Episode 22: Mayoral Update and a Discussion about Beliefs and the Power of "What If"

Welcome the Carousel of Happiness Podcast.

On today's episode, we celebrate a peaceful transition of power at the Carousel of Happiness. Madam Piglet Eunice Stardust becomes the 2025 Mayor of the Carousel. We hear details about the election, Allie shares an idea in a book she read on vacation, and we'll explore the power of asking the question "what if?"

Want to hear more about Ron Francis? Check out the Peace, Love and Moto Podcast. 

The Carousel of Happiness is a nonprofit arts & culture organization dedicated to inspiring happiness, well-being, and service to others through stories and experiences.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider visiting the Carousel of Happiness online (https://carouselofhappiness.org/), on social media (https://www.facebook.com/carouselofhappiness), or in real life; or consider donating (https://carouselofhappiness.app.neoncrm.com/forms/general-donation) to keep the carousel and its message alive and spinning 'round and 'round.

If you have a story to share, please reach out to Allie Wagner at outreach@carouselofhappiness.org

Special thanks to songwriter, performer, and friend of the carousel, Darryl Purpose (https://darrylpurpose.com/), for sharing his song, "Next Time Around," as our theme song.

Transcript

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast. I’m your host, Allie Wagner. 

It is my pleasure to announce that on Monday, May 26, 2025 at precisely 7:32 in the morning there was a peaceful transition of power between Mayor Gerald Jeremiah Giraffe and Mayor-Elect Madame Piglet Eunice Stardust. 

The ceremony was tasteful and uplifting. Camel sang a breathtaking rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and as the last few bars of the song lingered in the air of the carousel house, the Bear Bench presented his famous election monkey bread, which was enjoyed by everyone except the Orangutans who have repeatedly explained that they abstain from eating monkey bread out of respect for their primate brethren. Ostrich tried one last time to explain to them that there weren’t actually monkeys in it, but Dog started barking loudly at a passing garbage truck because that was the easiest way to distract everyone in order to sneak another piece of bread for himself from on top of the counter.

Miss Piggy finally addressed the carousel house from the center of the circle. Her delivery was passionate and steady. She might have had a slow start this election season, but it was clear from her speech yesterday, she had momentum. The wind was in her sails or the wind was beneath her wings or whatever wind-friendly phrase you’d like to use, my gosh, it’s been so windy here it’s all I can do but think about the wind…I digress…

Anyway. Missy Piggy announced some key appointments for her administration yesterday. Dragon will be serving as the Vice Mayor during Pig’s term, a key indication of her commitment to inter-species governance. Miss Piggy praised Dragon as a thoughtful public servant who will use their talons and their talents to protect the carousel’s most precious treasures –  joy, well-being, and love. 

The tenderhearted Lion will be the newly appointed Minister of Empathy, having rejected Madame Pig’s original appointment to be the Minister of Defense. In a statement from the Lion’s Pride, Lion confessed that while he was, in fact, given some courage by some guy behind a curtain once, he wasn’t entirely certain he had enough of it for such a position. His conscientious objector paperwork was approved by the Porcine Administration and Camel will serve in his stead, promising to eliminate the organization entirely.

Madam Pig specifically thanked her adopters, Larry and Jane McGrath, for their unconditional belief in her. The truth is, she was really down in the polls just over a week ago, but Larry and Jane believed in our sweet pig. They believed in what was possible. They believed in their own ability to impact and inspire others. They believed, despite what people say, that pigs can fly. 

And fly, she did. In the last week of the election alone, Pig soared above both Lion and Dragon to capture a record-breaking 1,627 votes. Larry and Jane’s generous donation match inspired 632 other votes for Pig in the last week alone. But the surge of votes for Pig also inspired a bit of a Dragon bump, with Dragon coming in a sneaky second with 632 votes and our tender Lion, the new Minister of Empathy, rounding third with 560 votes. That means, as a result of the McGraths’ generosity and your own, the carousel raised $2,819 during this election campaign. Thank you. All of the money raised goes directly back into the carousel to help keep us spinning. 

Big thank you to Ron and Karen Francis of the Peace, Love, and Moto Podcast who signed up to be campaign partners for Pig at the $250 level last week. I had the pleasure of meeting Ron Francis at the carousel’s Memorial Day service yesterday, and you’ll be hearing more about him in the future on the podcast. He is a motorcycle rider and tour guide, whose podcast, Peace, Love, and Moto, promotes mindful motorcycling, the benefits of connecting with Mother Nature while on the bike, and the joy of riding with a purpose. 

On last week’s episode, you heard the story of Pat Craig and the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado. You learned about the captive wildlife crisis, and how a thing called compassionate empathy can change the world. As a result of Pat’s work over the last 45 years, he created the oldest and largest animal sanctuary in the world. Over 950 lions, tigers, bears, and other exotic animals have their forever home on 30,000 pristine acres in the state of Colorado thanks to Pat and his team. 

