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I openly share stories regarding spirit realm signs with friends, family and strangers alike. Often times, people listen politely but I can tell they're a bit skeptical or think these things are just coincidental. One of these friends recently had to bury her father. He 'graduated' the morning of July 2, 2022. She and her family were out of town that day and were staying in a hotel. At some point that evening, my friend turned on the tv in the hotel room. Wheel of Fortune was one of her father's favorite game shows and he watched it daily. As she watched the game show, grieving the loss of her father earlier that day, she noticed the contestant names. The names were Monica, Shannon and Mike! She has 5 siblings, 3 of whom are Monica, Shannon and Mike. She snapped a photo of the game show contestant's names and sent it to me saying, "I think my dad is telling me he's ok." I was so proud of her! Not only did she notice the sign he sent, but she also shared the picture with her family.
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Yet another cardinal story began when I was assigned a new hospice patient. It was late November 2016 and I arrived at the home of the woman who was being cared for in her daughter and son-in-law’s home. I had taken some time off as a hospice volunteer after my father ‘graduated from this Earth’ and wasn’t sure if I was ready to volunteer again. As I pulled up to the home, I said a silent prayer that I would receive a sign to validate if I was ready to commit to this patient or whether I should take some additional personal time to grieve my own loss. I walked in the door, and I kid you not when I say every inch of the walls and floor space was decorated for Christmas. Ironically, the tree was set up but appeared to be empty from my viewpoint, awaiting only the decorations. I settled into a chair across from the sweet lady and we began chatting. After about 20min, she asked me to go to the kitchen and bring her the diabetes testing kit so she could test her blood sugar. As I walked back into the living room, now viewing the Christmas tree from another angle, I noticed there were actually 2 ornaments hanging on the tree. One was a picture of her grandchildren, and the other was a bright red cardinal. I knew in that moment I was ready to be her volunteer until she ‘graduated’! I shared with her many cardinal stories from that day forward. I later discovered that she shared the cardinal stories with her daughter. Not long after she ‘graduated’, I received a thank-you card from her daughter thanking me for sharing the stories. She said she had been having a particularly difficult day as it was her mother’s birthday, and she went onto the deck to breathe some fresh air. As she was sitting there, a cardinal flew onto the deck railing and sat just a few feet in front of her looking directly into her eyes. She quietly acknowledged the sign from her mother and the cardinal flew away.
Another cardinal story happened at a family reunion. It was a reunion for my husband’s side of the family, and it was in a local park. It was very rainy that day and we all spent most of the time under the shelters eating and talking to extended family. One of my husband’s aunts had passed away the day before the reunion and I was surprised to see her adult daughter arrive. The rain stopped briefly, and the annual group photo was taken. As I walked up the hill chatting with a cousin I knew very well, we ran into the daughter who just lost her mom. Though I didn’t know her at all, I felt compelled to let her know that even though her mom had passed away, she was still with us. I told her about how God or loved ones sometimes sent cardinals as a sign that they’re still with us. She had a look on her face as I spoke that led me to believe she was merely listening politely as I rambled on about cardinals. Feeling like she thought I was crazy, I nervously continued on with one story after another about cardinals being used as signs from the spirit realm. As she continued to listen with a little smile on her face I said, “Ok, I’m going to shut up now because you probably think I’m crazy.” She laughed and said, “Turn around.” I looked behind me and there sitting quietly on a low branch was a cardinal. The daughter said, “I didn’t think you were crazy at all. As soon as you started talking, the cardinal landed in the tree and has sat there quietly listening to everything you were telling me.” I let out a huge sigh of relief and we all laughed as the only bird not tucked up in a tree on that rainy day flew away.
