For several weeks now, Spirit has been whispering in my ear to write about “listen to the
children” but twice, at the last minute, for the last several newsletters, this topic was exchanged for another. This week, I am allowed to proceed and even as I begin to write, I am not quite sure what the entire message will be that they want to bring forward. It seems most appropriate though, that I began the writing for this week on a day when we commemorate love – Valentine’s Day. For what better as an expression of love than a beautiful child?
Reconnecting with the Child Within – Find the Love
Perhaps that’s where this message begins. Spirit wants to so desperately remind us that as Children of the Divine, we come from love and are so dearly loved by God/Source/the Creator and all of those in the spiritual realm. Just as we see that beautiful loving soul in children, we are asked to see that same loving soul within ourselves. For deep down in our core we are just that, pure love. On certain days, some of us may feel we have to dig deeper than others to find that love, but it is there – always has been, always will be.
Archangel Michael is stepping forward to help us release all the blocks to securing that love within ourselves. He can help us release the pain of harm, abandonment, lack of self worth, and judgement, to find the love within. Archangel Ariel is with him helping us to find our inner strength to release the blocks to finding who we really are, pure love. It is through this love that we can best serve the children.
Release the Fear
In rediscovering ourselves, we can learn from the children who approach life with innocent curiosity and confidence. Have you ever observed a child taking their first few steps on their own? Their smile can’t get any bigger as they teeter precariously, and then, with the loving encouragement of a parent, they victoriously take one step forward and then another – “baby steps” until they have reached the parent’s loving outstretched arms. We only see fear stopping the child when an outside influence – an older sibling or adult – cautions them or stops them for fear they might not succeed, that they might fall. What if that fear stopped the child from ever learning to walk – what if it was literally paralyzing? What if our fear robs us of our innocent curiosity and confidence? What if it paralyzes us and we never move forward? What if it stops us from removing those blocks to reuniting with our beautiful inner self? Does that sound familiar? If so, can you take a deep breath and reach out to that loving parent, allow Archangels Ariel and Michael to help you step aside from the fear and connect with the love? Allow them to help you re-engage with your curiosity and find your confidence.
Just as we need to let go of our fears in life, we can also help the children in our lives be less fearful, less guilt ridden. As we negotiate our own fears, we can be mindful of what we consciously or subconsciously download onto the children. This means not only our own children, nieces, nephews, or grandchildren but also perhaps those we encounter in our work or social environments. How often do children hear, “Don’t do that because you might get hurt”, or “Mommy/daddy will get upset.” Do you recognize the fear or guilt-based concepts and language? As adults, although we are surely well intentioned, our language is often aligned with fear or guilt as a motivator. Although it is not likely our intent, we want to avoid fear limiting our children. Instead, we want to help them soar! We can examine our own fears and work through them with assistance if needed. In the meantime, we can change our language. We also want to acknowledge that any fear a child is experiencing is real. We want to gain an understanding of where the fear comes from. Then, we can refocus the child on actions that lead to more positive outcomes. We can perhaps explain how to approach things differently so that the fearful outcome can be avoided or minimized. No one deserves to live in fear, especially not a child.
Curiosity and Connection
One of the most beautiful words from a child is “Why?” As they exercise their curiosity, they are open to learning so much about the world around them. In younger children especially, some of the “why” may come from the incongruencies between what they see in the world around them and the world of Spirit they have come from. Children especially under the age of 7, remember the other side of the veil. Depending on their life path and their environment, some retain some of those memories and knowing while others have it slowly erased by those around them. As children learn and grow, we can listen to their curiosity behind the “why” and help them merge their two worlds. In doing so, we may need to discover, remember, or examine our own spiritual origins, beliefs, and gifts.