On today’s episode, we’re going to play pretend. We’re going to use our imaginations. I’m going to tell you about a book I read on vacation and how it has changed my relationship with my thoughts. We’re going to explore the self-cleaning nature of the mind and what is possible when you ask the question, “What If?” 

Let us begin with today’s story.

GONG

One of the books I brought with me on my trip is called The Nature of Personal Reality written in 1974 by Jane Roberts. Jane Roberts was an author and a poet who, on one September evening in 1963, reportedly experienced a download, a transmission, of information from a voice she recognized as not her own. Over the course of the next 20 years, until her death in 1984, Jane would find a trancelike state and channel this voice, later named “Seth,” and go on to write ten metaphysical books about life, death, god, and other elements of the human experience.

If you’ve heard the phrase “you create your reality” or you’re aware of the fact that your thoughts and beliefs influence and shape your life’s experience, then you have heard of Jane’s work.

Or, more likely, you’ve heard these ideas from people like Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, or Louise Hay who have all been influenced by Jane and Seth to varying degrees.

And, let’s pretend for a moment that it’s “true.” That the concepts in that book are true despite the unusual nature in which they arrived on the page.

Remember, we’re playing pretend today, friend. What if it’s true? 

I read in this book that, when left alone, your conscious mind will flow through thoughts and images that provide its own therapy. According to Seth, your conscious mind, just like your body, is self-healing. When confronted with a challenging situation, your mind will run through thoughts or memories or ideas in a specific sequence so that it might heal whatever ails you. 

What if it’s true?

What if it’s true that we have everything we need to heal ourselves? What if it’s true that our natural state of being is one of well-being? What if it’s true that our thoughts and beliefs are directly connected to our external reality and, if we change those, we can change our lives?

Where did Scott’s idea of a carousel in a mountain meadow come from exactly? As we’ve mentioned before on the podcast, Scott didn’t have a carousel connection before Vietnam. He wasn’t a “carousel guy.” He didn’t have a childhood memory of being on carousels. He was, essentially, “carousel neutral” up until the point that the image came to his mind. In the middle of a battlefield. Half a world away from the nearest carousel.

Why? What if Scott’s conscious mind, in that moment, was providing him with something it thought could help? What if Scott’s conscious mind, in that moment, was helping him heal? Either by protecting him from what he was seeing on the battlefield in real time or by inspiring the cure twenty years before he would ever carve his very animal.

What if it’s true?

I read in a book about herbalism once that, in nature, poisonous plants often grow in the vicinity of their antidotes. For example, in parts of the East Coast, poison ivy generally grows next to a plant called jewelweed, which is a natural remedy for poison ivy rashes. And there’s something about that idea that I’ve held onto all these years. The idea that when nature knows it’s going to serve up something nasty, it always offers the medicine nearby. 

What if the same thing is true for you? What if it’s true for me? What if, when Mama Nature or god or Source or science or All That Is serves up a big plate of sickness She also gives you a side order of the medicine? 

What if that awful thing that happened or that terrible loss came with it your life’s greatest gift or your biggest win? What if the two were a packaged deal?

What if your greatest weakness comes with your greatest strength? What if you, just like everything else in nature, are intentional? What if there’s a plan? What if there’s a point?

What if you were precisely made, just as you are, with intention and without mistake? What if within you possess both the toxin and the antidote? The poison and the cure?

I love the idea that my conscious mind is self-healing, which is why I choose to believe it is true. But just because something is true for me, doesn’t mean it’s true for you. And, we’re both right.

One of my greatest teachers, Esther Hicks, was also inspired by Jane Roberts. And she compares life to a buffet. Every idea or experience or opportunity or belief is laid out before us like a buffet. And we get to decide what we put on our plates. We get to decide how the foods are laid out, whether or not they touch each other or all smushed together, that sort of thing. 

And, really, in life, that’s what we should be doing, is figuring out what we want to put on our plates based on what makes us the happiest. But because we are silly human beings, we often spend more time looking at what everyone else has on their plate and having opinions about that, rather than focusing on our own plate.

Did I lose you in my all-you-can-eat metaphor?

What if life were easy? What if you were worthy? What if you were self-healing?

What if your thoughts and beliefs create your reality? What if the contents of your insides were reflected to you on the outside? 

What if whatever you believe was, in fact, true?

What would you choose to believe?

I’ve been paying extra attention to my thoughts since I read that passage, noticing when I daydream and what I daydream about. What matters to me? What stories do I tell myself? How do those stories make me feel? What connections can I make between the thoughts in my mind and the details of my life?

And for those tender areas of my life, where am I being pointed toward to cure? Where is the medicine? Because, if I choose to believe it, I know that wherever there’s a pain, there’s also a remedy.

What about you? Can you give yourself permission this week to daydream? Can you allow yourself some space to do a little bit of mental house cleaning? Can you listen to your thoughts and notice how they’re impacting your life? 

If you notice anything interesting, shoot me a note. Leave me a message. Stop by the carousel.

In the meantime, take care. Be well. And, as we like to say at the Carousel of Happiness, “don’t delay joy.” And we’ll see you next time around.