September 27, 2005

• Grow in your breadth and depth of understanding

God joins your hands and hearts and souls together in a great circle. You come together from many directions and with many life experiences that differ one from another. Nevertheless, your lives have brought you to this common ground. You are together because you must be together. It is the direction your lives have provided and it is the impetus that your guides have created that led you to this common point in your lives.

As you have acknowledged both now and in the past, there are no coincidences. There are events that come together, but nothing is created in your lives that is purely spontaneous, that is purely by chance, that is purely random. You are where you are in your lives personally, as well as in location, because you have been brought to this place as a consequence to your daily living. If you consider the nearly limitless opportunities that confront you year after year, you cannot leave it to chance that you share this common ground.

It is also the same with your guides and for all spirits on this side of the veil, as you may refer to it. We are united. We experience spiritual life collectively, but not by chance. There are various levels to spiritual awareness. All is not revealed instantaneously, but is rather gleaned through patience, through love. We are most aware of the spirits close to us because there is a common desire to share lovingly, not only among ourselves, but with you. There comes a time in the lives of each soul when our work as guides has prepared us for further levels of growth in love. We are not perfect, but we are in the process of that loving perfection that is all Love, just as you are on that same journey. The experiences that you have in human life are as important to that spiritual journey as our experiences are in our life-form.

The love that each of you experiences in your lives is a direct result of other experiences that you have been through, that you have shared, and that others have shared with you. Your lives are your lives because of all that has gone before. You are influenced by your parents, by members of other generations, and they are influenced in turn by those who have come before. You are who you are, not merely because of what you do or what you experience now. This continuum of life is essential in the evolution of humans from being loving to becoming Love. Your sharing the same space, as it were, is one of those experiences which influences the lives you see before you, but also influences radiate outward to generations yet unborn. You are a part of a process. You are a part of a system of growth. You are a part of an evolution of love and peace. You are a part of all that is positive, that is reinforcing, that is affirming, that is loving, that is compassionate, that is dear.

Our journey as guides influences not only the guides whom we are aware of, but guides far beyond our awareness. Our lives influence the souls who still experience human form. We are the product of our own lives, but we are the product of the souls’ experiences collectively. The spiritual life is fully unified. We are all part of a single entity, just as you also are a part of that entity—that entity of God, that entity of pure love. There is no significant separation between your life and ours. We are fully connected, one to another, but as you evolve, we too evolve.

You wonder about the change of spirit guides. Has there been a change? How often are there changes? What is the impact of such change?

You are being guided, all of you, by the same guides who have been a part of your life from the very beginning of your human existence. But your guides, because they are a part of a loving continuum, are always influenced and strengthened by the presence of all souls. When souls are transferred in their awareness from human life to spiritual life, those souls become a part of what informs our understanding of God. The ocean of souls expands. Every ocean is changed, even ever so slightly, by a single drop of rain. Every ocean is changed by every particle of water that evaporates. Every ocean is the product of all that becomes a part of that ocean. Your guides are part of all souls that enter a strictly spiritual life. The nature of guidance is therefore in part influenced by all—all souls, all loving forms of energy. Yes, what is shared with you comes from God and we are merely lenses for that light, but the lens itself becomes stronger and more sensitive and more able to reflect God’s wisdom as souls enter our life-form. Our lives are enhanced by all others.

Your lives are enhanced and given character and an understanding and shape by those with whom you have contact. You do not live in a vacuum. You do not evolve alone. You do not grow as a result merely of your own effort, but in your interaction with all others. Our growth is also the same. We do not live alone. We are in community with all loving souls, and it is that community that helps us in our ability to absorb and reflect the love that is God.

Our activity of serving as your guides is an act of love and compassion. We underscore love and compassion—not just being loving and compassionate. What we do is love. What we do is compassion. What we do is peace. We wish peace for you. It is because we are in the process of becoming the very peace that you seek. We wish love for you, and we work so that you may become loving because we are in the process of becoming love. It is what we, your guides, do most willingly.

There are times when it is important for your vision to be broadened. There are other times when your vision is to be made deeper. That is all a part of the cycle of growth. You broaden; you become deeper in your understanding. The breadth provides context; the depth provides profound understanding. Both rely upon the other. If you are feeling as if you are stuck in your emotions, in your spirit, then it is a time to shift from seeking breadth to seeking depth, or a change from seeking depth to looking for breadth. Your lives are not static. You are asked to develop in both breadth and depth.

There are times in each of your lives when you must consolidate. You must allow yourselves the luxury of reflection. You must allow yourselves an opportunity to interact with others in new and meaningful ways. It is in reaching outward that you achieve the context for providing the nourishment for true understanding.

As we have said so often, it is in loving that you become Love, but it is also in being loved that you learn to be loving. Being loved is being vulnerable to the broader life you live. It is being open to others. It is through that vulnerability, that breadth, that you learn what it means to be loved, and it is the return to the depth of your understanding that allows you in turn to become loving.

Your growth, your desire for relevance, for direction in life, must be a combination of the breadth of understanding and the resulting depth of that understanding, both very essential. If you spend your effort looking for depth, you soon lose view of what surrounds you. You soon lose a view of those souls who are present and loving. When you feel stuck and believe you have understanding that falls short in your ability to apply what you know, it is a time in your life to focus your effort on that application, having faith in what you know to be true, and having a commitment to bring that knowledge of truth to a reality. Allow yourselves to be loved, but then commit yourselves to be loving. It is the balance between the breadth and the depth that ultimately gives each of you a sense of direction and purpose, a sense of spiritual relevance and vitality.

You must keep your vision flexible. Allow yourselves the luxury of being loved. Allow yourselves the strengthening of being vulnerable. Through that vulnerability you experience the presence of God. It is only through that vulnerability that you truly recognize God’s presence, and it is only when you take in that realization, that truth, that you are able to apply the truth you know in your relationships with others and in your acceptance and love of self.

You are given great opportunity in your human lives to develop in both of these directions. There are opportunities for this growth that exist nowhere else. Your lives really are gifts. They’re a wonderful opportunity to connect with one another in spirit, and in so doing, to connect fully to the presence of God. With that presence your lives have meaning. With that presence that you are aware of, your lives are given strength. Be willing to be vulnerable to the context of all that life offers you, both what is pleasurable and what is deeply challenging. Each of you is given the strength to draw from that context and create a reality in your own lives that reflects what it truly means to be godly.

We are blessed in your acknowledgment of our efforts to guide and comfort, and you are blessed in that acknowledgment, for in recognizing your guides you are allowing God’s light and love to permeate your entire life.

Be grateful…

Be loving…

Be quiet…

Be vulnerable…

Be open…

Be committed.

You are in the Light. You are the Light!

Amen.