The Angel of Appreciation

The angel of appreciation appears in a vision set in a luscious country garden on a bright and sunny summer’s day. Her angelic aura radiates a beautiful soft blue glow and her long dress rustles in a gentle breeze. She is standing by a beautifully set table with an abundant display of summer flowers, various rich teas, and sweet delicacies. The angel picks out a single daisy flower from one of the large bouquets and twirls it between her fingers, admiring its soft petals and smelling its sweet aroma. The angel then smiles and carefully picks up one of the vases filled with flowers.

She walks over to a lone figure, softly swaying back and forth on an old weathered swing in a shadowy and overgrown corner of the garden. Look! She says to what turns out to be a pale and distracted looking woman, who does not seem to notice the angel’s arrival at all. Look! The angel repeats a little bit louder. The woman looks up at the bright angel now standing before her. She seems puzzled by the sudden disturbance of her pensive thoughts. The angel hands her the single daisy flower. Look! She says for the third time, smiling encouragingly. The woman stares blankly at the delicate flower in her hand, but in the presence of the beautiful angel of appreciation something seems to shift inside of her. Slowly her initial bewilderment starts to change into a clear focus and her awareness of the beauty and aliveness of the flower starts to grow. As she feels a slight tingle of excitement rise up through her body, the flower suddenly lights up, emanating a soft white glow that causes the woman to spring to her feet in amazement and wonder.

The angel gently leads the woman away from the old swing and together they start to walk through the blooming garden. Every few steps the angel hands the woman one of the flowers from the bouquet and every time the woman looks at the flower with intense admiration and amazement, it starts to shine and act as a guiding light along the meandering garden path, until they arrive at the abundantly set garden table. The woman’s face lights up at the sight of the beautiful flowers and the large variety of delicacies and teas displayed before her. She sits down at the table, realizing that she hasn’t allowed herself to properly enjoy the taste of such delicious food and drinks for a long time. As the tea warms her body and the sweetness of a slice of cake delights her heart, her paleness begins to transform into a healthy bright glow and her distracted state makes way for joy and a burst of renewed energy, which allows the woman to not only truly observe the large garden and soak in its beauty, but also gives her the motivation to tend to its many flowers, bushes, and trees. As she starts to fully engage in this process, alternating between investing her time and energy in the many creative and inspiring garden projects and enjoying periods of restful replenishment and nourishment, the garden blossoms and grows along with her deep appreciation for it. The beauty and rich harvest of the garden now reflect the woman’s inner fullness and satisfaction and the angel of appreciation lovingly sends down her many blessings.

The angel of appreciation points out that we are often unaware of the potential and resources that already surround us, because we are caught up in our own stories and self-imposed belief-systems, swaying back and forth in a limited space and mindset, like the woman on the weathered swing in the corner of the garden. We fail to see beyond the little world that we have created in our minds, and as time passes by, this causes us to lose our inspiration and motivation, because we no longer experience the joy of growth and expansion. The angel of appreciation encourages us to look, to truly look at the world around us in wonder and amazement.

This requires of us to expand our vision beyond our conditioned perimeter and to look up and around us with a renewed awareness, a grounded presence, and a sharpened focus. It is important to look for the positive aspects of the person or object of our attention and to truly appreciate them. This flow of appreciation will ignite the inner light and will raise the frequency of both the giver and the receiver of this powerful positive energy, like the woman and the flowers in the story. The Law of Attraction will then respond to this emanation of energy by creating a path that leads to more and more reasons for appreciating the world around us as well as for being appreciated by others. It is like a closed circuit, in which the one cannot exist without the other: You can only be a receiver of appreciation if you are a giver of appreciation.

The divine light and life-force inhabit all living beings on this planet, even the seemingly inanimate objects exist of divine energetic building blocks. When we practice appreciation, we are continuously looking to find evidence of this light and energy in everyone and everything we encounter. The act of appreciating brings us sparks of renewed energy that will eventually grow into a steadily burning flame inside our heart, which, like a lantern, will show us the easiest and most beneficial way forward. It will revitalize our body, senses, and mind and it will help us to attract more abundance into our lives, which leads to a state of fullness and satisfaction. Instead of waiting for the validation and approval of others, we have found our true source of love and appreciation by connecting to the web of light that is woven through the whole of creation.

The woman in the story also realized that she needed to take the time to replenish and nourish herself with the teas and delicacies displayed on the abundantly set table. It is important not to forget to appreciate ourselves for the magnificent and wondrous beings that we are through acts of self-care and self-love, because when we give and invest our energy from a place of overflow, we revel in the act of giving without expecting anything in return, but when we do so from a place of lack, we will eventually end up feeling resentful and drained.