Watermelon Salad

I haven't made this recipe, but it sounds yummy. I have been eating a lot of watermelon here in western New York State. It's so cool and refreshing on these hot humid days. It reminds me of drinking watermelon juice at a restaurant in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) near the Taj  Hotel, with fans whirling over head in the heat of the day. Lovely.

Ingredients

Makes 3 1-cup servings

3 cups seedless watermelon cubes
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion, rinsed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint, or 1/2 teaspoon dried mint
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl and toss to mix. If possible, chill before serving.

Morning in Amish Country

This morning there is time for quiet inner contemplation and peppermint tea with honey. I hope wherever you are that you are also taking time for inner contemplation. You can do this in so many ways. Walking. Writing. Meditation. Or just being absolutely aware as you go throughout your day. Being alone in the stillness is one of the best ways to discover more about yourself. I am always glad when I have the chance to be absolutely alone, especially when that aloneness is nature. Just as we must feed out physical body with nurturing food, so we must we feed out soul with beauty. I love being out here in Amish Country in Western New York State.

Angel Writing

As you know, my connection with the angels began during a near-death experience. Soon after this incident, I sat down at my typewriter to do some writing. I didn't own a computer in those days. I have always written: poems, stories, letters, and some journaling, but I was shocked to find myself writing messages from angels! It wasn't my intention to connect with the angels through writing; it just happened.

That was in 1981. Since that time, I have written hundreds of pages of angel writing, in addition to poetry, stories, and even a murder mystery! You never do know what might happen if you show up and make yourself available to write. So give it a try! Give it lots of tries! One reason Your Open Classroom exists is to give you a place to show up and express yourself. I happen to love writing here--each time I show up here and write, I learn and grow in new ways. I feel connected to each of you. I feel connected to the angels. I feel uplifted and expanded. I know that many of you are silent observers here, and that's fine. This your classroom, to do what you will. I assure you that the more effort you out into your school, the more benefits you will reap.

First day of Summer

Recently our daily email messages have been about writing. For those of you who make the effort to show up here in Your Open Classroom, I will be posting some of my personal experiences with writing. As you all know, writing is what I do. It is one of the avenues through which the angels express themselves. As I have said many times, angels speak with the voice of God. And so does Intuition. So does our own. heart. It's not that we have angels speaking one language, God another, and our own hearts and intuition yet another! No! Then we'd have the Tower of Babylon! 

Angels speak the language of love. When you take the time to write, you open yourself to allow the loving voices of the angels to speak through you. This is what I do when I show up and write. I cannot begin to tell you the marvelous inner and outer transformations that have occurred in my life as a result of simply showing up and writing. Stay tuned for more, both here and in your daily messages. 

Today is the first day of Summer, so enjoy!

WORDS AS WEAPONS OR AS WORSHIP

Did you read today's message? I include it here, along with some affirmations you can use, if you like, to allow more peace to come into your life.

We may not even realize how many words come out of our mouth in a day that are hostile, threatening, defending, critical, hurtful, revengeful, accusatory, wrathful, and mostly, just unconscious. Practice being aware of the words that come out of your mouth. Notice when your words are warlike. And surrender -- as many times in a day as you have to. Lay down your weapons and surrender to a higher power. Let peace pervade your life.

• HOSTILITY is a weapon of darkness. It has no right to exist in my life. Hostility only attracts more hostility. I choose peace.
 

• THREATENING words are terrifying not only to my own heart, but to the hearts of other people. I choose not to terrify or be terrified. Threatening words are the act of a coward. When I am in my strength, Truth takes care of me.
 

• DEFENDING words mean I have something to defend. Truth needs no defense. Truth IS. Now and always Truth IS. When I notice myself defending, I can stop and ask myself, what on earth am I defending?
 

• CRITICAL words are stupid words. I can utilize discrimination without being critical of myself or others.
 

• HURTFUL words are unkind and unnecessary to my life. They are weapons of pain and destruction. I choose not to harm life in any way by my words.
 

