped in shrubs. Some smiled sillily. Some slept open-mouthed, relaxed and restful. But all the Sleepy Noggins nodded-each and every one of them-while they drifted off to their dreams, clutching pillows damp from sleep. Drooling, dreaming, Sleepy Noggins.

Embryonic in nature, they rested as little sprouts who had a lot of maturing to do before branching out and granting fruit. Oversized heads fell forward onto chests, rising up and down in waves with their breaths. Hands folded in prayer over bellies from which a braided silver lifeline extended across galaxies of space and time connecting Sleepy Noggins to their preconceived beginnings. Although asleep, eyes stayed open and unblinking, veiled and unseeing.

The young girl watched as Sleepy Noggins floated to earth from their perches and, one by one, proceeded with a guide down a path. "Where are they going?" she whispered.
"Why, they head farther into The Forest of Perpetual Night and their imaginings," Lazy Lapis said. "Come. Let us join them." He clasped her hand and stepped behind a curtain of darkness that parted when it sensed their approach, granting entrance into the boundless void beyond. . . .

Hearing whimpers of some foundling with a briar stuck in its paw, Annalia stopped. The pitiful moans came from a spot off the track, beyond a mound of jagged, jet rock with pointed peaks and sharp edges arranged in vertical profusion, spears either readied to launch an uprising or positioned to impale any rescuing messenger who dropped too near the ground. She wasn't sure which; she could see both. Curiosity vaulted her up the face and over the craggy hillock to land on its alternate side, shrouded in fog's mourning weeds.

Pale moans persisted. Investigating, she leaned into a stubborn darkness that refused to cast light upon ignorance. Lifting a hand, palm forward to meet the temple of her angled head, smoky curls stilled and the smudged mist parted slightly to offer the girl a glimpse into another child's imaginings.

A little boy Nogginhead sat crouched over himself on the front steps of his house. His face was red and swollen, his shirt drenched from non-stop blubbering night after night. Every evening he experienced the same dream-returning home from school only to discover his family had moved and left him behind. No note. No forwarding address. No key to the door. Not even his dog remained to greet him. And every single night, the boy's response was the same-he plunked down on the steps, buried his head in his hands, and sniveled until his skin wrinkled pruny. As he sat there settled into his misery, a sinkhole of despair opened up and performed a great disappearing act by feeding itself and swallowing him whole. Satisfied, the hole closed over and the step on which he had sat bubbled up with a belch. Annalia blinked. The boy bathed in pathos vanished into thick air. Cautiously, so as not to be mistaken for a nosh by the devouring pit, she watched for his reappearance, but he failed to materialize. What a nightmare.

Why hadn't he risen up to do something to help himself?

Like the little boy, we all wallow in sorrow and self-pity at times. What sets you off? List the scenes.

b) How might the little boy change his response to achieve a better dream? How might you?

ACT TWO, Scene Five

"You might try training the spotlight on yourself instead of on those hooligans you wish to disappear. How will they ever vanish if you keep highlighting them to their advantage? Besides, you cannot change monsters. It would be incrediblously silly, highly ridiculent, indeed quite preposterpent to believe you could ever possess the power to change someone else. Goodness gracious, can't be done. Transform yourself."

"If I can't affect creatures, what's the point of facing them?" The young girl dropped her shoulders in surrender. "Why can't everybody just leave me alone and let me get some sleep?"

"Did I ever say you couldn't affect monsters? No, I don't believe I did." Lazy Lapis raised an index finger to a temple, closed his eyes, and tilted his head to pool together memories of moments gone by. His lips moved in a mumbling motion as his free hand ticked off statements like a court reporter reading the transcript of past proceedings. Finished, he opened his eyes and, wagging a prominent finger at his charge, said, "No, I never told you that ugliness was beyond your influence."

"But you said-"
"I said you couldn't change them, never said you couldn't affect them."
"Yes, you did."
"Couldn't have done such a thing. Never would have."
"I heard it myself with my own ears."
"It would be a too basic, mistaken slip of the tongue. Too much of the world could come undone."
"That may be, but you said it, definitely. Besides, what difference does it make?"
"Stars above, the distinction fans out immensely. Gracious. Check the script. Words are important. Pay attention. You cannot control another, only yourself. You cannot change marauding monsters, but you can affect them by changing your response to their behavior. Don't you see?"
"See what?"
"See through to the truth."
"There is nothing new to choose. Don't addle my pate."
"Pate. Nice word. Good for you, but not so. Turn the page and view a fresh leaf."
"I wasn't aware I had an old one."
"Now that is troublous true. But, you do."
"Do what?"
"Have an old leaf."
"What does it look like?"
"It looks something like this. They ballyhoo. You boo-hoo. You can't mute the volume on their theatrics, although you can give them a switcheroo."
"A what?"
"A switcheroo. Switch your reaction to the beastly things they choose to say and do. After all, your response remains the only aspect of any situation totally under your control. Alter the words you say, in what direction you move and you will shift the scene and reshuffle the cards."
"If you must do my bidding, then I demand that you put me on a new path. I no longer want to walk this one. It's too hard."
"This path cannot be too difficult. You chose it."
"I did not."
"Did, too."
"Would not."
"Would, too."
"Did not."
"Did-well, trust me. You did."
"How? When?"
"When? Some time, no doubt. Wouldn't be here otherwise. How? Simple. You opened it up and set yourself square in the middle of it with some unfortunately unenlightened thing you thought or felt or did or said and held fully formed some place in your head."
"How could that have happened? I don't remember saying I wanted to be here."
"Nobody ever directly intends to meet up with a terrible end. Usually, the choice is something rather minuscule, substantially trivial. But the mistake almost every child makes is believing only watershed events carry universal weight. It isn't that way at all. Why, every action, no matter how small-a word here, a turn there, an ill-timed sneeze that splatters on the breeze or a thoughtless step forward to live in the past, a fortunate meeting chalked up to happenstance-sets a course winding through new doors."

