Are There Angels Around Us?

Anxiously awaiting to start my trip to Pennsylvania to visit my sister over the Labor Day weekend at the end of August 2008, I went upstairs to say goodbye to my cat, Blinken, as he lay on my bed ready to take his after breakfast nap. Stroking him gently, I told him that our friends, John and Joe, were coming over to take care of him. He looked at me, visibly upset that I was leaving and continued to groom himself, in preparation for his nap.

Three minutes later, my husband and I drove off, clueless to the fact that upon hearing the front door open, he'd ran out swiftly around the house and to the back yard while we were putting our luggage in the truck. A pleasant four-hour trip to my sister's was the prelude to a most enjoyable weekend. Little did I know of the trauma that awaited us upon our return.

Arriving home at midnight three days later, Blinken was nowhere to be found. Walking around the neighborhood and calling his name received no response. Standing in the backyard hoping for his return became a fruitless exercise. Crying myself to sleep I hoped that daylight in a few hours might find him safely back home. To my dismay next morning, he did not return.

Daily I prayed with renewed fervour. At night I tried to meditate but my grief was unbearable and all I could do was pray, calling upon God, my teachers, the saints, my guru--whichever source came to mind. Still no Blinken. Posters put up within a half mile radius elicited dozens of calls daily (and nightly, too) with us responding to each one as quickly as we could by foot or car to identify the cats in question--all to no avail.

Three weeks later, my husband said to me one night, "Did you hear that? It sounds like Blinken." I heard nothing except the noise of the television, which was definitely fairly loud. In any event, we both rushed out our back door, and there he was in the neighbor's yard, visibly hurt with one paw up in the air. Tears of joy streamed down my face as I gently called his name.

Unable to jump over the fence with a hurt leg, he just stood there. My husband jumped over the fence into our neighbor's yard hoping to hand him over to me. Scared by the sudden noise, Blinken scampered away on all three's and was not to be seen again for the ensuing days.

To have seen him hurt and not been able to bring him back into the house was emotional torture. Our hearts were breaking with grief and the feeling of helplessness. In a last frantic bid for Divine help I called to the Angels with the following prayer: "Not for my sake but for his, please lift up and bring my kitty over the fence so that we may care for him as otherwise he'll surely die." I started visualizing the Angels holding him and carrying him over the fence every day and night.

A week later, one morning at 6:30 a.m., we heard a cat crying at our back door. Rushing downstairs we barely opened the door when he just bolted in and began kissing us, stroking us, and eating hungrily. He had lost tremendous weight and a lot of his hair. His left front leg was badly injured. Yet, on all three's, despite his pain, he ran around the house excitedly, just happy to be home. This was, however, only the beginning of another chapter of challenges.

Four months later, and three major surgeries--during the last of which he lost his leg--Blinken's home was a cage. It was critical for his recuperation after his surgeries, but to witness his pain and sadness, both physical and emotional, was unbearable. Yet, I kept visualizing the Angels surrounding him with their light, whether at home or at the hospital. Incredibly, he managed, despite his weakened immune system and having been near total starvation, to recuperate and become stronger. During my visits to him at the veterinary hospital, I would continue to do the visualizing technique with the Angels not only surrounding him with light, but also the other animals. Miraculously, one particular newborn kitten who was being kept in an incubator and being fed with a dropper suddenly started walking towards a dish with soft food and started eating. Everyone was amazed since the prognosis had been glum--the kitten had been too weak to even move or eat anything solid and had been given very little hope, if any, of survival.

At his last check-up in February, this year, his doctor commented on Blinken's resilience and his amazing recovery considering he'd lost almost half his weight, lots of his hair, and was quite dehydrated when he first came home. He said to me, "It's a miracle that he's even alive after all that he's been through. He's quite a trooper." I replied, "Yes, it is a miracle, the Angels have been looking after him." Doc replied, "They certainly have!"

What's Is The "End Times"/ 2012?

For many years now there's been a lot said and written about "The End Times" and the year 2012. For some people, it carries a biblical mandate and thus is shrouded in much mystery and mayhem, producing all sorts of fears. For others it signifies some prophetic and magical time of new beginnings when everything on the Earth changes--no more wars, famine.... Each carries some semblance of truth in that if we look at it from a Biblical standpoint yes, it is a time of great upheaval and chaos as we experiencing right now. If we look at it from the standpoint of the optimists, it could be a 'magical' time. However, the keys to understanding this whole thing lie in the words 'end' and 'new beginnings' and 'changes--almost a blending of both interpretations.

There cannot be a beginning without an end and with all new beginnings things have to change in order to move with the 'currents' of change. In fact, things have to change or else there cannot be a new beginning. They are all interdependent and interlocking components.

As we look at our world today, one cannot but look forward to 2012 if even for the paltry thought that "hopefully it'll be better." But what exactly does 2012 mean for humanity as a whole? It means there is going to be a shift in conscious awareness on this planet, almost akin to some sort of 'evolutionary jump.' It is through man's evolving conscious awareness that he has survived and thrived for millions of years on planet Earth. And it is ONLY through an 'evolutionary jump' in his thinking that he will be able to withstand and thrive in this new era.

It is sad and disturbing that after all our technological prowess we still act with almost primitive instinct in our insatiable thirst for dominance in every arena of life. Today's news is replete with war, greed, crime, suffering, nuclear threat, economic chaos.... Why hasn't anything changed much over the ages? Because our thinking has not aged with the ages, therefore, our behavior has remained the same at its core.

