Watching children play is such a pleasure. I’m intrigued by their imagination, the crayon images which so clearly make sense in their eyes, and imaginary conversations between inanimate objects (like the salt and pepper pots) which never fails to make me smile. I love the honesty of children too, they say things as they see them, and never let anyone get away with anything they deem to be unfair or dishonest, especially when they see it in adults. But its the sense of humour and fun I love to watch. The delight in their eyes and the instant laughter at what only a young heart finds amusing. Oh to be able to tune in to that innocence on a regular basis. Well, why not?
In my workshops, as part of an exercise to find out how best to connect with the angelic realms I often ask people to think of a vivid memory. Then having brought the memory fully into mind I ask them to ‘see’ it as clearly as possible. I ask them to listen, to register if they remember the sounds, or any smells, what they were wearing, and how did the feel inside. By hooking in to a vivid memory we use our ‘imaginal’ self. We are connecting to the most active of our senses, and at the same time connecting to the deeper spiritual senses too. Those aspects and senses that are the most memorable parts of our experience and are the easiest to remember are the same ones we are most likely to use when we ‘tune in’ to the angels. So if the colours are bright in our memory, or the smells strong, the sounds clearly remembered, we can look to these as the way to recognise signs of the presence of angels or messages from your angelic helpers. This little exercise, as well as being pleasurable and raising your spirits, gives you a clearer indication as to whether or not you are clairvoyant (messages are ‘seen’), clairaudient (heard), empathic (felt inwardly) or clairsentient (felt as physical sensations). Some people have a very strong sense of one. Others might have more. It doesn’t matter as there are no rules, its just an interesting way of making the step from thinking you can’t communicate with angels, to realising you can.
For me it is easy to remember happy occasions from childhood as I was blessed – like many of my generation – with such a lot of freedom. In this exercise it is always the same favourite vivid memory of running through the fields in Kirkby Lonsdale in the Lake District, with arms filled with freshly picked wild daffodils. Farmers would put signs out offering ‘Pick your own Daffodils – 2/6’ (which was about 12p – for those of you who don’t remember ‘old’ money!) It was my birthday treat and I’d be wearing a stiffly petticoated party dress (which was slightly too small and rubbed under my arms), ankle socks and sandals. It didn’t matter that the ‘juice’ from the stems (which I can clearly still smell if I try) dripped onto my blue frock as I ran around picking more and more of these gorgeous, vibrant yellow, fragrant happy blooms!
In our hugely complicated world, our adult lives are filled with the enormity of responsibility that we all face not only in our own domestic lives, but nationally -especially when changing governments, and even globally when we see our fellow human beings in crisis. Stress created by too much pressure seems to be the most common complaint in our society. There is so much ‘heaviness’, so much to make us feel tired, and worn down – even worn out if we allow that to happen. Here’s a little thought on how we can ‘lighten up’.
Wouldn’t it be a great idea to build in a practice of returning to our child-within on a regular basis. if were able to re-connect with our inner child more often think of how uplifting that would be. Lets give our selves permission right now to laugh and play, engage with the joy, use our imagination more often, and return to an innocence of trust. A child mostly lives in the moment, feels and expresses everything in ‘the now’ seeing only how things affect them with little thought of the next day (other than the excitement of where they are going and what they will do). We cannot possibly move into adult life without letting go of some of those child-like traits of course, but think how powerful it is to be in one moment at a time.
Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now was an international best seller and certainly changed opinions and life-style for many.
So as much as I enjoy the pleasure of watching my grandchildren as they grow and develop, I’m also going to make room in my life for revisiting the child-within even more often than I already do. I’m going to make time for playing in my garden, laughing with friends, I might even go off and find a beach and paddle! I’m making time for enjoying the moment, being more in the now … oh yes, and picking more flowers!