One of my favorite cardinal stories includes a 92-year-old hospice patient for whom I was a volunteer companion. She was confined to a wheelchair as a result of a stroke and suffered from Alzheimer’s. I visited her for about 8 months once a week in 2014. Weather permitting, I always wheeled her outside for some fresh air. One particular day shortly before she graduated from this Earth, she was uncharacteristically emotional and kept crying. As I wheeled her outside the nursing home she apologized for crying. I squatted down next to her and told her that whatever she was feeling was okay and that God sometimes sent cardinals to people who were grieving or depressed as a sign so they’d know they weren’t alone. She seemed very surprised by this so I told her we were going to sit in the gazebo and I would tell her some stories about cardinal experiences I’d had during my life. As I wheeled her toward the gazebo I could hear a cardinal chirping away in the distance. I asked her if she could hear the chirping and she did. We sat in the gazebo for about 30 min, the cardinal chirping the entire time, as I told her story after story about cardinal signs from the spirit realm. She was a little uncomfortable with one of the stories as she thought it was scary. I reassured her that these signs were sent from God, the Angels or loved ones who had known her during her life. The chirping became louder, and I suggested we go find that little bird. I pushed her wheelchair approximately 15 feet down the sidewalk beside a number of parked cars. I spotted the cardinal at the top of a 3-story pine tree across the parking lot just beside the nursing home. I pointed toward the top of the tree and asked her if she could see the bird and she could not. It was then I realized she didn’t have the range of motion in her neck to look up that high. I said to her, “I’m sure God will send it down so you can see him.” Before I even finished my sentence, the cardinal flew down from the tree, landed on the driver’s side mirror of a car that was parked directly in front of us, exactly at her eye level from her seated position in the wheelchair. She smiled and said, “I see him.” He flew away! I’m not sure how profound that experience was for her, but I like to believe it brought her comfort just as much as it did for me. I wheeled her back inside and told her I’d see her again the following week on her 93rd birthday and I’d bring her a cake and balloons to celebrate. She was being silly and told me she would hide from me! I assured her I would find her! Typically, I visited her at 10am. However, the day of my visit, her birthday, I was running late as I had to drop something off to one of my girls at school. I had already purchased a chocolate opera cream cake, but I wanted to take balloons as well. I was running in the grocery to grab some balloons and got a message that she had taken a turn for the worse over the weekend. The message was vague, so I decided to go ahead and purchase the balloons and head over to the nursing home. It was about 11am when I arrived and as I walked toward her room carrying a birthday cake and balloons, a nurse stopped me and waved me away from her room. She had just 'graduated' about 10 minutes before I arrived. I shed a few tears but then I had to silently laugh. She had told me she was going to hide if I showed up to celebrate her birthday and I insisted I’d find her. She won!!!
My mother was physically disabled due to multiple falls/fractures for approximately 17 years before she graduated from this Earth plane in 2018. I received a call one day from my sister that our mom had fallen again and was on her way to the hospital. I was at a back door neighbor’s house telling her what had happened and trying not to worry about the ‘what if there’s another broken bone’ scenario. As I was walking back to my house, I saw what I assumed was trash blowing up the stone steps onto our patio. When I got closer to pick it up, I saw that it was actually a garden flag, adorned with a wintery scene and a male cardinal. Once again, I received a sign that God was with us on this journey with our mom. I drove around the neighborhood to see if someone had an empty garden flag post but never found one. So, I kept the flag as a gift and reminder from the Universe!
One evening my husband and I were out to dinner with another couple. While discussing some struggles our one daughter was experiencing and how difficult it was, my husband let out a condescending laugh and told me I enjoyed the drama. This wasn’t the first time he had spoken to me in this manner and considering I regularly felt like a single parent trying to help struggling teens, as he buried his head in the sand pretending everything was just fine, I started crying and asked the female friend at the table to drive me home. Surprised to see me home so soon and without their dad, I told the girls I had developed a migraine and didn’t want to ruin his dinner so I came home alone. I went to my room, sobbing and praying for guidance as I somehow managed to fall asleep. I was happy my husband was out of the house early the following day, taking another daughter to a pitching lesson so I didn’t have to speak to him. I had to drive her twin to a therapist appointment that morning and was hoping to be gone by the time he arrived back home. I was on the patio waiting for my daughter to get showered and dressed so we could leave. I sat outside, silently sobbing and prayed. I asked God to send me a sign that He knew how I was being treated in my marriage. I asked God if He was still ‘working on’ my husband and if I should try to hang onto this failing relationship a little longer. I expected a cardinal to fly up, as validation that He heard my prayers, during the 5 minutes I had left before leaving for the appointment. Nothing! Slightly disappointed, I dried my eyes, put on a happy face and hopped into the car with my daughter. One thing I’ve learned is God has an amazing sense of humor and things happen in His time, not ours. As we rounded the corner in the neighborhood, I noticed my husband’s car coming toward us as he returned home from the pitching lesson. Directly behind his car was a commercial landscaping pick-up truck and an attached box trailer. Both the truck and the trailer were adorned with large cardinal logos. The company name was Cardinal Landscaping. At that time, this company typically did commercial landscaping and I had never seen them in my neighborhood doing residential jobs. Tears streamed down my face. My daughter asked if I was ok and I told her I was fine. I explained I was crying happy tears because 15 min earlier I was praying and asked God to send me a sign that He was hearing me. We both smiled! That was the day I learned God doesn’t have to use the living, breathing version of a cardinal to get His message to me!