The shifting cosmic energies are forcing us to go 'within', to search within ourselves for the answers now as we come to terms with the fact that there is no vengeful god who's out to get us or who stirs up trouble for this world, but that we are all in it and all responsible for what has happened and what may continue to happen unless we change and change rapidly. Time is swiftly running out so it is critical for us to make a quantum leap in our bid to 'change with the changing times.'

How? By practicing right thinking, setting powerful intentions for a better world, trusting in our innate, superhuman abilities to set powerful visualizations in motion to create/manifest what type of world environment we want and also trusting that our efforts will have the powerful cosmic backing that it needs to bring it into a physical reality. We cannot lose a moment anymore.

For those of us who wish to be the pioneers of this new era on Earth, let us start now, this very moment, by practicing deep breathing as we visualize our ideal environment, ideal life, our ideal world, and set powerful intentions that it will be so--"I intend that my life, the lives of my family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, community members, countrymen, and world family will be positively changed, bringing in peace, harmony, joy, abundance, good health and prosperity for all." "And So It Is."

Let us do this as often as we can on a daily basis for we are the ones called upon to spearhead this change. It is our duty and our calling, having nothing to do with our vocation or religious backgroud--or lack of one. It is a concerted effort to help bring out a positive change in a world that desperately needs one, and it is to our own benefit that we do this for whether we believe it or not, we are each an integral part of that great web of life, and our interconnectedness and interdependence is finally being proven to us in a way that truly hits hard--the threatened collapse of our global economy and of a false consumer-driven security.

Anger, Our Great Adversary

My spiritual teacher once showed me several pictures taken of various individuals using Kurlian photography. I was amazed to see not only the fascinating colors and combinations thereof, but also shocked to see the energy patterns that surrounded an angry person. The shapes were those of pointed daggers shooting out from around that person in all and every direction. Observing my reaction, my teacher, a dear sweet lady, wise and angelic, said to me, "Do you see why it is detrimental to anyone to hold on to anger, even if he feels it is justified? Just look at the tremendous amounts of negative energy that's being expelled outwardly."

I thought about this for a moment and realized that if so much energy was being expelled, then it must surely mean that now that person would be experiencing a great loss of energy to his own body. Would that not be detrimental to that person's health?, I asked. My teacher replied, "and to the person on the receiving end, also!" She further explained that certain vital organs in our bodies were directly affected by our different emotions, cautioning that sustained emotions like anger could cause life threatening disease to the corresponding organ.

Recently, listening to a lecture in Montreal, Canada, the teacher made a remark that was even more shocking. She said, "Anger kills cats." For those of us who love our pets so dearly, beware, for I've actually witnessed this type of scenario. It had been eighteen years before since I had seen those pictures, but the words of this teacher brought back vivid memories of the ugly and most disturbing auric field of one very angry man.

Interestingly, my spiritual teacher's auric field was absolutely gorgeous, extending very far outward, but especially so over her head, in stark contrast to that of an envious woman that had the color of a dirty green, while the photograph of an oversexed man was the dirtiest, dullest red ever! I remember a massage therapist/energetic healer once saying to me that the body doesn't lie. I will add to that that the aura doesn't lie either!

Taking this on another broader level, just think of the millions of angry people who inhabit our globe, in addition to the countless others (including some of us) who get angry ever so often or even once in a while--what potent, destructive energy this is for humanity, for the earth, for the animals, plants, the mineral kingdom.... Are we not even upsetting the Earth's energetic fields as we collectively send these powerful, negative energy blasts?

Worse off than those who are the recipients of the negative energy of anger are the ones who are delivering it. How so? Because "Anger, like acid, destroys more the vessel that contains it than that upon which it is poured."

Peace, the Triumph of Principles

To experience peace in a world fraught with strife seems almost impossible. Yet, the broader application of principles is the key to such experience, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted: "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."

What are the broader principles? Honesty, Compassion, Humility, Tolerance, Forgiveness, Justice, Charity and Gratitude , even the lesser known ones like Continence and Equanimity--none of which are anything but liberating and add meaning to our lives. Let us not be deluded, however, for as meaning-seeking creatures, these principles can have either an uplifting effect as they operate in our lives or we can find ourselves thrust into the deep, dark abyss of despair or depression, feeling that we have no reason for living.

How? Just as health principles guide us on the path of nutrition with the objective of disease prevention; principles of law protect our rights as citizens and safeguard our society; and scientific principles furthers research and provides a clearer understanding of the natural world, so, too, do spiritual principles guide our lives--or they should. In a sense, we are therefore all spiritual seekers.

Regardless of our personal beliefs, or lack of any, one thing we can agree on--our modern economy does not satisfy our wants but works incessantly to create new ones. Many serve useful purposes; however, if we worship money, things and power and regard them as barometers with which to gauge what constitutes a meaningful life, we will never have enough. For example, worship power and you will feel weak and afraid, thus needing more and more power over others to keep your fear under control. Worship your intellect and you will be thrust in the unfortunate position of being fearful of being exposed as a fraud, for as brilliant as you think you are, no one knows everything about anything.

In conclusion, the triumph of principles is what really makes for a triumphant life!

To your self-discovery and growth.
Ischalea