Angel Signs and a new Spiritual Healing Book

Hello, beautiful souls.

I thought I'd share some fascinating angel signs that happened to me/ for me this week.

I don't ask for angel signs often. Maybe a couple times a year.

Perhaps it's because my daughter Lisa Driver is a spiritual healer and angel card reader, among other talents, or because of my own intuition and spiritual views, or the things I've learned in editing and publishing Lisa's first three amazing spiritual guidebooks. (This is also a hint that her fourth book, You Are Enough: Activate Your Angels & Magnetize a Soul-FULL Life - being released in October - will blow your mind! Here's a link to her Kickstarter crowdfunding project, where you can preorder the book at a discount and receive other offerings including channelled meditations and private readings - http://kck.st/3AQVknK)

Anyway... Angel signs have just kind of appeared in front of me randomly since my mom passed away in 2011 and Lisa began training in spiritual healing the following year. Coins, feathers, dragonflies, butterflies...

But back to this week.

I've been pondering something for the last few days, overthinking it as usual (cause that's what I do and it isn't annoying at all).

So I finally decided to ask for a sign while I was driving one day and listening to the radio.

"If I'm meant to go this way, I need to hear a song about an angel," I stubbornly thought. "Good luck with that, Universe," was my follow-up thought, putting no pressure at all on the Universe to deliver.

So I kept driving. I changed the radio station a couple times, then I zoned out and began daydreaming about this and that and this again...

Then I noticed the song playing on the radio...

"My blood runs cold

My memory has just been sold

My angel is the centrefold

Angel is the centrefold..."

In that uptempo song by J. Geils Band, the word "angel" is repeated many, many times.

Well played, Universe. Well played.

The next afternoon, I was standing in my backyard, watering my flowers, when a big, gorgeous blue-green hummingbird flew in. It landed on one and then another zinnia flower, then flew over to a second patch beneath my sunflowers to touch on three more flowers!

I haven't seen a hummingbird in my yard for at least 10 years!

I didn't have a camera, so I'm sure it flew slower than usual and stayed longer than usual so I could imprint the images in my memory.

(Below is a photo of my zinnias and sunflowers. Imagine the lovely bird enjoying the end of this year's flowers.)

I guess I got my answer, huh?

P.S. Lisa Driver's first three spiritual guidebooks can be purchased from this page - https://www.driverworks.ca/healing--wellness.html

Books and beauty in Medicine Hat

In July, I travelled to the beautiful city of Medicine Hat, Alberta to visit family. It had been six months since I'd seen my oldest daughter, Lisa, and her family in person. The only other time Lisa and I were apart this long was when she was travelling in Europe after completing university in Calgary. Both of those time periods felt like an eternity.

The past six months of not seeing her face-to-face, hugging her, and making in-person plans for our next book projects as authors and co-publishers was especially long with the added stress of COVID-19. I missed her and her husband, Kyle, and their two daughters, especially as the youngest was learning to talk. So when one of my closest friends invited me into her pandemic bubble to go along for a drive to Alberta, I gladly accepted. We'd both been careful about self-isolating, sanitizing, and wearing face masks when we occasionally went out in public in our city of Regina, and we continued with precautions on our journey west.

Medicine Hat is a lovely city, with the South Saskatchewan River, the hills and coulee/ravine adding to its beauty. Deer can be seen wandering through the neighbourhoods and the people who live there are typical, friendly Canadian Prairie folk who help each other out and care for their community.

The efforts to revitalize the downtown area of Medicine Hat include numerous wall murals that Lisa and I enjoyed during a morning work break.

We also talked about our newest book ventures - my two volumes of Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation and the newest spiritual guidebook that Lisa is writing to add to her other three great guidebooks. This is exciting stuff! 

Watch the video we shot in The Hat for details, including the title of Lisa's upcoming book!

All in all, it was a soul-filling visit with much opportunity to work and play with some of my favourite people.

P.S. You can purchase your copies of Flight: Stories of Canadian Aviation here from DriverWorks Ink. The books are also available as e-books from your favourite e-book vendors.

Special thanks to Creative Saskatchewan for its Book Publishing Production Grants support for the Flight series.