• REVENGEFUL words vibrate at a very dark, low level. Revengeful words increase darkness within me and the world. I choose to forgive, to let go, to realize that the things of this world are passing away. There is nothing to hold on to, nothing to be revengeful about. I choose to simply stay far away from people who deliberately hurt me. I choose to rise higher than hurtful people. I know that when I rise higher, a higher consciousness guides all my actions and I live in peace.
 

• ACCUSING words are stupid because they do not know the answer to anything. I choose to connect with Divine Intelligence and find all answers in my heart.
 

• WRATHFUL words always come back to me.
 

• UNCONSCIOUS words mean I am living unconsciously. I choose to become aware of my words. I choose to become aware of the little wars I perpetuate every day with my words. I choose peace.

God, help me choose peace. Angels, help me choose peace. I do not know what true peace is, and so you must show me. Let the light shine more brightly that I may become aware of my warlike words so they can evolve into words of peace. Thank you, angels, for your continuous service.

TIME AND TIMELESSNESS

The ego lives in time and yet it believes it lives in timelessness, even though it is confronted each moment with the ticking of the clock. The ego thinks it has time to be angry, time to be insulted, time to be hurt, time to harshly criticize and condemn, time to waste. Think about it and you will see this is so. The ego lives in a time world and acts as if it has all the time in the world.

In REALITY time does not exist. But the ego (false self) does not live in REALITY. It lives in its own false nature. It lives in lies, denial, and deception. It deceives itself into believing. We could stop there. The ego deceives itself into believing. Then it believes that what it believes is reality.

But we were going to say...the ego deceives itself into believing that its nature is eternal. Think about it. On one hand, surely you think there is not enough time. You wonder where time has gone? Time goes by in a flash! Time is too slow! Waiting takes forever! That will never happen!

Those are thoughts associated with the concept of time. Time does not exist for the spirit that is eternal. But it does exist for the body that grows older, flowers that fade. Everything of this earth changes and decays when enough time passes. But please do not let this frighten you. Let it, instead, galvanize you to commit even more strongly to living in the present moment.

The present moment is all there is. It is all there is! When you are truly living in the present moment, life becomes so fine. You recognize the pure pristine quality of each moment. You realize that there is no time to be in the past or future because that means missing what IS here and now. It means you are half-asleep, or maybe completely asleep. It means you are living life unconsciously.

Your school of angels exists for one purpose only--to bring you into awareness where you can live in the here and now.

NOW! HERE! PRESENT! ALIVE! AWAKE! ALERT! CONSCIOUS!

Imagine living in the present moment. I mean, really imagine it, as the only moment there is. Imagine that everything is intensified because your mind is not wandering into the past or future. You can give your full attention to everything that is taking place NOW. You can give your full attention to NOW. You can see. Really SEE. Really BE. You begin to see that there are many levels to existence. Your later lessons (some of you are reaching this point) begin to discuss the different levels of existence that exist simultaneously.

Life is so fragile. It breaks apart in a moment. People die. People are born. Houses burn. Houses are built. Day turns to night. Night becomes morning. The face you see in the mirror changes into another. Your body changes. Everything changes. And so the angels remind you with gentle love, make good use of your time here. Do not waste time. Do not think you have one moment to waste. Let each moment be a moment that takes you closer to truth. Do not simply believe and act from the many thoughts that are in your head. Life is fragile. Life is a snowflake softly falling to earth. Do not believe you are only the snowflake. Enjoy its crystalline beauty. And know that you are the eternal witness of all that IS. You are LIFE itself.

EVERY MOMENT IS A LESSON

The earth is truly a schoolroom when we are open and receptive to the teachings of the Universe. Every moment is a lesson. What are the moments of life for? To ENJOY! To be In Joy! To learn! To grow and evolve! Learning is fun. Yes, it is. It is fun for the soul that is here to evolve into the light.

The moments of life are not here for you to be down, depressed, gloomy, angry, hurt, despondent, fearful, condemning and blaming yourself or others. Blame is divisive. It divides you from other people. It divides you from yourself. It divides you from God. Blaming yourself makes you feel guilty.

An intelligent conscience is necessary, but constantly blaming and condemning yourself for the past leads to ongoing guilt that is harmful to your life. Give it up! Give it up now! Read your lessons. Fill your moments with Truth. The angels tell you here and now...let go of useless guilt about the past...and guilt is always about the past...it is about something that has already happened that you feel bad about.