As I write this, I recall my son’s innocent question to me on his first day of school as he eagerly waited at my side for the morning bell to ring. Looking at another child clinging to his mother’s leg, my son asked, “Mommy, why is that boy crying?” I responded that it looked like the little boy was afraid to leave his mom to go into the school. My son’s next question was “Why?” When I answered that perhaps the little boy didn’t know anyone at the school, my son dropped my hand and started to walk over to the little boy saying, “I can be his friend.” Proudly I followed him. After brief introductions, the bell rang, and the little boy ventured into the school with my son. Throughout elementary school the boys remained friends with my son always by the little boy’s side when he struggled with new experiences. Although they lost track of each other in junior high, my son reencountered the boy in high school when he heard that the boy had left home and spent the previous night sleeping under a tree in a friend’s yard. That day my son brought the boy home with him. The boy stayed with us for a few days until, with the assistance of a social agency, things could be sorted out for him at home. After that, the boys lost track of each other again but a year later they reconnected, and the boy was doing well and thanked my son again for being there for him. Looking back, I know this was one of my son’s earliest experiences in integrating his gift of being an Empath into this world.
Do you recall your childhood and what might have been deleted from your world as you grew
older? Did you have an “imaginary friend” that parents at the very best, tolerated with amused smiles, and at the worst, told you “Don’t be silly” as no such friend existed? How different would your life have been if you knew your imaginary friend was in fact a real angel or fairy there to help and guide you? Might you even now find them handy to connect with when faced with some of life’s challenges? Have you been fortunate enough to hear or see them again? They have always been with you but out of fear, guilt, or ridicule, we often “turn off’ our ability to connect to Spirit, then face the challenge of relearning that skill when inspired to do so as an adult.
Children, especially young children, still see their angels, guides, fairies, dragons, ancestors, etc. In my own life, I have seen many, many newborns watching, following with their eyes, and even smiling at someone or something hovering above them that I couldn’t see. Somehow, I knew though, as I watched them smile in delight, that contrary to a common belief, it was not “just gas.” Now, as my spiritual awareness has grown, when my infant grand daughter looks wide eyed into the space above my head and smiles as she is lying in my arms, I can “see” the huge, beautiful guardian angel towering over us. As my four-year-old grand daughter tells me matter-of-factly about her fairies that live under her bed, I believe her nodding in agreement, knowing that is why she sleeps better at night.
Children also remember who they have met on the other side. They recognize people from their soul group/ from past lives. I’ll never forget our surprise when one day, as a two-year-old, my youngest daughter walked over to a picture of my father who had passed away before she was born, and turned to my husband and I exclaiming “Papa!” as she pointed to the picture. Neither my husband or I, nor her two older sisters had even mentioned who that was in the picture to her. She also used to sit on my husband’s lap with her hands overlapping each other on the table just as my father used to sit. To me, she had definitely spent time with my father on the other side!
What other memories do children bring with them from the other side? Have you heard of or seen what we have labelled “child prodigies?” This label means “a highly talented child or youth (Miriam-Webster Dictionary – Prodigy) or “a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert” (Wikipedia – Child prodigy) or “ a child who, by about age 10, performs at the level of a highly trained adult in a particular sphere of activity or knowledge. In this sense, neither high intelligence nor eccentric skills by themselves qualify a child as a prodigy. Rather, it is the capacity to perform in a recognized area of endeavour in such a way as to receive broad acclaim that defines the prodigy.” (Britannica - Prodigy). Whatever the definition, the young child possesses these skills, knowledge, or ability innately – perhaps retrieving them from the memory of a past life or their capabilities that rest within their soul when fully expressed on the other side.
Do you know children who remember where they have come from? How have you responded? How have you helped them keep that connection alive? How do you respond to their “why?” Do you try to see and understand their perspective? Can you retrieve your sense of curiosity as you converse with them? When you remain open to seeing the world though their eyes, you may gain beautiful insights into your own life. We can listen as they explore this side of the veil, and we can help them keep their connection to the other side intact. We can help them stay connected to themselves as a spiritual being, while helping them navigate their lessons, and fostering their dreams.
Feel the Joy
Have you ever found yourself uncontrollably breaking into a big grin when you hear squeals of delight and contagious laughter from children? They certainly know how to live in and experience pure joy. To me, one of the most precious sounds in life is that of a child’s laughter. You can feel your heart opening at least a little bit as your soul recognizes the sound of joy. We are all here to experience joy. Yes, we are here on this planet in this lifetime to learn and grow BUT we are also meant to live a joyful life. As Children of the Divine, we are entitled to live in joy. Children remember and bring forward the joy of living in love on the other side. We can listen to the sound of that joy with an open heart and allow ourselves to feel it as well.