Christmas in February - an angel sign on a plane

On the last leg of my flight home from a recent vacation in Kauai, I was sitting in a plane at the airport in Calgary, AB. I closed my eyes and said to my dear departed husband, "Hey, babe, I'm coming home," which is weird because I feel his spirit with me wherever I go.

But I said it. Without questioning it or thinking too much about it.

Then I noticed that the background music playing on the airplane was Little Drummer Boy.

On February 28th. A Christmas song. Weird.

Weirder still is that Little Drummer Boy just might have been Al's favourite Christmas song. He especially loved pumming along as we sang this song with the ragtag group of carollers from our church.

Messages from heaven come in all sorts of ways at all variety of times. I've learned this from my daughter Lisa Driver's three books (Opening Up, Leap, and Boundaries and Bucket-filling) in reading and editing her writings about angel messages and connections to our departed loved ones.

I have learned not to doubt angel signs or question them. I have learned to accept them and be grateful that my departed loved ones want to show me they are with me.

Some angel signs are stranger than others. I have found some to be upsetting because I'd rather have my husband here than wherever he's hanging out these days. But there's nothing I can do about that except feel my feelings.

This particular angel sign made me shake my head in wonder and then smile. Christmas in February on a plane in Calgary. Strange.

An Angel Sign at Church - A Message from Beyond or a Coincidence?

I am a “liberal” Christian woman who believes in God, in Jesus Christ, and in angels and other out-of-this-world spiritual guides and helpers.

There. I said it. I believe in angels.

Oh. Were you stuck on the “I believe in God and in Jesus Christ” thing? Then this is not the blog post for you.  You may want to move on to reading something else.
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Here I am, in 2017, believing in God and in angels … and in angel signs.

​I didn’t use to believe in angels much, aside from the whole “your guardian angel will protect you” thing that I was taught growing up in the Catholic faith. The thought of angels being around us all the time is a relatively new awareness for me. And it’s one I am just fine talking about now.

In 2012, when my oldest daughter, Lisa Driver, discovered her gift of talking to angels/departed loved ones – yes, like Long Island Medium, Lisa occasionally talks to dead people – I was curious. (I’m a trained journalist. Curiosity is essential.) The more Lisa researched, trained, and honed her gift, the more she wanted to help others, which led to her writing her first book, Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition And Work With Your Angels, I, being a good mom and a book publisher, volunteered to help her publish that book, and I’m proud that I did so because the book has won an award (Winner, Spiritual category, 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival) and has helped hundreds of people already.​

Lisa Driver, author of Opening Up

I knew that publishing this book would mean that I, as Lisa’s publisher and mom, would be asked questions about what I believe regarding angels, mediums, after-life etc. So I came to terms with my own changing beliefs.

I am a practising, faithful member of the United Church of Canada. Lisa was raised in this denomination too. As she explains in her book, “I was filled with peace when I heard the minister speak of a loving God who wanted the best for us and for us to love each other. The ministers, youth leaders, and families that attended were so welcoming, open, caring, and full of love. For me, church was (and still is) a place where I could go and feel accepted, faults and all.”

This is my experience with the United Church of Canada as well. Mostly. There have been times when things haven’t been all rosy – we are humans after all – but in general, my denomination and my local church congregation, worship services and committee work fill me with love, peace, and hope. Through pastoral care, prayer, and our work in the world, we help people serve others, embrace and celebrate life, heal, grieve, and be the best people that we can be. We are a caring community. I find my participation in my chosen religion is a fulfilling, wonderful way to live my life.

After reading Lisa’s Opening Up book, I accepted the concept that angels and angel signs are connected to God, or whatever you choose to call the Divine Love that guides us all. Many of my church friends also embrace this concept of angels and angel signs as other parts of their spirituality that they’d wondered about but couldn’t discuss before since it didn’t fall under traditional “church” concepts. It is marvellous for me, as a mother and a constantly evolving human being, to see the growth in myself and others because of these new concepts of connecting with our angels, shown to me by my daughter.

In Lisa’s Opening Up book, she notes that feathers and coins are two of the most common physical signs that people receive from their angels. “While finding a nickel on the street is common, if you find coins in mysterious places or when you are feeling down, know it is your angels getting your attention and trying to put a smile on your face. I had a client who found dimes everywhere – on her bathroom counter, on top of her microwave, even on her bed! She knew these dimes were a sign from her grandma that she was still with my client, watching over her and sending her strength and support. Feathers are a very common sign because of the wings we envision on angels.”