• Shift the scene by changing the perception held in your bean. Write a switcheroo.
• How did Annalia arrive in the Forest of Perpetual Night? What role does free will play in any performance? Outline the steps she should take to change course. b) Apply those suggestions to your path. Rehearse one or two to alter your daily path. Add more with time.

ACT FOUR, Scene Six

Addressing Lazy Lapis, she shared a drop of innate intelligence. "I believe I have stumbled upon another way to be pulled astray."
"Yes, indeed. What might that be?"
"Piling doubts over the top of one's heart."
"Splendid. Simply splendid. Children heaping weeds of negative thoughts and emotions over their hearts is never a healthy thing. One after another they pile up a mess-I'm not good enough, I'll settle for a joyless life, I'm a failure, I'm dumb, I'm not pretty enough-well, you know the rest."
Annalia pinked with embarrassment. "Yes, I guess I am pretty good at heaping weeds."
"Not one of the best I have ever encountered but you seem well on your way. What a fatalistic way of thinking-like those thoughts are wishes you would wish to come true. Such a hostile spiral it sets in motion. Then, of course, the accompanying emotions, all that moroseness, dampen the heap until the spark begins to smolder and, eventually unable to breathe under that suffocating mass, the fire goes out entirely. . . .All children have guides and signs along the lane. Be glad you are willing to take artistic direction."
"How do I do that?"
"Do what?" The wizard picked seared bits and pieces of brush from his robe.
"Stop planting thoughts and emotions that poison my dreamscape. I believe that's what you asked of me."
Putting a hand to the chin under his beard, he pondered the question a moment, not dashing to answer. "You have no trouble holding your fear in full vision, why not give equal due to a happy ending? Or are you quite set upon a dreary life?"

• What negative thoughts and emotions do you heap over your HeartLight? Replace them with healthy seeds.
• Respond to the Dream Magician's question: "You have no trouble holding your fear in full vision. . ."

  ACT SIX, Scene Two

  Annalia asked, "Remember the boy who proceeded through life contrary to the advice of his dream angel and sought fame and fortune?"
  "I do indeed. That is why I scurried back. Your sentiments reminded me of him-and others quite like him-which made me concerned about your choice."
  "He made the mistake of following what others said was important in life, instead of listening with heart. Unlike that child, I won't let trinkets and promises turn my head. But he taught me even more by his mistake."
  "By all means, enlighten me." The Dream Magician withdrew a plant from his sleeves, then perched atop a colossal morning glory as if he were as weightless as a humming bird-which Annalia didn't imagine he could be-and crossed his legs and arms in earnest listening.
  "The beasts in his world sent that boy on his way with smooth sailing but, as he moved down the path, things became rough. In the end, I don't think he was happy. The nothingness that filled him, killed it off. Despite all of the riches, grandeur, and glamour they offer, I don't think creatures of darkness ever provide anyone with love, pleasure, or success. . ."
  "Happiness," the Terror said, directing its words to the Horror. "She's questioning our ability to provide joy. Prove her wrong. Show her the happiness we create."
  "I don't remember where we put it."
  "It must be on file somewhere. We must locate it!"
  With a click-clack of their claws, the Horror and Terror produced a bank of file cabinets from the void. They scrambled over and around each other, throwing papers from the cabinets to fall in chaotic jumble on the ground.
  "Check under 'H' for happiness."
  "Like I hadn't thought of the obvious. It's not there."
  "Maybe 'J' for joy."
  "Or 'E' for elation."
  "Perhaps 'P' for pleasure."
  " 'C' for cheer."
  " 'S' for sunshine-no, scratch that."
  "There's 'D' for delight or 'G' for gladness."
  "I'll search under 'R' for rapture and 'B' for bliss."
  The Fee-Faw-Fum watched them tumble over themselves, tapping its foot in irritation. "Why not try 'F'?"
  The Horror and the Terror stopped the commotion and looked at each other. "F?" the pair asked as one.
  When the Fee-Faw-Fum remained silent, the Terror said, "Oh, 'F' for fun times."
  "Of course! Why didn't I think of that, " the Horror replied and the two set to tearing things apart once more.
  The Fee-Faw-Fum observed them for a few minutes before it snapped and shouted, " 'F' IS FOR FOOLS! TIMES TWO, APPARENTLY! STOP! We don't have any happiness, you goofs! We only fool every body into thinking they're enjoying the high life. We tell people they're content, but if anyone asks for specifics, we can never directly point to their happiness."
  

  • List the times you have fallen victim to beastly promises. What hardships were encountered down the road?
  • Distinguish false happiness from the real variety. Give specific life examples.

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  Catalogue Information

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