Since we have freedom of choice, we can choose to let joy in and see the world through the
eyes of a child. We can see the beauty they see in the simplest things. To a child, what we might call an annoying weed, they see as a beautiful yellow flower that changes into a magical fluff ball breaking and taking flight when they gently blow on it. We can take a few minutes to giggle with them as they make up words to converse with favourite toys or we can decide we are too busy and turn towards the burden of household chores or the endless call of work-related duties. We can choose to join them in spontaneous dance and song or at least watch them experience their joy and allow a little of it to catch our hearts. Whatever choices we make for ourselves about joy, we should not make restricting choices for children. Instead, we should foster their joyful approach to life. We can encourage them to continue to see the beauty in the world around them.
How can children experience such joy? I believe it is due to their sheer innocence. Innocence is defined as the “freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil” (Merriam-Webster – Innocence). In other words, it is being free of moral wrong or guilt due to the lack of knowledge of evil. Would that not describe the loving state of the other side? As children we all bring that innocence into this world with us. However, as we started to ask our own “why” about the low vibrational emotions we encountered such as negativity, fear, even evil or low vibrational events we became aware of such as fighting and war, that innocence was slowly eroded. Let’s not allow the same thing for today’s children. With so many negative world events bombarding them from the media or even overheard adult conversations, let’s help them preserve their joy if we can’t guard their innocence. They can still learn about the “tougher things in life” while we help them to see a positive perspective to those things. We can still help them focus on the beautify and love in the world and encourage their expression of joy. As we do this, if we listen to the children, perhaps we too can find our way back to more joy even if we cannot regain our innocence.
A Word About Protection
When children come to us from a place of pure love it is difficult for them to comprehend why people are sad, or fearful, or angry, or vengeful. As they learn about some of the harsh realities of this side of the veil, they may need to perhaps initially be protected but also be lovingly guided and remain hopeful as they navigate their life lessons and the “darker side” of our world that they might encounter on their journey.
As adults in their lives, we need to examine the environments that our children live within and provide protection when and where needed. Although they may not be physically removing our children from us, let’s not allow the government, institutions, organizations that we engage with, and even individuals to influence our children’s minds in a way that removes them from us intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Be aware of the messages they are receiving from rigid or biased curriculums, the media, or AI generated games. Be aware of situations where their individuality is crushed thru pressure to conform to the ‘social norm’. Be aware of experiences created and delivered by strangers some who may have dishonourable intentions of power and control. Be aware of the potential harm that might come to them even at the hands of people we thought we could trust.
With this framework of awareness, and without judgement, we need to LISTEN to and WATCH the children. Be open and truly hear and see them. Their words and actions will tell us about their safety. Your loving attention, your openness to their questions, and receptiveness to what they have to say as well as your non-judgement of their actions will let them know they are safe. If they say or do things that alarm you, the first step is to lovingly explore where they learned that behaviour so that it can be dealt with at the source. Responding with fear or anger may shut down the child’s behaviour only to have it potentially resurface later as well as create guilt, confusion, and low self worth.
To be clear, I am not advocating to be a “helicopter parent”. As children grow, they do need to learn how to navigate the world and develop skills to keep themselves safe. So, the other essential part of protection, is teaching. I understand that as adults we may just feel it is easier and less traumatic for us to take on the entire responsibility of keeping our children safe. Just as we watch a little one learning to walk, fall, and pick themselves up to try again, we can allow our children to falter as they learn. The key is to provide the environment where the “fall” or faltering is not life threatening and fosters their learning. With the love, encouragement, and guidance from the adults in their lives, children will learn and grow into the amazing human beings they are always meant to be.