My first memory of recognizing God/Angels sending an animal as a sign to communicate with me was when I was experiencing a great deal of stress in my life. I was extremely overwhelmed helping my sister care for our disabled parents, a special needs adult brother, 3 teen daughters, two of whom were battling mental health issues including suicidal thoughts, self-harm, panic attacks, anorexia and myself feeling trapped in a controlling marriage that was falling apart at the seams. All this, in addition to everything else a mom handles such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery, meal planning, driving kids to/from sports, helping with homework, managing schedules for the family of 5 etc. These were the ‘highlights’ for many years and I began to battle depression. I was hiding my own struggles because I used every bit of strength I could muster fighting to save everyone else. One day, after everyone left the house, I went onto the patio to get some fresh air. Overwhelmed, I began crying uncontrollably, my head buried into my arms that were folded on the table. My sobbing was interrupted by a persistent chirping. I raised my head up from the table and there was a male cardinal sitting on the back of a chair opposite mine at the table. He was staring right at me, tilting his head from side to side as he chirped away. A thought came into my mind that the cardinal was telling me I was not alone with all these things that were weighing me down and Angels were surrounding me. Just as I finished the thought, he flew away. Instant affirmation!
It was a day I never imagined I would be experiencing. The day of my divorce hearing. Needless to say I was having a rough morning, feeling like I failed, unable to save a 23-year marriage. As I sat on my couch in the family room, trying to get my emotions in check and stop the flow of tears, a blue jay flew into the small magnolia tree that is directly outside the window closest to where I was sitting. He was peering directly at me through the window. I knew then, this was a sign from my dad telling me everything was going to be okay and I was not going through this hearing alone.
In 2018 we were caring for our mother with hospice assistance at my sister’s home in Northern Ky. I was also a hospice volunteer in Ohio near my home. My Ohio patient at the time, happened to share the same name as my father, and was also in hospice care due to a stroke just as my father had before he journeyed home. One particular day after caring for my mother, I decided to visit my patient on my way home. I used to buy my dad ice-cream shakes while he was in the nursing home and this particular day I thought it would be nice to take my patient the same tasty treat. He was pleasantly surprised and as we chatted he asked me a question in reference to an experience he had when he laid down to go to sleep the prior evening. He had a vision of the spirit realm prior to closing his eyes and thought he was imagining things. I validated that he was not imagining it and asked him if he ever saw or heard his wife call his name, as those who had ‘graduated’ have that ability and more. He said he had not ever seen or heard his wife, however, he said “But there’s a man here right now.” I excitedly tried to help him identify who the man was, explaining to him that sometimes friends or relatives may appear younger than they did when they ‘graduated’. He told me when he looked directly toward him, the man disappeared. I shared with him that he should look out of his peripheral vision and he would still be able to see him. He did this and said, “I don’t know him.” I encouraged him to think about it, hoping he would figure out who it was eventually and I went home. The following morning, I woke up and I heard in my mind, “It was your dad.” I jumped out of bed, ran down the steps, opened the door to let my dog out, a blue jay squawked and landed in the tree. I laughed and said silently to my dad, “Hello, it took me a minute, I’m a natural blonde.” I picked up the phone, called my patient and asked him where he saw the man the day before. He said to me, “He was sitting next to you at the table.” I replied, “I figured out who he was, it was my dad.” He laughed and said, “Well that’s why I didn’t know him.” This is by far one of my favorite bluejay stories because there was a bonus, my sweet patient also saw my father sitting next to me that day.
Over the years I have shared many cardinal stories with family and friends. One day after sharing one of my cardinal stories with my brother, he made the comment that he rarely saw cardinals but always noticed bluejays. I distinctly remember telling him I’d never seen a bluejay where I lived which was about an hour north of his home in KY. Then my father ‘graduated’ in November 2015. The day following his passing, I opened the front door to let my little dog Max outside to do his business. I was startled by a large squawk followed by a bluejay landing in the tree. I didn’t dwell on it. but a thought entered my mind and I wondered to myself, “Hmm, I wonder if dad is going to send bluejays as a sign instead of cardinals?” It didn’t take long to figure out that is exactly one of the signs he would send me, but only when I needed it most.
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AuthorI've often shared my personal experiences of signs I've received from the spirit realm with others in hopes they might start recognizing signs they're being sent from God, the Angels or loved ones who have returned Home. I've been encouraged over the years to write down my experiences and share them on a blog or in a book. I'll start with this blog and see where spirit leads me next! The stories are in no particular order as I've just recently started to write them down and I'll be adding them here as time allows. I hope you enjoy the true stories of my personal signs from the spirit realm that have made the difficult experiences in my life quite a bit easier! In my stories, I like to refer to someone's return to the spirit realm as 'graduation from this Earth school'. Some people will say the stories are just coincidences and that's okay. It's not my job nor my desire to prove anything to anyone. My only goal is to share what I know to be true! ArchivesCategories |
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