Believe, My Valentine
One of my favorite ways to receive guidance and messages and heart magic is WORDS.
License Plates. Billboards. Bumper Stickers. A book title on a shelf. The words in a song. A few words overheard in a coffeeshop conversation.
Fascinated by words all of my life, I began to notice words as messages when everything in my life was falling apart. I had no family support and only one friend while I was in the process of ending an abusive marriage. The unsupportive people around me were saying, “You committed to this marriage, now you have to just live with your choice,” and, “You made your bed, now lie in it.”
For years, leading up to the end of this ten-year relationship, I had been committed to a deep period of questioning and exploration. Reading self-help books about relationships, codependency and alcoholism. Going to Al-Anon meetings and learning about family patterns in Family Constellation with a therapist. Reading tarot cards and studying A Course in Miracles. I was tuning in and developing a connection to my inner voice and inner authority. I was looking for help.
I began to notice “signs” around me that felt like answers to questions and high fives from the Universe. Driving on the highway one day with a heavy heart and feeling discouraged and hopeless, I noticed a vanity plate with the words URLOVD (You are Loved). About 5 minutes later, a car passed with a bumper sticker: BELIEVE. On a particularly stressful day when support seemed to come out of nowhere which felt like ease and grace, the license plate was GODSGFT (God’s Gift).
One practice I started during that time was to carry a little notebook in my purse and write down things I noticed. The intention was to tune in to a deeper awareness and notice the signs that were all around me, all the time. Writing them down was a way of acknowledging the signs, noticing patterns and repetition of the same sign and letting go unless clear action is required. I didn’t obsess in my noticing, I became aware of things that lit me up, stirred my heart, or brought a smile to my face. Then, took out the notebook, reached for the pen and wrote it down.
Thirty years after starting this practice, I was walking down the street in Burbank, California and asking God, What’s next? The answer came quickly in the form of a bright pink, piece of trash on the sidewalk. Imported DREAMS. A few days later, a friend offered me a place to live. It was an oasis in Santa Monica. Twelve blocks from the beach and a few blocks from my business mailbox, the one I had opened a few years earlier with the dream of living in that area some day.
Smiling at the synchronicity of this word, I took a photo, wrote it down in my notebook and left it on the sidewalk for the next person to receive their synchronistic answer.
Written by: Andrea Hylen; Heal My Voice