Today as a mother of adult children I still want to do for them. I want to fix everything in their lives that is causing them pain or distress because I love them so much and want them to be happy. I have slowly learned over the years that the best thing I can do for them is to listen and be there for them with love, to trust in their strength and ability to fight their own battles and learn their life lessons. I see now where I could have started earlier in their lives to show them how much I believe in their brilliance, their strength, their creativity, and their ability to create a wonderful, joyous life for themselves. Of course, I did my best to keep them safe and healthy, but despite my best efforts their life path did include danger and illness. What took me a long time to learn in those cases was along with my best efforts to rescue and heal them, more importantly, what they needed most from me was my love and belief in them. They needed me to release my fear and not create that in them but rather to build them up/support them in creating the life they wanted.
Listen and Learn
As adults fostering the growth of children, often even though our intentions are loving, our methods may not be. Guilty as charged! I know that as much as I love my children, I fell into that trap as a parent. Unfortunately, this has been a common social construct for generations so there is no blame here - just a call to awareness and an urging to move forward differently for us and the children. As we release ourselves as adults from the shackles of this social conditioning, we can be mindful of not passing them on to the children. Seeing this now, I forgive myself for my past actions because I know I was doing the best I could at the time. As we learn we grow and that is my hope for you by presenting these messages to you today.
So, as you interact with children pay attention. Maybe I am showing my vintage, but have
you ever heard the expression “Children should be seen and not heard”? That is a sad description of our past, but this sentiment now needs to be immediately deleted from our vocabulary and our minds. Instead, listen intently and believe what children have to say. Some could give us thoughts and insights from wisdom way beyond their years if we only took the time to stop and listen to them. Their world may be bigger than ours. Open your heart and mind and tune into their soul. Let them know you are truly present for them. Allow them to speak their truth and they will continue to do so as they grow and mature.
See the beautiful, unique, independent, gifted spirit in the children and foster that. Recognize and appreciate their gifts. The child who “cries for no reason” is not “too sensitive” but is more likely an Empath and responding to what she feels in the people around her. The child who talks to invisible friends at the dinner table does not have an “overactive imagination”. He is likely clairvoyant and can see his angels and guides. The child who is fascinated by the night sky and asks to “go home” even as they are falling asleep in their own bed is not trying to frustrate the adults in their life but is likely a Starseed and is feeling the pull to their home planet.
Spirit also cautions you to not live through the children in your life vicariously in an attempt to repair your own failed childhood. Allow them the freedom to progress at their own pace and in their own direction. Every child comes to this planet with a life plan, life lessons to learn, a purpose to fulfill, and specific timelines. They choose their parents to help support that life plan. They have specific contracts with the people in their lives. So, you are in a child’s life for a reason. Be an active participant in their journey versus a solely a caregiver meeting their basic needs for survival. Cherish and support them with your time, attention, and love. They need that far more than the latest clothes or toys.
Somehow, we learned in our own childhood that love was expressed through things versus words, hugs, cuddles, and kisses. I don’t blame anyone as we all try our best but many of us have fallen victim to the endless media messages of what children need in terms of toys and camps versus listening to our hearts and intuition. We always want to do the best for them and have them feel safe, be comfortable with their peers, to be included, to have friends. We
want that for them because we love them. But to do your very best for them, tap into your own inner child and share in a child’s sheer delight and joy in the smallest wonders in our world. Shower them with unconditional love when facing challenges together. Love will help them recover from trauma. Love will help them feel like they “fit in”. Love will give the rebel a place to come home to. Love will help the disabled child triumph over the challenges they have laid out for themselves in this life.
Lastly, I wholeheartedly respect a parent’s place as the primary support in their children’s lives, but they do not have to do it alone. It truly does “take a village to raise a child.” All adults should shoulder some of the responsibility of creating a free and beautiful future for the children. A future void of hate, racism, competition, anger, and control. A future where we acknowledge our connection to one another and to the earth. A future where we live in love and harmony. A future where we acknowledge that the children are the most precious gift to the planet and our most valuable resource. This year is our time to shine and share. Let’s pause and listen to the children. Let’s allow our light to guide them so they can grow to outshine us. They are our hope for the future.
Sending you love and light,
Marilyn
Intuitive Counselling and Angel Card Readings
If you have the need for a helping hand to support children, I am offering intuitive counselling, angel card readings, and angel numerology readings online or in person (in Calgary).
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