My Wake Up Call: Unforgettable Moments

My Wake Up Call is a series about incredible, life changing events that open a person’s “spiritual eyes” for the first time or provide answers to important questions about the nature of reality. If you’ve had a call, you will never forget it!

This Wake Up Call is by Candice M. Sanderson

Read other stories of life changing, Wake Up Calls. Are you ready to tell your story?

Flow-ers of Energy

Life consists of single actions that create cascades of reactions that weave across the fabric of time. Most actions are inconsequential, but for some of us, those actions define us. You can put your finger on it, that indelible instant when everything changed.

My unforgettable moment was August 28, 2013.

Flash back to 2013: My children were grown with kids of their own. My life had settled into a predictable yet rewarding routine; I was perfectly happy. I went to work each day, came home, read a book, and talked on the phone, or sat in front of some sort of electronic screen. As I look back on my life then, nothing appeared out of the ordinary, not in how I dressed and spoke, or in my habits, work, friendships, or thoughts.

As a psychologist, I differentiated normal from abnormal, and my life represented nothing but the commonplace. My training as a psychologist had prepared me, or so I thought, for the challenges that life presented. That was about to change.

Planning for an average but busy day occupied my mind as I gathered my belongings and headed toward the car one morning. The summer break had ended a few weeks before, and school was back in full swing. As I exited the garage, I began to mentally prioritize tasks leading up to the back-to-back meetings for the day. Almost on autopilot, I began my short commute. It was dark; the sun had not yet risen.

The traffic was usually light this early in the morning, and today was no exception. I had driven about halfway when words that did not seem to come from any conscious thought began to flow through my mind. I stretched to reach my purse in the passenger’s seat; I needed my phone to record these messages. I managed to grab the bottom corner of my bag. As I pulled it toward me, its contents spilled through the unzipped opening and landed on the floor. Abandoning any hopes of retrieving my phone, I yielded to the message:

August 28, 2013

When you look at a flower, it is at its peak when it is open. A flower is a flow-er, and just like a human, when you let the energy flow, then the human is open to growth and potential. A plant draws energy from deep within Mother Earth, and it then ascends toward Father Sky. When there is perfect connection, this union between Mother Earth and Father Sky, the plant’s energy is in ideal alignment. Its energy is flowing, and there are no blockages. It will then burst forth from its current existence and produce a perfect blossom, a flower.

The plant is a flow-er of energy, and its perfect alignment with Source results in a flower. This is also true for humans. When humans allow their energy to flow, they open to potential growth beyond their wildest imaginations. The result is a perfect flower—beautiful, functional, and multifaceted. Let us all be flow-ers of energy, with no blockages.

As these words entered my awareness, a picture of a green plant formed in my mind. Its roots extended deep in rich, dark soil as it began to grow upward. Like a time-lapse movie, I saw a bud form and then open into a beautiful yellow flower.

I felt shocked. What was this? My breath quickened, and my heart pounded. As a psychologist, I questioned whether I was hallucinating. In my mind, I skimmed through the diagnostic criteria for hallucinations in the DSM-5, the manual used to diagnose mental conditions. I had none of them: mental illness (bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis), dementia, psychedelic drug use, or seizure disorders.

The message ended and left me with silence and thoughts that I knew were once again my own. I began to analyze this experience. Father Sky? Mother Earth? These words were not mine, nor were the thoughts, so I could dismiss this as something that came from me. I had ruled out hallucinations, but what was it? Was this one of those mystical experiences I had read about? I had no idea.

As I look back at my initial physical reactions of my heart pounding and my breath quickening, I must have felt fear, but my analysis of the message revealed there was nothing negative about it. In fact, it seemed to have only positive attributes. I smiled broadly as I realized this was awesome. It was as though I had peeked into some unknown, magical space. The mystery of the words played over and over in my mind as I continued my commute, surrounded by a sense of wonder of what had just occurred.

I arrived at my assigned school and drove into the staff parking area. The elementary school’s lighted parking lot was empty except for the office manager’s car. I gathered my briefcase, picked up the spilled contents from my purse, and headed toward my office. As I retrieved the building keys to unlock the side entrance, I stopped. The hair on the back of my neck began to stand. I turned slowly to see what had caught my attention. A tree. A royal poinciana tree. I had probably passed this tree a hundred times before, but today was different. The tree demanded my attention.

Its graceful, widely spreading branches that curved from a gnarly trunk seemed to beckon me. As the early morning sun peeked through the tree’s fern-leafed canopy, the rays produced mesmerizing patterns of shadow and light on the ground. As I gazed at this magnificence, I realized it was not just a living tree but a sentient being that was as much alive as I was.

I stood in a silent space where time did not exist, enchanted by the beauty surrounding me. Something nudged at the edges of my awareness, guiding my gaze toward a tiny bud amid the tree’s orange-red blossoms. My thoughts returned to these words: Let us all be flow-ers of energy. I realized I had been guided to the tree to see this unopened bud.

Did this bud represent me, an untapped potential waiting to blossom? If I heeded the advice to be grounded and in alignment, would my life flow as well? Would I burst into bloom like the tree? Was this a once-in-a-lifetime event, or would it happen again?

I could not explain how the message and the experience with the tree had occurred. I had more questions than answers as I opened the side door to my office suite. I walked into the building, not knowing what had happened, not knowing how the message and the experience with the tree would change me, not knowing I had taken my first steps into the unseen world of spirit. I would never be the same.

This first message and the mystical experience with the royal poinciana tree turned my world upside down. It represented a beginning, the cracking of a door into unknown dimensions. A world with softer boundaries replaced my safe, pragmatic, materialistic life as a psychologist.

Accompanying the messages of support and guidance from angels, I received information on topics completely unknown to me. I relied on my training as a psychologist to remain objective while using research skills to validate the information. Each search engine hit changed me, leading me closer to the outer fringes of what had been my normal, predictable life.

Oh, how my life has changed since that wake-up call in 2013! It altered the trajectory of my life, allowing me to glimpse into a world that most cannot see. As I swim in the vast waters of cosmic consciousness, I realize how blessed I am. I am forever grateful to those beautiful souls from the nonphysical realms who have enriched my life beyond measure.