There’s a tree that I talk to on the path where I walk my dogs every morning. The tree doesn’t look like much. It’s skinny, and shorter than the other trees surrounding it. I don’t even know what kind of tree it is. It’s just a tree, with leaves that look like nothing unordinary. The special part of the tree is its trunk. I’m not sure how trees get uneven growth to the trunk, but this tree has a heart in its trunk. It’s like someone dug out part of the trunk and created a heart divot. And not only does it have a heart, within the heart it looks like there’s a face. It’s not a smiling face, but it is a face.

The heart is cool, but it’s not why I love the tree. I was given the tree as a gift from Archangel Michael, the archangel who slays negativity and obstacles from my path and helps guide me to be my highest and best self. He has large wings and a huge sword in his hand, ready to slay away anything around me that isn’t helping elevate me higher in my mission on earth. I often see in my mind’s eye this angel wearing armor, ready to do battle for me when I can’t fight for myself.

There are other Archangels, many of them, and they are not relegated to one religion – you’ll find them in Christianity and Judaism, as well as other religions. Archangels are “chief angels” and each has a specific role to help us. For example, Gabriel helps with communication between the earthly realm and the heavens. Raphael is the guardian of healing, both physical and mental. Uriel is the miracle worker, problem solving and change – when all is out of control, Uriel will come and transform thoughts and give inspiration to help stabilize and calm the storm. There are more Archangels, and they do much more than I am going into here. Don Simmons has an Archangel guided meditation I love. (You can find it here: http://donreedsimmons.com/cds-and-downloads/ )

Of all the Archangels, Michael has always been the one I see clearest. He’s the one I feel protected by and healed by the most. So, when Yvonne O’brien, a psychic medium, announced she was leading a class where Archangel Michael would give guidance on a career path, I signed up and paid in advance.

I went with low expectations of getting something out of it career-wise. Since getting out of advertising after having my kids, I have been a serial entrepreneur, trying much, but sticking to little. If I could get some guidance on something I could stick with, I would take it.

Most of the class consisted of short meditations, guided visualizations, to get us in touch with Archangel Michael and his guidance. I felt touched and close to Michael in a way I had not been before. Much of my career path seemed centered on writing (how shocking!).

The class was long – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a break for lunch. We meditated, we wrote and then the unexpected was expected. We were asked to give psychic readings to each other.

Gasp! I’m not psychic. Or am I?

This wasn’t my first time being in a class and asked to give a reading on someone. I once attended a class by a man named John Mulkey called, “Writing Your Way to Enlightenment.” (I’m sure you can see why the title grabbed me.) When we got there, we each went around the circle and introduced ourselves and why we were there. Being that the title of the class was writing, each person gave a reason they were there that had to do with writing.

The class wasn’t exactly a writing class, but it was fascinating none-the-less. It was similar to the Archangel Michael class in that we did many guided, visualization meditations to get in touch with our writing selves. At the end of class, John asked us to give a reading for a person we were partnered with.

I was partnered with a woman who was probably a few years older than me, with an open heart and easy-to-be-with personality. She was friendly and calm and I liked her immediately. But that didn’t mean I could give her a psychic reading! I was nervous.

John put on Native American music, with drumming in it. That music can be entrancing, so it wasn’t hard to get into a meditative state. As I closed my eyes and cleared all thought from my mind, I heard someone talking to me, in my mind, just like it was a thought. For me, it’s hard to tell the difference between thinking and being given a psychic message. What I heard was, Ask her if she likes to cook. Tell her that if she wants to bottle something to sell and manufacture, it would sell well. She should do it. Tell her if she wants to be a better writer, she needs to treat her writing the way she treats her cooking – use colors to inspire her writing.

It was a little more than that, but that’s most of it. The music stopped and John asked us to give our messages to our partner. In the pit of my stomach I was afraid I was going to look foolish. But, I only had what I had, and why not just give it to her?

I said, “Do you like to cook?”

“Yes,” she replied.

So, I relayed the message I was given. When I was done, she said, “Would you like to know what that means?”

“Please!” I said.

“I am a chef for a living. I am thinking of bottling something, a sauce. I do use color in the kitchen… color is very important to me.” She went on and on, but I was too in shock to hear it all. I actually gave a reading to someone!

And now, in Yvonne’s class, I was being asked to do it again, this time to give advice on a career path. Even with one success under my belt, I was scared.

I was paired with a girl, younger than me. I knew nothing about her, as when we introduced ourselves for Yvonne’s class we didn’t give the career path we were on, assuming we were all there to find a career path.

I closed my eyes and began to meditate and I saw, as a thought, trees. Trees were everywhere. I heard, landscaping, but it’s not with plants, it’s with trees. I saw the girl in the woods, walking.

When we were asked to give the readings, I said, “I see you in landscaping, but not in the traditional sense. I see you with trees everywhere.”

She said, “I’m in school and studying forestry.”

Once again, I shocked myself. But, Yvonne wasn’t done. We had to read others. I saw a man in a corporate environment giving seminars. He was already doing that and was happy that I saw him continuing on that path. Then Yvonne asked us to give a person a reading that included a sign that they would see in the next few days that would ensure Archangel Michael had heard their prayers and was with us in the class this day.

I was with another woman, this one closer to my age. I closed my eyes and I heard, there’s a tree. It has a heart in it and possibly a face.

I opened my eyes and told her what I heard.

It was the next week when I was walking my dogs and my dog stopped to go to the bathroom that I looked straight ahead of me and saw it. The tree, which had been here for two years of walking dogs, but I never noticed it. That tree with a heart in it, and yep, a face, staring at me.

Telling this story, I have been asked, “Don’t you think it could have been subconscious that you have seen the tree?”

I say, maybe, but I cried when I saw it. If I noticed it subconsciously, it was buried deep and maybe waiting until the right time to show itself. I also thought I was giving the sign to the lady, not myself. I felt awful that I had told her about her tree-sign and then I found it. My hope is that there was another tree on her path that at least had a heart, if not a face.

I had not seen that tree before, much less talked to it! I do talk to it now. I ask Archangel Michael to slay away all of my negative thoughts and actions and help me shine. I have since being in that class found a much more narrow path on the career front. I’ve gone down a lot of different paths, lucky that I’m in a position to try everything that interests me. But, one route I have never deterred from no matter what I do is writing. Today, I am also leading meditations and I see that as long as opportunities continue to come my way, I will continue that path because I love it as I love writing.

It was a gift to receive the tree as a tangible reminder that we are all psychic and there are angels watching over us, if only we will see with something other than our eyes. All it takes is heart energy and a willingness to believe that there is more to life than what we experience on the earthly realm. Angels are part of the connection we all share that makes us One, because angels don’t discriminate. They help us all.

Today, I am grateful for nature, for angels, for all that is beyond my understanding, but that which I know in my soul exists.