I’m so happy that I got to meet Irish mystic, Lorna Byrne (“Angels in My Hair) tonight along with a select group of yummy fellow Austinites in the lovely home of Giselle Koy and her daughter in the heart of Austin. Lorna is just as down to Earth and “real” in person as I experienced in both reading her book as well as interviewing her on the air (www.blogtalkradio.com/Hope42day).

For those of you who may have never heard of Lorna, “Angels in my Hair” is her autobiography. When she was a child, people thought Lorna was retarded because she did not seem to be focusing on the world around her, but was instead seeing angels and spirits. As Lorna tells the story of her life, the reader meets, as she did, the creatures from the spirit worlds who also inhabit our own: mostly angels of astonishing beauty and variety–including the prophet Elijah and an archangel–but also the spirits of people who have died.

If you’d like to meet Lorna, please go to www.lornabyrne.com to see the schedule for her U.S. tour. She will be at the Unity Church of the Hills in Austin on Monday, June 14 and then on to Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco.

What Lorna keeps saying over and over in her book, in her interviews and when you meet her in-person is that angels are all around us. We each have a Guardian Angel–always. All we have to do is ask for their help and guidance. They are just waiting to help us. She told one story tonight of being on the train and seeing all these people (humans) looking straight ahead, not smiling, not looking at each other and the train was full of angels, brightly colored, beautiful angels who would sometimes get right in front of a person–face-to-face–and the human would all of a sudden smile and then go back into their hidden world of looking straight ahead not connecting with anyone or anything around them. So next time any of y’all are stuck in traffic or riding on a long bus or train ride, I want you to break out in a grin every now and again just in case there is an angel right in front of you. Might make them shine brighter, who knows?

I am so in awe of the courage that Lorna has to come out and talk about her experience. She says that all of us are born seeing and knowing angels and then we convince ourselves that we are not seeing or hearing them or we’re told that we’re crazy or what-have-you. I’ve always heard my angels, but I sure didn’t listen to them. I’ve also “seen” them in my mind’s eye.

The most important thing for us to remember is that there really is help all around us, all the time. The code of honor says that we must first give permission to receive help though. You can’t imagine how much I ask for help these days. This morning on the way to the morning devotional, I sang to my Guardian Angel and all the other teams of angels that are here to help to come on through and help. Help me to see, help me to hear, help me to walk through the doors of opportunity that are open to me. You know I prayed for squadrons of angels to head to the oil spill and help all life there. You know I prayed for another group to head over to the Middle East as well.

Suspend your suspicion of what you think may not be there and instead open your heart to wonder. I had an image come to me this evening while Lorna was talking that the reason we fear is because we don’t want to hurt but that when we allow the full feeling that we are afraid of being hurt by to fully come through, our heart sheds it’s outer layer (much like how a snake sheds its skin) and it expands to allow more love inside.

May the love fest begin. May your love fest begin. May you allow yourself to receive.