If you can fix something that happened in the past, fix it. If not, let it go. Please remember that when you look at the past, you are not necessarily looking with eyes of  Truth. You are looking with eyes of ego. The ego wears glasses of blame and judgment and so the ego cannot rightly see. The ego cannot see right!

The seeing of the ego leaves you feeling down, depressed, gloomy, angry, hurt, despondent, fearful, condemning and blaming yourself or others. Take off those glasses. Fix what you can. Sincerely apologize where you need to. Make what amends you can that will not harm anyone else. And then move on, into a new brightness, here in the Present Moment, open and receptive to the lessons you can learn when you have eyes to see and ears to hear.

MOVING THROUGH THE RIVER OF GRIEF

When tragedy first strikes, we may feel consumed by a river of grief—a river that runs so fast and deep, it feels like we are drowning in it. As the river runs its course, however, we discover that it has its own intelligence. It knows the way, even when we do not. Eventually the river transforms into a small, bright diamond and finds a home in our heart.
 

It is not that the grief becomes less; in a sense it becomes sharper and brighter, but it no longer consumes us. It becomes a powerful force that guides, teaches, and transforms. Within the depths of that small diamond we find the spark of enthusiasm that is vital for a productive life. We realize that we are still here, no matter what tragedy has befallen us. As we accept what we cannot change, we are able to release the pain. The strength of God reveals itself to us and shows us that we are not alone. We find the courage to move through tragedy into peace. We begin to live life from an even greater depth and—like the sparkle that emanates from a pure bright diamond—we become a light in this world of darkness.

Pennsylvania

Good Morning from Warren, Pennsylvania. The Conewango River runs through New York State and into PA. I grew up in NYS along the Conewango river so I have a special affinity for rivers. River angels are sublime and hardly ever pay attention to human beings. They almost never stay in the same place for long, so it is not easy to become well acquainted with a river angel, even if you should happen to glimpse one of their shimmery gliding forms. I have been giving many readings here and meant some lovely new people who are open to spirituality and understanding themselves. The friend I am staying with, Holly, does Reiki and makes healing jewelry from stones and crystals. The town is old and quaint. Here, and in Jamestown, NY, where I will soon return to, the area is rural and surrounded by the Alleghany forests and mountains...which is the home of deer, foxes, black bears, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and many other animals. I see deer nearly every day. It is also the abode of nature spirits and fairies, and abundant with plants, flowers, and trees of all kinds.

Angels of Oceans

The angels of oceans are great devas, serene and tranquil, who adore chanting the name of God. They spend a lot of time laughing at nothing at all. They know the language of all sea animals and fish. These angels possess such stillness of heart that you can hear it if you go to the ocean and listen carefully. Sea Angels have a deeply intuitive relationship with whales, dolphins, manatees, octopi, and other wonderfully conscious life forms that roam the seas.

Intelligent sea creatures experience the presence of angels as part of their everyday existence, as human beings never do. When human beings savage the oceans, the great sea angels draw even closer to the great sea animals, while doing their best to calm the vast array of fish and fauna that inhabit the oceans.

just in case anybody missed this wonderful daily message from Indira last week

What does it mean to think positively at the highest level? It means to let go of ego desires and let something higher come in and guide us. We come to realize that there is an easy flowing harmony to life and we can be in that harmony when we stop trying to direct the show. As easy and flowing as this harmony is, it is never easy for the ego, because the ego seeks disharmony while pretending that it wants the best for you. Egos never want the best for us because egos can only exist in unhappiness.  In absolute happiness ego dissolves like a drop of dew in the sunlight. 

