What is in a name?

Why Guided By Angels

Hello dear friend,

First, I would like to say thank you and welcome to my new subscribers. It is wonderful to be writing to you. If ever you want to get in touch, just drop me an email tracyobrien@substack.com or reply to these letters. If you haven’t already looked, check out my About page and see who is writing to you.

At the beginning of February I joined a training program run by Substack to help make the most out of this space. It’s been fun, and I have met some wonderful people so far, and hope to learn much more about Substack before it finishes at the end of the month.

One exercise they gave us to think about was our ‘why?’ Why do we write these letters, why did we start, and why choose the name we did? Looking through my previous posts, I realized I have never really explained the why of this newsletter… Very remiss of me, and something I will now correct.

Guided By Angels came about in a very roundabout way, so bear with me, while I tell the tale. Mid August 2020, at the very last minute, I applied to start a degree with the Open University. Creative Writing and English Literature, I thought it sounded interesting. By December, I was painting angels. Now, I am no fine artist, but they seemed to have their own characters; happy, sad, protective. Then in April 2021, I painted Daisy.

She wanted to tell me a story, so I wrote it down. By August 2021, I had 50k words on paper and an idea of where the story was going. It was a fantasy story about how angels and other spiritual beings are helping humanity to combat the Darkness in the world. Imagine, if you will, all the negative emotions in the world - anger, hate, fear, as a tangible thing, a negative aura or cloud. Only with love and understanding can this Darkness be diminished. I felt this was true on so many levels, especially with the way the world is currently. As soon as I started writing, everything seemed to fall into place. I found the London Writers Salon¹, NaNoWriMo², and Emma Dhesi³, who led me to Dallas Woodburn⁴, and on, and on. Links in a chain that will lead, someday soon, to the publication of Daisy’s story.

The event I have not mentioned, which preceded all this, is - in July 2020, I saw an Angel.

I still hesitate to tell the tale. I mean, who am I to have a visit - a fat, 50 something woman with gammy knees, poor health, not special to anyone except my nearest and dearest. Thank you to those of you who are reading this. I love you too. Your support means the world to me.

But it happened.

It was amazing. I am so grateful to that angel for the visit. I believe all I have chosen to do and be since then stems from this event.

I awoke in the middle of the night. Nothing unusual in that for me. As I turned in bed, I knew I was not alone in the room. There, laying parallel to me in mid-air, was a luminous golden being, just there. As if watching me sleep. I do not know the gender, before you ask, and I do not know the angel’s name. This wonderful angel stayed there, watching me, watching it. A feeling that I will never ever forget overwhelmed me. Pure, unconditional love and acceptance. It truly was a glorious experience and I am filling up with emotion just remembering it. I have read other people’s experiences of being in contact with angels. Thank you, Emily, for the book, and they mostly report the same. The predominant feeling is of deep, unconditional love.

I wish you could all feel that love.

So, I suppose, in writing Daisy’s story and in my letters to you, I am trying in my own way to help others to experience the love and hope there is in the world. For it is there. We just need to be open to seeing it.

My greatest wish is to bring forward a way for communities and people to live a kind life. A life with acceptance, love, and curiosity filling their souls to combat the hate and anger in the world. To help people build their own wings, feather by feather. So that they can fly free and be true to the beautiful souls that they are.

Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

Tracy

Things catching my eye this week:

The story of Crystal Palace FC and the love and support they showed to Hartlepool FC. They not only paid for their supporters to travel to the game, but they also started a fundraiser for the Hartlepool FC’s manager’s wife. She has an inoperable brain tumour and the medication keeping her alive is very expensive, £60,000 per annum. As I write this Crystal Palace FC, their supporters and others have raised over £86,000. It warmed my heart hearing this story on the news. You can find more information here, and the Just Giving page is here.

Coming soon:

1. I am going to investigate a ‘spoken word’ version of these letters, and see if the equipment I have will be up to the task.

2. I will start a separate newsletter to document my progress, or not, of becoming a published author. (This is to keep me focused and accountable. If I have to write about it, I will have to do it…) The aim is for these letters to be fortnightly. You will be able to subscribe/unsubscribe separately.

   

1. The London Writers Salon meet four times a day to enable writers to work in companionable silence together. It is a powerful thing to experience. Information about their Writers Hours can be found here, and best of all, it is free for anyone to join in.

2. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. In November they encourage writers to reach 50k words on a new novel. They are also a charity raising money enabling youngsters to access books and educational programs. They can be found here

3. Emma Dhesi is an author, podcast host, and writing coach, based in Scotland, who encourages writers to write their first book. Her info is here

4. Dallas Woodburn is an author and book coach based in America. I am the lucky recipient of a scholarship on her Thriving Authors Program. Her information can be found here