Which brings me to this amazing story…

One Sunday morning in late February 2017 was a very emotional day for me. It was not only my birthday – a day I did not want to celebrate since the recent death of my husband, Al – but it was an important day in our church year too. We held our annual meeting after our worship service, and a motion was made to remove my late husband’s name as a trustee for our church. This is church policy and an important step that I knew had to happen. I wasn’t ready for it emotionally though. Al died in January 2016 after a short battle with colon cancer. He was diagnosed as being terminal only two and a half weeks before he passed away, so I and our family and closest friends were still, in large part, reeling from this sudden death. (Lisa wrote about Al’s illness and death, among other things, in a wonderfully helpful way in her second book, Leap! How To Overcome Doubt, Fear, And Grief & Choose The Path Of Joy, which was awarded Runner-up, Spiritual, 2017 Great Northwest Book Festival, by the way.)

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At our church meeting, a friend made the motion, on behalf of his committee, to remove Al’s name as a trustee. This friend fought back tears as he spoke and we all became quiet and emotional, watching this open display of affection and loss.

A few minutes later, a dear friend of mine, Nadine, stood on behalf of the Nominations Committee and put forward my name to be accepted as a trustee. I had volunteered to put my name forward for that position. I wanted to honour Al’s memory and I knew it was a job that was usually not too taxing time-wise and was something I could do, amid my grief, having been an active member of our congregation for more than 30 years. The nomination was accepted and everyone became sombre again after that vote. It touched me deeply.

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About 15 minutes later, the meeting ended. Nadine came running up to me and said, “Deana! Look at me!” She grabbed my arms and turned me towards her.

I was confused. Nadine is quiet, rarely gets excited in public, and never yells.

“Look at me!” she strongly repeated.

So I looked at her face. “Look down,” she instructed.

Which I did. And there, on the front of the skirt of her beautiful red dress was a perfectly placed, small white feather.

“Wow,” I said.

“I know!” she said. “I swear, Deana, I stood up to offer your name as the nomination for trustee, and I wasn’t near anything, and I sat down and there on my dress was this feather. It’s like he approves of the nomination.”

I took a photo of this feather. I knew that Lisa would be thrilled by this amazing angel sign, and I wanted to remember it as well.

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​Nadine was talking about my late husband, Al, of course, when she said “he”.

We have seen enough nickels and quarters dimes and feathers on our walks and at restaurants and various other places in this last year to know that he is with us, sharing in our daily lives, and that we should not question where they came from. They are signs from Al, my departed loved one, our departed loved one. Still, we are human and we want to figure out where and why.

As another dear friend, Susan, came up to us to visit, I asked Nadine to tell Susan what happened. As Nadine finished her story, she started trying to explain that she had no idea where the feather came from. Susan, being much more understanding of angels for much longer than I have been, interrupted, “Don’t try to explain it. Just accept it for the marvellous miracle that it is.”

So we did that. We smiled, knowing that this was a message for us and that we should accept it gracefully and gratefully.

As I left the church and walked out to my vehicle, I saw a nickel on the ground by the driver’s side door. Another message from my angels. “God is with you. You are not alone.”

It is easy sometimes to pooh-pooh concepts that are different from what you have been taught. In my journalism career, I learned not to dismiss the perspectives of other people, especially if those ideas and approaches were not harmful to others.

My mother passed away from pancreatic cancer a few years before Al died. My father and father-in-law had also passed, and a few months after Al died last year, my mother-in-law passed away. We have lost many dear friends and other family members in recent years. I miss them all and would do anything to have them back in my daily life, but that is not to be. Connecting with angels, with my dear departed loved ones and other loving spirits connected to God, brings me courage and hope to get through my days and, especially, difficult moments. These little angel signs bring a smile to my face and a light to my heart. Sometimes they make me laugh out loud at the oddball timing and placement of the signs. They help me get through the darkest hours. They are a gift from God and I accept them gratefully.

