Terry Lynn Taylor - Angel Courage: 365 Meditations and Insights to Get Us Through Hard Times

We often discover the angels when we are in pain and when we have been faced with loss. The majority of those who have found comfort in our previous books are looking for a way to make sense of a painful situation and to stay closer to God in die process. Angel Courage takes a new approach to the idea of misfortune. It devotes an entire years worth of daily meditations to concepts that are ordinarily denned as painful, uncomfortable, or tragic, offering a fresh and hopeful perspective intended to help you discern die deeper meaning behind pain and a way out that is, at the same time, a way in.

Angel Courage is really a greeting card from die angels. We look at the word greet as a means of being open to whatever comes our way. The Jungians use the word greet in its creative context, as embracing the whole picture, not simply getting locked into one aspect of it. Traditionally we have been taught that trials are something either to get through as quickly as possible, to suffer with if they cant be cured, or to avoid altogether. But when we greet our trials instead of fighting them, running from them, or simply enduring them, we learn to communicate with and learn from our pain. When we greet something, we are recognizing it, responding to it, welcoming it. So, here we stand with ourselves, on the ground with die angels, our fears, and our humanness, willing to welcome and learn from whatever is in front of us. In the process, a greeting can change the chemistry of a situation, transforming pain into challenge, fear into courage, despair into hope.

We hope that Angel Courage will help you stay grounded in the midst of turmoil and stand your ground instead of trying to avoid, escape, or deny what is happening to you. It is a book about the way of humility, for the word humility comes from humus, or ground. It is only when we are totally down that we can go up. It is only when we are broken that we can be mended and healed. Instead of treating the angels as beings from above, Angel Courage explores the idea of meeting the angels where we areespecially when we are thrown to the ground, feeling as though we might never be able to get up again. This is when we connect with the humusthe earth, our roots, our humility. This is where we discover that when we surrender to our humanness, we are suddenly connected to our creativity. There is usually a positive side to seemingly negative events. Through these meditations, we hope that you will discover how loss can give you the freedom needed to find out who you really are and how you can create your own blessings by making use of your many interior resources.

Angel Courage does not try to give absolute answers, new age formulas for success, explanations, or false hope. Rather, we want to give you a means of staying awake in the midst of pain and of overcoming any fears that may be paralyzing you. By reading the book each day, you can download an ounce of courage into your psyche, so that when and if the day comes that you are there in the fire, facing a particularly challenging situation, you can instantly pull up your courage file and aim it in the best direction.

Above all, Angel Courage stresses the fact that the angels cant always change a situation or relieve us of pain. They cannot bring back something that has been lost forever. But they can provide the comfort and insight that sustain us in our loss and lead us to new awareness and, eventually, to the space of joy once more.

An Angel Reminder: And the truth shall make you free.

The angel warrior is the embodiment of integrity. His or her mission is to reveal and uphold the truth, not as an act of virtue but as a way of life. Its often uncomfortable to confront the truth, let alone uphold it, which is why angel warriors are rare beings. The reason most of us have not yet become angel warriors is because we fear rejection or confrontation or just plain loss. Sometimes upholding the truth can cost us a lot, in terms of relationships, jobs, even our freedom. It seems so much easier not to make waves, to stifle our integrity in favor of maintaining the comfortable status quo. But in reality, when we are not true to ourselves we lose our freedom, condemning ourselves to the prison of fear. Any of us can become an angel warrior, if were willing to let go of our fear of what might happen if we stick up for our principles and our true feelings. The angels are always ready to give us the courage to know ourselves and, even more important, to love ourselves, no matter what mistakes we might have made. Angel warriors are not perfect; they are just honest. They know that true strength comes from love and true power from the willingness to accept ones true self and to reveal that self to the world without fear.

Can you say that you art living with integrity? Are your actions and your lifestyle in alignment with your beliefs and values? Or are there times when you are afraid to stick up for the truth? If you feel that there are areas of your life in which youre not honoring the truth, realize that you may have been mistaking avoidance for safety.

An Angelic Reflection: I know that confrontation is not the head-on collision of opposing forces but rather the acknowledgment of responsibility in the service of truth.

AnAngel Reminder Its my party and Ill cry if I want to cry if I want to cry if I want to

Leslie Gore, Its My Party

If youre over forty you certainly remember the above hit of the early sixties. In this song, the heroine throws a tantrum at her own birthday party when her boyfriend, Johnny, goes off with her rival, Judy. This little soap opera soared to the top of die charts, and you can still hear it on oldies stations all the time, which means that its become a true fixture in die mass unconsciousness. Of course there had to be a sequel, which was the triumphant Judys Turn to Cry, in which our protagonist gleefully proclaims, Well now its Judys turn to cry Judys turn to cry cause Johnnys come back to me! What do you suppose the angels are thinking when such small-minded sagas become the melodies by which we live our lives? They undoubtedly would say, yes, it certainly is your party and you can certainly cry if you want to. But pity parties usually end up with only one guest. The angels hope that wed think enough of ourselves to demand real loyalty in love. They assure us that if we want to be crybabies we can go right aheadbut they wont be coming to our party.

What do you think of crybabies? What do you think of people who gloat when someone else is doing the crying? The next time youre tempted to be a crybaby over something youve created for yourself, imagine the angels standing there watching you. If the situation starts to seem so ridiculous its embarrassing, theres a good chance thats because it is.