Author: Barbara Thomas

Visiting the Beautiful Cathedral in Reims France, famous for a stained glass window by Marc Chagall and the smiling angels carved outside the entrance, Mother Mary revealed a secret to me as I stood in front of her statue. I almost felt the smiling angel winked at me and told me, “Treasure Mother Mary’s secret and wrap your life around it.”

Mano says, “Since everyone has a Divine Plan for their life, everyone has been given a Guardian Angel and Elemental Master guiding them to fulfill that Plan.”

When I was in college the minister in my church gave a sermon that impressed me at the time and has stayed in my consciousness all of these years. This past week Mano had a serious talk with me by putting thoughts in my mind for me to ponder and think about.

The original sermon took place in London, England. There was a ‘street box orator,’ a small man, poorly dressed, standing on a wooden box so he could be seen over the heads of the people walking on the sidewalk.

I have had friends who could see into the spiritual dimension of life, seeing angels and elementals with their inner vision. I wish it were true for me, but this is not my gift. For those of us who are not naturally gifted with obvious ability to see into the non-physical world, it takes time, heart, and consistent effort to make the connection. It takes willingness to honor what we receive and build our own way of relating.I have had friends who could see into the spiritual dimension of life, seeing angels and elementals with their inner vision. I wish it were true for me, but this is not my gift. For those of us who are not naturally gifted with obvious ability to see into the non-physical world, it takes time, heart, and consistent effort to make the connection. It takes willingness to honor what we receive and build our own way of relating.

Lake Tahoe was amazingly beautiful. I spent many hours looking over the wide expanse of water to the trees and mountain across the lake.

When I got home, I continued my project of organizing my den and bookshelves. I opened The Real World of Fairies by Dora van Gelder at random to a page where she describes her experience of the LANDSCAPE ANGEL. Mano gave me a flash of awareness that the blessing I felt looking across Lake Tahoe to the forest beyond was the LANDSCAPE ANGELS blessing me all the time I sat in reverie looking over the lake at the landscape.

Every morning I do a three card Tarot Spread for guidance and communication with my Spiritual Council. I have been getting the Struggle Tarot card at least three times a week for the past few months. Something is going on and I don’t know what it is….yet. Mano says it is a part of the grand adventure I have been on since the night my dear husband Jim died. I stayed with him for a while after his spirit left and when I went back to bed I heard a challenging, audible voice say, “Will the Real Barbara Thomas please step forward?”

The “Choose Love” title comes from Australian Michael Roads, who ends his talk with this encouragement: in every situation, every confrontation, consciously choose love (and that would be unconditional love—the only real kind, he says). He tells about learning to garden as a boy in England and visiting a 90-year-old woman in a cottage with a high wall in back that virtually blocked all sunlight. Nonetheless, the plants in her garden were blossoming wildly, in a proliferation that should not have been possible. He knew that these particular plants absolutely required sun and couldn’t figure out what was going on—until he had an idea and asked his elderly friend: “Do you love your garden?” “Yes!” she exclaimed, “I love my plants.” He understood then that she was the sun in her garden, and that her love for the plants allowed a bending of the rules.

I start this Blog by referring back to one of Mary Jane’s entries years ago:
“In 2005, I started doing small retreats at Barbara’s guest cottage, spending hours in the Amphitheater alone, in the rain, early in the morning, at night, sitting in tree hollows, gazing, longing, doing my best to honor the energy I felt there. I have always wanted to see angels and elementals, and I knew this must be one of their portals. I had also formed a belief through the years that such clairvoyance or “second sight” was not my gift or my task in this lifetime. Nevertheless, this belief did not keep me from feeling a sense of loss that I had no palpable access to the extrasensory realms I have solidly supported for so long.”

Yesterday after a complicated process of emptying a container of kitchen scraps into the compost pile Mano asked me, two times, to tell you about my experience in this June Blog.

In my recovery and healing strengthening process I walk in the yard with a walker that has a seat that serves as a shelf to hold the container full of food scraps. My compost bin is in my yard a short distance from my house. Someone had parked a truck in such a way that I could not get the scooter around it to reach the compost pile.