sharing Archives - Annie ConboyAnnie Conboy

It’s that time of year again. The TV is filling up with Christmas movies and ads, the daily countdown has begun and the shops are stocking shelves full of Christmas goodies. Yes. It’s inescapable. One of the most stressful times of the year is almost upon us again. However, there are ways to make sure you stay with the true Spirit of Christmas.

There is a Christmas carol called ‘It Came Upon The Midnight Clear’ which has the line ‘Peace on Earth, goodwill to men’. I love that line because it reminds me of what can be so special about the festive season. The desire, for however short a time, to feel the peace and goodwill all around. Families, friends and all sorts of strangers become more open to the idea of giving and receiving. People wish one another well. We all hope for a few days where the news that comes across our TV screens is all positive.

The lines before that one mentions angels bringing a message of peace. Angels represent the kind of love it can be hard to find – unconditional love. The feeling that happens when we recognise completely that the other person is the same as us. A human being. So when Christmas stress all gets a bit too much for me I love to find a church, quiet place or or open space where I can remind myself that we are all the same. I sit quietly and ask the angels to help me both feel peaceful and to behave towards all others in a peaceful way.

I also look very carefully at what I am doing. Am I bulk buying enough stuff for a month when I only require food for a few days? Is my list of presents to purchase getting too long and involved? Do I really intend to go out for a Christmas meal every night for a month? And lunchtimes too? Then I visit a local charity shop to remind myself that I actually have all that I need but others might not have. It’s important for me to consider those who don’t or can’t celebrate Christmas. Giving is a way to share goodwill.

That makes me realise that perhaps I’m putting stress on myself. The smiling, relaxed me has disappeared inside a het up, frantic shopper! So I step back and smile at as many people as I can. I go and watch the children queuing to see Santa looking for the excitement and wonder in their eyes. I make a date with family and friends to watch the Christmas lights get switched on. And sing loudly through the carol service in the square. So that when the day finally arrives I can wake to a morning world with peace in my heart and goodwill in my thoughts.

A lot of what I do is reaching out. When I first started to explore my intuitive psychic senses I was reaching out for answers to explain experiences that were happening to me. As each potential answer dropped in front of me, or I scrambled after it, I continued to reach out for explanations. I really do like to understand how things work. Especially if I’m going to be using them. It seemed that the more I unraveled the more there was to understand. As I reached out to follow the promptings of my questions I also found I was reaching out to other people.

I love to learn. Often I’m sure I live to learn too. Knowledge is a wonderful thing for its own sake as the questions can go on forever. Sometimes the ideas and information are so large that it takes a lot of thinking about, or better still, experiencing to really understand. And sometimes it is the tiniest of ideas that can spark the greatest changes in us. So every day I reach out to understand more about me, other people and the world. A large part of finding out is by sharing experiences with other people. Asking them what they feel or think. Discussing different viewpoints or explanations. Exploring where we are different and where we are the same. Not judging those differences or similarities but trying on, in my mind’s eye, another pair of shoes.

Being interested in other people’s shoes has been another way of reaching out. If they have had an experience that I haven’t I can listen to what happened, how they felt or thought and what they did. I can remember what choices they felt they had and how they decided what to do. That information can sit in the library in my brain until I have to deal with a similar situation for myself. Perhaps I will end up reacting or choosing differently. It doesn’t really matter. What will help is that I can recognise I’m not the only one that this experience has happened to. That creates a potential to hope for good outcomes so that I can experience whatever is happening more positively.

In another way I am also reaching out every time I do my mediumship, whether publicly or privately. I’m fortunate that reaching out to develop my abilities helped me to understand and to practice until I could offer people messages from their loved ones. A lot of those messages are informal. Words I am prompted to say when someone is lost in a confusing world, or really needs to understand something. It may be whilst we are having a coffee or saying hello in passing. Or it may be when someone asks me a question about the Spirit World. That’s when I can reach out and make a connection with the person here as well as the loved ones in Spirit. I know that those connections, the info I can pass on and the encouragement I can give will, somewhere along the line, be exactly the knowledge that was needed at that time.

The world would be a much more interesting place if we all decided to reach out. To ask why, what, how, where and when more often. To find out how it is for the other person so that we could avoid the pitfalls as much as possible. Out of interest why not replace the words ‘reaching out’ in this blog with the word ‘sharing’. Interestingly by writing about reaching out I have shared my thoughts with you. I wonder what knowledge you will take from sharing with me?

Day 177 of my blogging challenge.

Whatever your beliefs, over the coming month I wish you a happy, peaceful, sharing and compassionate time.