Busing it to Medicine Hat to sell books and carry on while grieving

I travelled by bus to Medicine Hat, Alberta from my home in Regina, Saskatchewan on the weekend – to do some work, including a signing at the Coles bookstore in the Medicine Hat Mall. I also enjoyed a visit with my eldest daughter, Lisa (who is also an award-winning author), my son-in-law Kyle, and their five-month-old baby girl. It was the first time in decades that I had travelled on a Greyhound bus and it was quite the experience.

I chose to take the bus because road conditions on the Canadian Prairies can change quickly, especially in winter months. I didn't want the stress of having to drive for almost five hours during a snowstorm if the weather turned bad. I thought an experienced bus driver could do that for me and I could figure out how to close my eyes and pretend everything was alright if the weather changed for the worse. Which it did, of course.

The drive there was fine. 

There was very little snow along the drive on Thursday morning. It was surprising to be able to see the fields. I did some people-watching on the packed bus – which stopped at many different communities along the way, offering plenty of opportunities for new characters to board and attract my attention.

I saw travellers who had either little income or no desire to care for themselves clothing-wise or hygiene-wise. These were people of all ages. There were younger males who explained to others that they were travelling across the country because of the downturn in the economy. (It is close to impossible to not overhear others while waiting at a bus terminal, especially boisterous young males.) Some travellers were older and by themselves. I gravitated toward older women, as they seemed closest to my age and life story.

During our lunch stop in Swift Current on the way there, I sat at a table with an older woman who also turned out to be a widow. We had a lovely visit and discussed our grief and how it takes years to process it and learn to live with it. We also talked about how others who are not as affected by our loved one’s death have carried on with their lives within days or weeks. It is hard being a widow. It is hard being alone. Our conversation offered some healing moments for each of us and we were glad we’d found each other on this journey, among this bus full of strangers.

On the buses there and back, there were a handful of riders who had obvious mental health problems. One talked loudly and explained his illness to anyone in his path. He was obviously a nice guy, but definitely sick. I wondered about him and felt sad that his drug use caused more problems for his mental health and daily interactions with others. One young man had visible twitches and made many trips to the bathroom on the bus ride home. Another yelled out in his sleep. It was enough to make me uncomfortable and I thought about the bus drivers who meet these people daily and take them onto their buses, hoping everything goes well – which it did on my buses.

On arrival in The Hat, I was met by my daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and this terrific sign:

It was the start to a great weekend.

As always, Lisa and I spent many hours talking about our books, marketing ideas, book awards contests, future book sales and signings, and other strategies for our respective companies - her Above 540 and my DriverWorks Ink.

It began snowing on Friday night and continued for the rest of the weekend. We visited and worked, drove through the snow, and visited and worked some more. (And I got in plenty of Grandma cuddles!)

Oh ... and we got our toenails painted! Thanks, Lisa, for the early birthday gift!

On Saturday, we had a signing event at the Coles bookstore in the mall.  Lisa signed her award-winning spiritual book Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition And Work With Your Angels and her new book Leap! How To Overcome Doubt, Fear And Grief & Choose The Path Of Joy. I signed two non-fiction books that I have compiled, Cream Money: Stories of Prairie People and Fun on the Farm: True Tales of Farm Life.

My granddaughter is the cutest co-signer I've ever had!

At the signing, we held each other up emotionally and spiritually when people asked about Lisa's new book, Leap! In it, she shares details of her own story and how she felt when she heard the news in August 2015 that her dad (my husband, Al) had colon cancer. She shares what that diagnosis meant in her life and how she coped with that situation at what should have been the happiest time of her life – a time of expecting her first baby.

Our entire family lived with hope from the minute that Al got sick. He chose to fight with all he had and we chose to be there beside him, doing whatever we could to keep all our spirits up and LIVE in every moment we had together. Unfortunately, in December 2015, the doctors surprised us with news that they could do no more. Al passed away two weeks later, on January 4, 2016.

In her Leap book, Lisa talks about overcoming feelings of doubt and fear as well, but mostly her story is one of carrying on through grief. She shares meditations and exercises and strategies to help readers overcome these obstacles and events in their lives.

It was tough for me to read her story, hearing my own child's pain. It was emotional for me to edit it and publish it. But she did it and I did it.

The story is difficult but important.

We know it has already helped others. 

