Learning to Speak “Spirit”

Little did I know while delivering a keynote address at last year’s annual IANDS conference that a spirit I had brought through in a reading was trying to get the attention of a woman in the audience.  I recently received an email from that audience member, “Nancy.”  It had taken Nancy six months to get up the nerve to contact me and tell me that the spirit who was the subject of the story I was sharing at that point in my speech had an important message for the husband she left behind.  The spirit had given me plenty of good evidence and relevant messages during our reading, but I learned from Nancy that she was unable to get one very important message through.  She chose someone in the audience who could see her and understand the point she was trying to make by pointing repeatedly at her throat.  Nancy intuitively understood the issue had to do with hypothyroidism, a disease which affected her mentally and resulted in the spirit making some poor choices while in human form.  This was later confirmed by the spirit’s husband.

I felt a bit of very human inadequacy for a short while as I wondered why I wasn’t able to pick up on this critical bit of evidence and Nancy was.  The next day, Sanaya gave us a beautiful message about each of us being like musicians in an orchestra.  We play our instrument to the best of our ability, but each has its limits.  It takes a variety of instruments to produce a beautiful symphony.  That message helped me to once again appreciate whatever Spirit is able to get through me to serve others the best I am able.

Still, I admit to being envious that the woman in the audience actually saw the spirit standing in front of her.  After seven years of connecting with those on the other side, I have yet to see them objectively.  There have only been three times that I have seen a wispy appearance with eyes open, and even those blessed visions were fleeting and oh so subtle.  Instead, they make their presence known through words, thoughts, and images in my mind’s eye.  “Why can’t I see you?” I have asked our spirit friends quite often.  My work as a medium would be so much easier if I could behold directly before me those who come through.

I asked this question again yesterday, and received an answer that fully satisfies me.  Finally, I get it:  If I had suddenly been able to see clearly through the veil from the beginning of my work as a medium, I might not have felt the urge to dive head first into an all-encompassing search for knowledge and awareness of the spirit world and things of the Spirit.

My guides used the analogy of learning a foreign language.  Suppose you suddenly acquired the ability to speak Japanese fluently and to read the foreign characters with ease, even though you had never set foot in Japan or met a Japanese person.  Word gets out about your amazing fluency, and you are immediately hired as an interpreter and translator.  You jump right into the job and are so good at what you do, that you spend the rest of your life translating and interpreting the written and spoken word for others.  You are praised by those you serve for your efforts.  There is no need to ever visit Japan.  There is no need to study the culture, taste the food, learn the history …

Are you beginning to get the picture?

I understand now that had I suddenly been given the ability to see spirits objectively, hear them with perfect clarity, and sense every minute detail about those who wanted to make their presence known, I would have jumped right into being a medium and perhaps never gone any farther than serving as an interpreter for those in spirit.  I might not have devoted myself so entirely to meditating, to learning more about the spirit world, to working on my own issues to raise my consciousness for better attunement.  As a result, I might never have visited the other side in a series of awe-inspiring out of body experiences that changed me forever.  I might never have asked to know what divine love is, what the true nature of God is, and all those other deep questions that led me to the beautiful place of joy, peace, and love that I now enjoy every day.

There is such perfection in our challenges.  May these words help you to take another look at why something you have been striving to achieve may not yet have unfolded for you.  May you appreciate even more exactly where you are right now on this beautiful path of rediscovering who we are and why we’re here.