I have very fond memories of my “Grandma Downstairs” who taught me many useful things like cooking, baking and gardening. She also triggered my trust in my own psychic abilities.
My maternal great-grandmother immigrated to Pennsylvania from a small Czech town east of Prague called Chvaletice. Her name was Marie Babicka (nee Bezdek) and she was the first-born in a large family. When, at age 12, her mother died, Marie was taken out of school to stay at home and care for her family which was now even bigger since her father remarried. How is that for a Cinderella story? I remember combing her long, silver hair, that she plaited and pulled into a proper bun. My siblings and I called her “Grandma downstairs” since her daughter, our “Nana” lived upstairs in the same house.
When I was five years old, Grandma Babicka began giving me advice. She told me “learn how to cook and you’ll always have a man”, “don’t be a hussy” and other wise things. I loved being near my great-grandmother and was flabbergasted at the many skills she had mastered: cooking (she did everything from the tending the garden and raising turkeys and other animals to putting the food on the table), sewing, embroidery, flower gardening, she ran a candy shop when my great-grandfather lost his sight in an accident, raising 6 children and baking. Grandma Babicka was an extraordinary baker. I would hold my breath when she placed that beautiful, brown, round bread onto her bosom and began slicing the bread towards her neck. Yikes!
Grandma Babicka died when I was 7 years old. It was the first time I consciously lost a family member. Then I started “hearing” from her and from my Nana who was alive and living in Pittsburgh. What I mean is that I could discern information communicated by my grandmothers.
At this point, my immediate family and I lived in Chicago, 750 km from Pittsburgh. Sometime during my primary school years, I relayed a message or two to classmates and teachers and I quickly comprehended that I was doing something unacceptable. Not wanting to be “different”, I stopped sharing these communiqués with others. I did continue to sense messages from other guides and spirits, but I did not receive any more messages from Grandma Babicka until I moved to Montreal in 2012.
Our move to Canada was fraught with a number of unexpected and inconvenient circumstances. I was awaiting my work permit and Canada Immigration suffered an employee “walk-out” and the processing time for my work permit went from 3 weeks to two years. Because of this, the job I came here for fell through and I remember sitting in my living room with my head in my hands, wondering aloud “now what will I do”; and hearing a response: “use your hands”. I could envision Grandma Babicka’s sturdy hands kneading a big ball of dough. I asked her “how can I be sure that it’s you?” She said “when you go outside and see coins on the ground, that is me”. The very next day I took the dog out for a walk and it was wet and rainy. I suddenly heard “Now! Look!” and I looked on the ground to find a shiny, clean two- dollar coin sitting in the mud. The coin was not dirty or wet! What ensued was an ongoing communication from my great-grandmother that continues to this day. Information and step-by-step guidance in the pursuit of a happy, meaningful life.
We can indeed find answers to our dilemmas and dramas within. Whether it arrives as communication from a loving grandparent no longer on this Earth or our own inner wisdom bubbling to the surface. Even if one has never sensed this type of communication, it can be learned. We humans are naturally programmed to perceive all information that exists. We can learn to perceive everything. The first step is to believe it is possible.