Eva

Dear Students, Eva's husband, who was a musician, had a stroke and could no longer move or speak or eat. He could communicate with his eyes. He had a feeding tube, but decided he did not want to live that way, and not being able to play his music. He asked that the feeding tube be removed. Now he has passed into the light. While his body is no longer here, the spirit can never die. Life is fragile. At least we have our school, where we can always receive the love and support of each other and the angels. In honor of Bernd's passing, here is something I wrote when my young nephew, Sean, died from leukemia. Perhaps you have read it before; I don't remember if I ever posted it here:
 

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL                                                   

Heute Nacht hatte ich einen Traum. Über mir in einem Hof war ein Regenbogenfarbenes Raumschiff. Ich war ganz interessiert an und vertieft in die Farben und die Form. Dann wollte ich das jemanden zeigen, was da ist. Ich bin vor den Hof, nach draußen gegangen, vor das Hoftor, und habe -ich glaube es war meine Schwester- aufgeregt an den Himmel gezeig. Und da waren zwei oder drei weitere wunderbare regenbogenfarbene leuchtende UFO's. Es war so real. Sie sind eine Weile geblieben. Und nach einiger Zeit sind sie ganz typisch wagerecht abgedüst und der dunkle Himmel blieb. Und es blieb in mir der intensive Eindruck des Leuchtens und der Farben.
Monika
This night I had a dream. Above me in the yard was a rainbow colored UFO. I was very interested in, and tuned in the colors and the shape of the UFO. Then I wanted to share this with someone what I saw. I went out of the yard outside the door and -I think it was my sister- I pointed exited to the sky. And there where two or three more wonderfull rainbow colored glowing UFO's. It was so real. They stayed for a while and then - very typical - very quickly went away horizontally. The dark sky remained. And it remained the intense impression of glowing and of the colors.
Monika 

Liebe Eva (für dich auf Deutsch!),
ich wünsche dir viel Kraft und inneren Frieden für die kommenden Wochen.
Alles Liebe
Ursel

New York State in May

Hi Everyone, I am sitting in an old country farm house here in Amish Country. Just fields and farms and sunny   skies. It is very peaceful and quiet after the busy noisy city of Los Angeles. The flight was smooth. My muscles need resting though, especially because I carried my 13 pound dog in a carrier (she was stowed beneath my seat) and my backpack with laptop. That's heavy! Especially because I had a long walk through the airport in LAX, and a really long walk in Las Vegas to the next gate. I am here though. Tonight I will go to a Tai Chi class and work off some jet lag. Love to you.

Your classmate, Eva, asked me to let you all know that her husband, Bernd, had a stroke and has been in the hospital in critical condition for some days now. She asks for your loving supportive energy in dealing with this situation. We wish for Bernd that he receives the perfect care he needs for his healing and that Eva can relax and take care of herself. Angels abound and will do what they can to bring peace and healing to this fragile situation. We love you!

Fairy Time

Fairies and nature spirits belong to the Angelic Kingdom. While ultimately everything is Light (God or Truth) we live in a world of many worlds....many levels. One of these levels is the world of nature that we can see and touch....another level is the invisible world we cannot usually or easily see or touch, but which exists all the same. There is more, for instance, to a tree than meets the eye. There is the physical tree we can see, rest against, maybe eat apples from, or just enjoy its exquisite beauty and shade. And there is the spirit of the tree. Each tree has its own spirit, just as each person has their own spirit. And then there are the nature spirits or fairies who surround the tree with loving service, just as your own sweet guardian angels surround you with loving service. Here is a fairy site if you'd like to play for awhile, or have children who enjoy the fairy world. http://www.flowerfairies.com/US_version/home.html

Lesson Learned

Standing at my kitchen window, I was preparing food for my husband and I to take with us on a trip to Arkansas , where we were going to spend time in nature, relaxing at a cabin by the White River . We had planned to be on the road by 8:00. I looked at the clock, and it said 7:45. I realized I still had several things to pack, as well as feed my dogs their breakfast, write a note for neighbor with feeding instructions for their dinner that night, and prepare some brewed green tea to take with us.

My husband had been up for hours and had already packed his clothes and fishing gear, unloaded the dishwasher, and gone to the store for ice. I wanted to be on time this time, as I tend to always run late. My sweet husband is very patient, and I didn’t want to disappoint him by making us late getting on the road, again.

Immediately, I became “aware” that I was feeling STRESSED, and I wondered “why am I feeling stressed when I am so happy that we are about to leave for our trip?”. ( Note: Feeling “stressed” when I am trying to accomplish certain things, is such a familiar feeling to me, that I am surpised I became aware of it.) At that moment, I realized that unconsciously, I was telling myself, “You will NEVER be able to get all of this done on time. There is NO WAY you can get all of this done by 8:00”.

