My dear friends, we love you so very much,
You have heard us so many times saying, "Listen to your heart now. Live in the present. Find the love now." We realize that this is confusing to some. How can you desire a future, while also living now? The answer is not so difficult. If you feel in your heart right now, that there is something you want to create, then by all means, you are living now. You are loving a dream now. You are loving a solution now. The dream or solution may not be here yet in linear time, but you are loving it now. You are willing to work for it now. You are present to your own heart now.
Say you want to go on a vacation. The thought arises in your heart now. In the present, you take great joy in working a little more, knowing that you are saving money for your vacation.You take joy in the preparations. Your anticipation of the future becomes part of your joy now. You choose to lovingly work "outwardly" now to have what you want later. The thought of your future vacation fills your "now" with love and joy.
However, suppose you find no joy whatsoever in working overtime, but you still want that vacation. Drop into your heart. Dear God I want the vacation but I don't want to work more hours. I guess I will have to grow, surrender, and deepen my faith in your ability to bring this to me. I will have to trust in right timing. I choose to lovingly work "inwardly" now to have what I want.The thought of your vacation and the anticipation of the miracles that will create it bring you joy in the present.
If however you say, "I don't want to work harder! I don't want to wait for the miracle! I want it now! Why can't I have it now?! I will not be happy until I have what I want! I guess I'll give up!. I guess God doesn't care!" we would lovingly tease you that you are simply throwing a tantrum. If you refuse to be happy until you have something external, then dear ones, you are simply in resistance to the point and purpose of your life on earth, and that is indeed a source of suffering.
To suffer now for the sake of joy later makes no sense to us at all in the heavens. To work towards a greater goal with love is beautiful. To suffer now because you are in resistance to growing spiritually is also sad for us to watch because you came to this earth to grow. To choose joy now, confident in the Creator's ability to assist you in realizing your dreams, is to live as the angels do.
Here is another beautiful example. A gardener does not feel that tilling the soil and weeding the garden is "suffering." The gardener realizes that these exhausting and less-than-exciting efforts are a labor of love, part of the greater dream about what he or she is growing and will be harvesting in the future. The gardener chooses a bit of effort "now" as part of loving his or her dream.
If however, a gardener were to say, "I hate tilling the soil. I hate weeding. I despise the effort it takes to grow a garden," then we would say, "Perhaps you do not love the garden enough to be a gardener. Take a step back and see what is true. "Do you need rest before you can feel any enthusiasm as work at your garden? Would you rather work at something else and hire someone to garden for you, and just go out and pick the fruits of their labors? Would you rather admit that you don't want to garden at all and go to your local grocery store?" We would ask this suffering soul to take a step back, a step inward really, and find their truth in the moment.
Furthermore, a gardener knows that at a certain point, after all their efforts, they must surrender and wait for the dream to grow. They cannot control it; they can simply prepare and create wonderful conditions for their dream to grow. They must both prepare outwardly, and trust inwardly.
So when you have a goal, a dream you love, a challenge you would love to overcome, work lovingly towards its realization, either outwardly or inwardly. If however, you feel no love in your efforts whatsoever, take a step back and ask yourself, "Am I just being impatient? Am I in need of rest, balance, or a little reassurance and comfort from my angels? Am I need of a new way of going about this?"
If you don't know the answer, or cannot find your own heart, pray, "Dear God, dear angels, reveal my heart unto me. Show me my truth. What is the deepest truth within me? Do I really want my goal? Do I really want to go about it the way I am? Do I simply need rest or assistance?" Show me my heart. Then take a breath. Breathe deeply into your heart and listen to the truth you feel deep inside.
Your dreams are worthy of your attention and efforts. To the degree you believe in the Creator's infinite ability to assist you, they will come about with greater love, ease, and grace. Work may be required, but not struggle dear ones. Joy can be found in even the greatest efforts if they are truly labors of love.
God Bless You! We love you so very much.
-- The Angels
Message From Ann
I often joke that we live in a "fast food" society. I don't mind fast food and I'm not judging it, but the phrase seems to apply to how we live. It seems like many have become dependent on instant gratification. We've grown impatient, and therefore anxious. We want what we want here, now, immediately. While that is natural when we're excited about a dream, it is not natural to feel as if we've failed, God has failed, or life has failed if our dreams don't happen instantly. Nature has seasons. Fruit has to ripen. Rains have to fill the streams. Not everything was designed to happen instantly. It is beautiful and fun when it does, but some things are better when created over time.Sometimes we must grow into the person who can handle the dream we are dreaming.
When I was working 90 hours a week in engineering I wanted to quit and have a new career instantly! I wanted out of there! I wanted the pain and suffering of working so much to end. What I didn't realize is that I wasn't ready for my new career yet. I had to learn to bring love to the moment, to embrace the gifts of my present situation, to be a leader, to deal with diverse and often negative personalities, etc. Had I known how to do all that back then I would have had an instant change! But I didn't. I had to grow into the kind of person who could handle being self employed, working amidst the world's pain and grief on a daily basis, etc. It took time for me to ripen into the person who could handle the dream I was dreaming of a new and loving career. I had to grow spiritually, emotionally, professionally... Had I just dreamed of a different job I'm convinced that would have happened more quickly.
Likewise my dream of getting my work out to the world took time - a lot of time! Again I had to grow into the person who could handle being in public. I had to learn to love myself so when people wrote in with nasty attacks it would not cause me to shrivel into my shell and quit my work. I had to learn to love others enough to act with grace and dignity and to send love, in such cases. I had to learn that I was not a body so even when I didn't feel I looked so great I could get in front of a camera and share good material.
I have seen so many clients, who were terribly impatient, look back and realize they too had to "ripen" before ready for their dreams. Some had to learn to manage money before they made more. They would have given it all away and wasted it, had more come earlier. So many have to learn to love themselves before being in a relationship or even the best of relationships would have fallen apart in the face of the pain and neediness they carried inside. At times I've seen people who thought they wanted one thing, grow and figure out there was something deeper, richer, and more satisfying that they wanted – a woman who wanted a man to help her survive for example grew into a self-sufficient person who wanted true love. A man who wanted a woman just to keep him company found satisfaction in the company of friends and realized he wanted a real partner. Someone who wanted to create a job that they thought they "should" want realized they just wanted to work for someone else and rest outside of the 9-5 workday.
So when your dreams don't come right away, live now! Love the moment and work happily towards them or re-evaluate them to see if they're really what you want. When you really want something, its worth the growth, the work, the effort. But when struggle and misery are present, backup, go in and see what's in your heart, right here and right now. We all need little tune ups. We all need time for some dreams to ripen. Fast food is great, and so is instant gratification when its really gratifying. But sometimes, some dreams take time... As the angels like to say, "A slow simmer makes a savory stew."
So if you feel you are working hard at anything, take a step back and remind yourself.. I love what I'm working towards. And if you don't ask what you might love more.
... And I am laughing right now. I just looked at how long this article turned out to be. I guess it was worth the time and effort to read it if you are still with me! The angels are giggling too!
Love you all! Have a blessed week.
Ann