An Earth Angel's Intervention
Harriotte was an absolute force of nature. Having grown up in Kentucky, she still spoke with a southern drawl even though she’d been living in the Midwest for decades. My grandparents were from KY. I lived there as a little girl. There was comfort in the way she spoke.
I met Harriotte through divine intervention. It was a time in my life when I felt like I was drowning; I had forgotten that I could swim. I went to see a specialist due to an ocular migraine that had left my vision impaired. After a ton of testing, she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. She could tell I was stressed out and struggling, and she gave me Harriotte’s number, saying to call her now, that she wasn’t getting any younger.
I’d grown up believing that seeing a therapist was a stigma. I had resisted it for so long. I also found it really hard to trust people. I’d learned the hard way over and over again that when you get vulnerable and open your heart, people can’t be trusted. I was going to stash her number and maybe someday I’d give her a call. Something inside me pushed me to call the very next day. That nudge saved my life.
I had been struggling since my intuitive gifts opened up. A part of me wondered if I was crazy. Was I really seeing angels? Was I really seeing dead people? Had I maybe become delusional? She assured me that I was not delusional or crazy. I was simply opening up to my extrasensory gifts. I knew in my heart that this was true; it just felt good to have a professional voice back it up.
My favorite kind of people are the ‘what you see is what you get.’ They are fully themselves, unapologetically. That was Harriotte. She was sweet, but she was also tough. She’d pose a question, and if the answer came immediately from my ego, her response was, “That’s bullshit, try again.” I admired her for that.
Perhaps this is where I should mention that when I started seeing Harriotte, she was in her late 80s. We would schedule our sessions around her Pilates classes and we would end on time so that she could walk her dog, Max. I think age was just a number to her. She lived her life, and she lived it fully.
There was a routine to our sessions. I’d arrive, and Max and I would play fetch with his ball. Sometimes I was throwing it up the stairs, and sometimes I was rolling it down the stairs; it depended on how far I’d gotten when he spotted me. We would play for a few minutes, and then we’d head into the office. He was a lovely co-therapist.
The sessions were enlightening, to say the least. Harriotte pointed out things that I was completely unaware of, such as how I laughed every time I recounted something painful. It was a self-defense mechanism, seemingly to make light of my pain and to shrug it off like it didn’t matter. I truly never realized that I did this. When it happens today, I catch myself.
Ever the student, I always took notes during our time together. She noticed how small my writing was. I’d always figured I did it to save paper. I thought it was cool that I could write so small and cram so much in. She gave me another way to look at it: I was shrinking myself, not allowing myself to take up space. In my life, it was yet another defense mechanism - to stay small, to stay safe, yet I had so much to express and to share.
In our time together, she showed me such support and unconditional love. She listened to me; she saw me in a way that I wasn’t able to see myself. One of the greatest gifts she gave me was clueing me in to my own light.
I had plenty of evidence as to all of the things that were wrong with me. Harriotte compassionately, yet firmly, replied, “Adrienne, there is nothing wrong with you. Truly. You see so much beauty in the world, and to see that beauty, you must have it within. I see your light. I see YOU.”
My light? What was that supposed to mean? It wasn’t just her words; it was the way that she said them, the vibration that came through. My light… She could see this, so I wanted to be able to see it too. It became my mission.
To see someone’s light is to see them at a soul level. It’s to see the divine essence in them. It’s the most true aspect of themselves; the very core of who they are. To me, it is their soul self. It is due to years of conditioning, perhaps trauma, and allowing the ego to solely run the show that we are disconnected from this aspect, that we can’t see it, or may not even realize it’s there.
It may take inner work, healing, working with mindset, and/or therapy, but it is attainable. It is the unbecoming of who we were conditioned and expected to be, and it is the becoming - or perhaps a better term is returning - returning to who we truly are and came here to express ourselves as.
I valued every session I had with Harriotte. She pulled me out of a dark place and helped me stand steady on my own two feet. It was about two years later that life ended up taking me to a retreat center in the Catskills. I stayed in touch with her. Harriotte continued to be such an amazing support. She retired in her 90s.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Harriotte’s son that she was in hospice. I was able to go and meet a few of her children. Though she was unresponsive, it was beautiful to just be present with her and to share stories with her loved ones. She passed two days after my visit. She transitioned back to spirit on the Spring Equinox, which I find rather fitting.
Harriotte is an absolute inspiration and role model to me. She made such an impact on my life and the lives of so many others. I currently do the work that I do, using my intuitive gifts, to help others shed what is keeping them disconnected from their own light. To break through the inner barriers that are keeping them stuck, helpless, or unhappy.
When I think of Harriotte, I smile. This Earth angel will always be dear to me. My heart is full of gratitude to her and for her. I know that she is reunited with Max and her loved ones and is probably having one heck of a celebration. She will be missed in the physical, but her memory and her light live on.
Heart Hugs, Adrienne :)