As soon as I became aware of that little voice, I laughed out loud at it, and told myself, “YES, you can get all that done by 8:00. Look at everything else you’ve done in the last six months that you never thought you could do. This is a piece of cake compared to those things”. And to my amazement, we were on the road by 8:01.

I know this sounds like a little thing… but it is a BIG thing that I am now AWARE of that little voice (ego?) that tells me “YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET THAT DONE”. I realized this had been happening all my life, and was never aware of it until that moment.

I thanked the angels for the awareness I just gained. I felt joy and freedom.

I realized how tricky that voice had been all these years, because on the surface, that voice let me tell myself that I was smart enough to have finished college and to have held steady jobs for 25 years, yet in my subconscious mind it would tell me, “‘YOU CAN’T DO THAT. YOU DON’T KNOW HOW”. And I now realize it has held me back from trying all kinds of things. I am surprised of how unaware I have been of that belief all these years.

I feel that one step, on the path to this awareness, started when I had a reading with Indira and asked her for guidance concerning a practical matter that had to do with deciding whether or not to sell our house and try to find a job in Arkansas where my son, his girlfriend, and their new baby daughter are living.

One of her suggestions was to take small steps towards doing it and see how it felt, or see what happens, and change directions if I need to. Those weren’t her exact words, just my interpretation.

For me, I knew the first step would be to put our house on the market, and if it sold, then we could rent for awhile, and take our time looking for jobs over there, and if anything came up, we’d be in a position to move.

However, our old house had lots of stress cracks in walls and above the doors that needed to be repaired, and I didn’t have a clue how to do it. (I spoke with a structural engineer to see what caused the cracks and he said he thought they were caused from the roof settling, and there was no evidence of any foundation problems.) I spoke with a couple of different painters about just fixing the cracks (not painting) and none of them seemed interested in tackling the job.

I remember standing in my house, looking around at all the cracks, especially the big ones under the windows in the room with tall ceilings, and feeling completely defeated and trapped, saying to myself, we will never be able to sell this house for what we owe. And I can’t afford to pay someone to fix them.

I decided that if they were ever going to get fixed, I would have to fix them myself. Soon I got the idea to search the internet for “how to fix stress cracks in walls” and I found several youtube videos about using drywall seam tape and joint compound (mud) to fix them. I spent several months this past winter, working weekends, and managed to fix them all myself. Other than when I work in my flower gardens, I don’t know when I’ve felt such a sense of accomplishment.

Once I got the cracks fixed, I painted the living room. It looked so nice, that I painted the kitchen, the hall, and two bedrooms.

Then I looked up videos that showed how to remove wallpaper, and I removed the wallpaper in the 3rd bedroom and painted it.

I am now in the process of regrouting and recaulking my shower, and replacing some of the loose tiles and wall board that got wet behind the tiles. I never knew I could do all of this. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said “look at everything else I’ve done in the last six months”.

One baby step led to another, then another.

It was like the practical lesson the way for the spiritual lesson to sink in.

I love that the school is always here waiting for me, even in my absense. When I am ready to turn to the school, it is there. Kind of like the angels Just wanted to share about the progress, because it is always an inspiration to me when one of you share the progress you are making! Thank you angels, and Indira, and students for being here, and sharing your light and love.

Kevin's Prayer

Did you read the prayer Kevin wrote in the comment section of this post: Angel Evening February 2012? I like it very much, so I am reposting it here. In fact, I like his whole comment very much. Here is just his prayer: "Dear Infinite Light, I ask that you choose me. I choose you O great Light. I choose to walk in your Light. I ask that you give me a knock on the head each time I veer off the path into the dark and direct me back to you, Dear Infinite Light. Thank you."

Fairies and nature spirits belong to the kingdom of angels

THE FAIRIES VISIT

The fairies visited me
this morning
softly and gently
they flew through my window
their tiny voices
making sweet low noises
tinkling and rhyming
the way fairies do
when they are happy.

I fixed them tea
and raspberries with cream
and fed them on my favorite china.

When they were finished,
they washed all the dishes,
then flew through my window
as softly and gently
as they had come.