ANIMAL STORIES

GRASSHOPPER

It was September of 2004, and my angels were pushing me away from my job as a courier for a bank in Taxes. Even though it was getting harder and harder for me to make it through the day, I was determined to hang on to that job (even if it was only by a thread). It was definitely one of those times where I told God and my angels that I didn't trust them -- and resisted listening to them.

At the time, my fear about money was strong; perhaps even stronger than it had ever been in my life. In fact, I had never truly feared about money until that year -- when everything seemed to start falling apart for me (financially, as well as in most other ways). I was still learning about the ways of Spirit, and I knew that my fear was due to all of the difficult things I was going through at the time, as well as my issues with having to depend on others.

One day, while I was taking a break from work, I stopped at a park to journal. My spirit was very heavy. As I sat in my car, writing, a grasshopper jumped in and sat on the passenger seat.

"What do you want?", I said.

This may sound crazy, but the next thing I knew, he jumped into the back seat window. I watched as this grasshopper kept trying to jump out -- and as he kept banging his head on the glass. The grasshopper could see the life he wanted through the glass, but he couldn't get to it. He just kept hitting his head on the window.

Somehow, even in the midst of my confusion and heaviness, I knew what the message was. The grasshopper was mimicking me. I could see the life I dreamed about in my mind's eye, but I was hitting my head on the illusion -- instead of finding the "true" way to reach my goals.. The message hit home and I started crying. I didn't know what to do.

I also received another vision in my mind's eye -- one of myself hanging from a cliff by my fingernails, thinking that if I let go that I would fall. I kept seeing myself falling. After this vision, I looked behind me -- but the grasshopper was gone. I went back to work and put it all behind me.

I made it through that day and was heading home when the grasshopper reappeared. This time he sat on the passenger side window. I reached over and rolled down the window, so he could jump out. But he sat there on the door with his head stuck out the window, just like a dog.

"Go ahead and jump," I told him. "Why won't you jump?"

I even tried to gently push him out, but he just sat there. Again, I got the message. Why wouldn't I jump? My angels were gently pushing me, but I was just sitting there in a job I hated.

"Thank you for your message," I said. "And I thank you for it."

Hearing me say these words, the grasshopper jumped out of the window. He was gone again. That night, I talked to my friend David about my encounter with the grasshoppers. I knew what to I needed to do, but fear still had a hold on me.

The next morning, I got up to take Pugsly (my daughter's pug dog, whom I loved and had a very deep connection with) out for a run at 6:30 a.m. It was still dark out and I was enjoying my run -- stopping only when I got to a street light. There, under the light was grasshopper again. He was jumping up and down under the light.

"I know what you're trying to tell me, but I just don't know what to do," I told him.

When I got home, I called David and told him about my new encounter.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I told him in all honesty. I could see the light, but I was afraid of not being able to pay the bills.

I went to work that morning, thinking mainly about grasshopper. As I was driving, I realized that the grasshopper hadn't jumped outward -- he'd jumped up. Suddenly, the words, "jump up" started playing through my mind over and over again. It was like a light going off. That was it -- I had to jump up, not out.

I then saw the "cliff" vision in my mind's eyes change. Instead of just jumping and hitting my head on the cliff and falling, I had to jump up and pull myself up. Right then, in the vision, I saw myself hanging from the cliff. Only, this time, I jumped up -- in faith -- and a man's arm reached down and pulled me up. I could even feel the vision change; I could feel being pulled to safety. My spirit shifted instantly, and I not only knew what I had to do -- I trusted that a way would be provided for me to do it. I had to leave my job, so that I could write and teach.

I told myself that I had to try. If it didn't work out, the worst that would happen was that I wouldn't be able to pay my bills for a time -- until I found another job. I told my angels that if they provided the money, I would go ahead and file for bankruptcy. I just couldn't make it work any other way. I had done everything humanly possible -- and I was just going to put it into the hands of God and my angels.

After I accepted the message, and released the prayer, I stopped at a nearby Yoga center. There, I asked the woman who owned it if I could teach some more classes.

"Yes," she said, just as excited as I was about the prospect.

I could instantly feel my spirit come alive again. That day, as I was finishing up my work -- delivering fliers -- I heard my angels say, "Give your notice."

"Okay," I said. "If my boss is at the office, I will tell him." I knew this was testing them -- because it was Friday, and in the five month's I'd been at the job, he had never been in the office on a Friday.

When I got to the office, he was there. Honoring my word, I gave my notice. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt like I'd just removed a heavy weight from my body. I was thrilled to be moving forward on my path!