"I am reading your new book and cannot put it down! It is filling me with the inspiration and affirmations I require. Your opening of your soul so openly in this book has me examining every inch of my own soul and filling it with love and appreciation for the journey I too am on."

We know Lisa's new book will continue to help others. And we are confident that Leap, like her first book, Opening Up, will win a book award too. It’s very well written.

So every time Lisa and I get together – as happens with my other two children and their partners – we talk, we listen, we care for each other. We miss our dad, dad-in-law and husband. We talk about him. We love him and each other. We grieve. We cry. We laugh. We hug each other. And we carry on.

Al and Deana Driver, 2013

The little one's fingers on the window were a precious sight as she looked out at the snow.

The bus leaves Medicine Hat going east only once a day. At 3:15 a.m. 

As the bus depot's answering machine's voice message says, “You heard that right; 3:15 in the morning.” You cannot buy a ticket “at this ungodly hour” – a comment that made me laugh out loud – but if you buy your ticket ahead of time, as I did, you can get on a bus driven by an experienced driver who will head out onto the highway even though it’s been snowing for three days and is still snowing, and there are warnings to stay off the highway.

It's quiet on the streets of pretty much any Canadian town or city at 2:30 in the morning. Medicine Hat is no exception.

I tried really hard to sleep while the bus driver did his job. The one kind-of-open lane of highway caused me some stress.

And it got a little worse partway home.

I did not take photos during the worst parts. I closed my eyes and said a lot of prayers.

But we made it! And I wanted to express my appreciation to the driver.

As he handed me my suitcase, which he had just pulled out from the storage compartment under the bus, I handed him a $20 bill. "I haven't taken a bus for years and I wanted to thank you for getting us here safely."

He just looked at me, so I asked him to please take it. He lifted his arm up and out a bit and asked me to "put it there", under his armpit. Ummm... okay.

As I turned and started walking away, he followed and stopped me. "Do you know that this is only the second time in 26 years that this has happened?"

"That someone gave you a tip?" I asked.

"Yes." 

"Well, you deserve it." And I left. Perplexed. I understand that people who ride the bus may not have much money but ... really? Not even a dollar? Sad.

My daughter-in-law Kelli and my youngest grandson picked me up from the bus depot and drove me home. I cherished the hugs and the "Welcome Home" sign made by my four-year-old grandson.

As I shovelled snow, I thought about the weekend and all its experiences and interactions. 

I saw this mug in Lisa's and Kyle's cupboard and I used it all weekend.

Profound and appropriate. Exactly.

Fun at Frontier Days - Swift Current's Summer Fair

Frontier Days Fair and Rodeo in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, is typical of summer fairs across Western Canada. It has its share of cowboys, cowgirls, ranchers, cattle, horses, midway rides, midway food, exhibits, cowboy hats, trade show items for sale, home-cooked food, and entertainment.

DriverWorks Ink had a booth at the Frontier Days trade show this year and Al and I spent time visiting with lots of great people, including Bryce Burnett, author of our book Homegrown and other poems. Bryce is a local rancher as well as a poet and a member of the Swift Current Ag & Ex board of directors, serving as chairperson of the Livestock section of Frontier Days.

Here's a photo journal of our time at Frontier Days 2015.

Howdy, partner! Welcome to Swift Current's Kinetic Park!

This is the door to the office of the Stockade Building, where we were set up as part of the commercial exhibits/trade show.

Here's my partner in publishing (and my husband too), Al Driver, telling customers about our amazing Prairie books written by Prairie authors, including me. 

Outside the Stockade Building, there was a lot going on too.

West Coast Amusements was set up to entertain with amusement rides, games, food, etc.

Doc's Town is a section of Kinetic Park that features preserved Prairie buildings and other features such as farm machinery.

I didn't know Case tractors were ever blue. I suspect this one was painted and then moved to this property. The Case tractors we drove on the farm, when I was growing up in Alberta, were a distinctive orange colour like this one - which looks a lot like the one we had. (Seeing the photo of this two-toned orange Case tractor just took me back almost 50 years to my days as a 10-year-old frantically trying to reach the clutch and brake as I turned the corner while pulling the baler behind the tractor. Yikes!)

But back to Swift Current's Frontier Days...

Walking around the grounds, I enjoyed the old buildings, but I did stop and do a double-take when I saw this...

It's a DINOSAUR!

A man dressed as a dinosaur actually - moving every so often and freaking out whoever happens to look that way. It's part of an educational display to tell folks about that era. 

"Alright, heart... you can slow down your beating again now..." I said to myself.

At supper time, this was the best place to go on the grounds. 

The Tea House offered home-cooked meals, like this turkey dinner, complete with lemonade and a dessert of lemon cake and ice cream. 

For $14, this was all ours to enjoy. That's right, ours. Al and I shared this delicious meal as well as the roast beef dinner the following evening. 

Another fine feature of these meals - the profits from the meals went towards the maintenance of Doc's Town on the grounds. Win Win!

We got a chuckle out of this ironic sight - a burly Hutterite farmer holding this very pink, very feminine, inflatable "Princess Power" mallet. It just goes to show you the warm heart of this fellow.

And we saw cowboy hats. Lots of them.

Even on little guys like this one, who was enjoying his berry-flavoured drink on a hot, hot summer day. (His parents gave me permission to take and share his photo.)

On another stroll around the grounds, I headed toward the barns. I enjoyed seeing this operational "General Store" selling cold drinks, snacks, and various hardware and other items.

These cattle are being led between the barns.

A 4-H Angus class is being judged here. (Our author and friend Bryce Burnett raises Black Angus cattle and Tarentaise cattle, by the way.)

These riders are lining up for their turn in the ring.

A heavy horse event is being judged.

I asked this woman's permission to take a photo of her shirt. Every time I see angel wings, I think of eight-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner, subject of my award-winning book Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope (shameless plug). 

This woman graciously stopped walking and posed for me.

I thanked her. She will never know how many people have smiled and been given a tiny bit of joy and hope because of the shirt she wore that day.

I got a kick out of the prizes offered on the midway. Minions were everywhere...

... including in the lap of this tiger!

Minion Fall Down ... Can't Get Up!

WHAT ... IS ... THIS?

That's exactly what I said to myself as these spry young fellows walked by our booth one afternoon.

I caught up to them a couple aisles later and, being the shy young men that they are (not), they quickly began posing for me when they saw my camera. Clever guys. 

But it must have been ridiculously hot in those outfits since it was plus 34 degrees Celsius most days of the fair! The things some people will do to make an entrance, hey?

We were pleased to see people stop at the booth of STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service Foundation, which operates in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba). "STARS offers time, hope and life-saving transport to critically-injured patients."

Jeffrey Dickson, the STARS community relations officer for Saskatchewan, was selling lottery tickets for STARS. 

My favourite line from Jeff came when a man accidentally tripped on a chair by Jeff's booth. Jeff quickly responded with, "This is the right booth if you're going to get hurt." Jeff may not be a paramedic, but he has a great sense of humour and works for a good organization.

And the BIG NEWS of the fair for us?

Bryce Burnett has been notified that his book, Homegrown and other poems, has been named a Finalist for a 2015 Will Rogers Medallion Award. How great is that?

Bryce's book of cowboy and other poetry celebrating Prairie rural life has already won an Honorable Mention in the Poetry category of the 2014 Great Midwest Book Festival. How nice would it be to win another award!

Congratulations, Bryce! Well done. 

(Bryce and I stopped for a selfie to celebrate his book being named Finalist in this prestigious competition.)

The Will Rogers Medallion will be handed out this fall in Fort Worth, Texas. We'll keep you posted on how Bryce's book fares.

Al Driver and Bryce Burnett had a visit at our booth one evening, when Bryce could take a break from his Ag & Ex duties.

And our daughter Lisa Driver visited us for a bit one day too. Lisa is the author of the award-winning spiritual wellness book, Opening Up: How To Develop Your Intuition and Work With Your Angels.

Shortly after this photo, she and I drove to Regina to get ready for her bridal shower! yes, this is going to be a great, busy summer!

But first, farewell from Swift Current's Frontier Days!

May your summer include time for you to relax and have some fun.

May you find joy in the simple things, the images and sights and sounds that surround you.

Most of all, may you find time to be with the ones you love.

Happy summer, everyone!