The Angels and the Mouse

On October 3rd 2002 , I went to another angel class, and took my friend David with me. He was spiritual and believed a lot of what I believed. At class, I saw a sign that read, "The love you desire." I didn't know what it meant, but it felt good. In the class, I spoke up about many things I knew. I was nervous, but I went ahead and shared some of the things I had been through. I didn't tell anyone that I was an Earth Angel, but just being able to share and use my voice was a blessing.

I didn't get home that night until after ten. Renee was in her room, so I turned out the lights and headed to bed. When I laid down, an ex-boyfriend ran through my mind. It gave me a weird feeling. Right then Archangel Michael told me to go to the back door. Worried that maybe it wasn't locked, I was told that it was, but that I just needed to go there. So I got up and went there. It was locked. I looked around, but everything seemed okay. As I reached up to turn off the light, I saw a little field mouse playing on the back porch. I sat on the floor and watched him. My cat, O.G., came up next to me. He saw the mouse too and got excited. I started playing with him. I tapped on the glass, pointing at the mouse, and telling him to get the mouse. Soon my other cat, Roy, and Renee's two dogs, came to see what was going on. Excited, they were all playing. I kept telling them to get the mouse.

After awhile, I told the animals to watch the mouse -- to not let it in the house -- and I went to bed. But around midnight, I was awakened by my cats in the meditation room. I went in there and asked them what they were doing. O.G. was playing with a box of dried roses. I went over and kicked the box, telling him to leave it alone. When I kicked it, out jumped the mouse. Jumping myself, up on a chair, I screamed. How had he gotten inside the house? And, more importantly, what was I going to do about it? I stood on the chair, in the dark, trying to figure out what to do. I then put one foot on the floor, and scooted the chair and myself across the room so I could turn on the lights. When I got the lights on, the mouse was under the stereo -- but the cats were still playing with the box of roses. I tried to get them to go to the stereo, to take care of the mouse, but they weren't interested.

Eventually, Renee came into the room and asked what I was doing. When I told her there was a mouse, she told me that I wasn't going to get him from up on a chair. I politely explained that I had no intention of "getting him" -- that Roy and O.G. were going to have to get him. She told me to just close the door and leave the mouse in the room with the cats. I told her that if it could get into the house, it could most certainly get into a more important room -- mine! I wouldn't be able to sleep until he was gone. Shaking her head, she tried to coax Roy to get the cat -- but all he wanted to do was play with it. In search of a box, she went out and came back with a Tupperware bowl. I asked my angels to help her catch the mouse. I didn't want to kill him, but I did want him back outside. Convincing me to go and get a lid, in case she was successful, I finally agreed. I jumped down off the chair and ran down the hall to the kitchen. I couldn't help but laugh. Here I was challenged by a one ounce mouse -- and he was winning.

In the kitchen, searching for the lid, I heard Renee yell out that the mouse had gone into my bedroom. Abandoning my search, I yelled out that now we had to get him. Seeing me, she asked if I was planning on feeding him. Looking down, I realized I had a box of cereal in my hand. She told me to put it down and help her pull the bed away from the wall so she could get closer to him. I helped her, listening to her tell me how cute he was. I didn't agree, and kept asking my angels to please help us get him outside.

Renee finally managed to get him under the bowl. She told me to hold it down while she went to get a lid. I noticed how scared he was, but I was scared too. I also noticed that her small dog was jumping up and down on my bed barking. Her other dog had run down the hall, scared, and the cats were still in the mediation room looking for the creature in there. It was crazy, and all I could do was laugh.

When she came back with the lid, we were able to slide the lid under the box. The only problem now was that we were trapped in the room (the bed was up against the dresser) as much as he was trapped in the bowl. Coming up with a plan, she held one end of the Tupperware and I held the other -- while we carried the mouse over the bed and got out of the room. When we made it to the hallway, she wanted to take him out to the backyard. I told her I didn't want him in my yard -- he'd just come back inside. Noting that I only had a shirt on and she was falling out of her top, she asked what I did want to do with him. I decided, hardly able to speak because I was laughing so hard (what I do when I'm nervous), that we could put him out on the street.

After we were successful in letting him go, we went in and went back to bed. In my room, I laid on my bed -- still laughing. I couldn't believe how scared I was of a mouse. When I calmed down, I noticed that I could still feel his spirit in the room. I was still afraid, and I didn't know why. But I had a feeling that it had something to do with the ex-boyfriend. I slept with the lights on that night.

A few days later, I told David all about the mouse. Into animal spirits, David immediately looked up what it means when you're visited by a mouse. He said that I needed to look at the bigger picture -- not to look out of tiny mouse eyes. Hearing that, I knew I still had much to learn.

The angels had been telling me that more animal spirits would be visiting me; that they give us signs and it is up to us to see them. We need to be open to life's many wonders. I decided that I needed to learn about animal spirits. I knew there would be many more animals coming into my life, and I wanted to learn how to decipher their messages.

Living An Authentic Life