Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
What message of guidance do you offer us today?

Undertake your next step on your journey with calm propriety, owning all that you have done and experienced in the past, and accepting all that you now must face. Your time upon that earth is meant to be fully embraced as a time of growth, awareness, and potential. I know that each day do you seek enlightenment of some sort, yet do you often feel neglected or left out of the cycle. You may feel that others around you find enlightenment in the simplest of activities and in the most common of episodes. You may feel that life is just too worrisome and difficult, too complicated and confusing to hold any enlightenment. You may feel burdened and saddened with too much to bear for enlightenment to find any room in your life.

Well, My Dear Ones, perhaps your quest has not been allowed to be a part of your life. Perhaps you are so taken with the world you live in that you have not, in fact, allowed anything else to occupy your time upon that earth. Perhaps you find your self wrapped up in your problems and your misery because you need to be there, caught in a vicious battle with your evolving self who asks you each day to reconsider your approach to life. Do you not weep and say: Why does my life have to be like this? Why must I have such problems and such misery? Why me?

Why me, indeed. Do you not realize that your spirit is requesting that you look at your self in a different manner, as each daily question is posed? Do you not hear the underlying truth of those questions you ask your self? Your inner you is asking for inner contemplation, seeking answers to your questions, not by asking those questions out loud, but by asking them innerly.

I know that you do, in essence, ask them of your inner self. I know that you find it such a difficult task to face the deeper self, yet must I request that it is necessary to ask again and again, and each time to go deeper and deeper inside the self. This is the greatest challenge to undertake as you look into your mirror of the self. It is time to look past the reflection of the self, beyond just the outer person you see looking back at you, the one who smiles and thinks you look okay, that you are presentable, clean and neat, and ready to take on the world.

But what about the self who sits just below that layer? What if you were to peel away that outer self and expose the next layer, revealing the more tender, fearful self who you have been protecting with that outer facade? What if you went even further and peeled away that very tender layer and discovered the next layer of self, even more tender, more frightened, perhaps a very vulnerable self, and asked that self to talk to you? Do you see what I am saying? You are many layered beings. You are complicated and intricately built, with many layers, many issues, many emotions, feelings and, most of all, many closely bound selves waiting to be exposed, so that you may grow.

I do not mean that it is appropriate to expose these tender selves to the world, but I do urge you to expose them to your self. For only in discovering your multi-layered self will you be able to fulfill your potential in that life, as well as in your spiritual life. As you peel away your layers, you will indeed begin to ache, to feel more deeply, perhaps to be in such pain that it may become unbearable. But I would like to remind you of my interest in your growth and of my suggestion to not allow the pain to consume you, for then will you be caught. I urge you, instead, to use the pain to ask your self why.

Why am I in such pain? What is it that I am using my pain to shield myself from? What am I hiding from? What is it that is so painful that I would rather wallow in the pain than discover the truth of?

If you feel loneliness, you must ask your self the same questions. Why do I hide behind my loneliness? If you are sad: Why do I hide behind my sadness? Peel away your outer layer of present ego self, your spiffed up self, and ask the self who waits, painfully, lonely, and sad behind that facade, for you to come and ask the questions that will begin to lead to real growth.

In order to have real growth must you be able to allow your self to be real with your self, real with your questions and, most importantly, real with your answers. Now is the time to finally get real. It is time to put aside your old patterns, your old behaviors, your old props and costumes that you have indeed made good use of. Your spirit is asking you to look deeper now, to push aside the old ways and means, and look at what your physical self has been trying to tell you. For if you begin first with your physical self, so shall you begin with that which is most apparent and most pressing.

Begin by asking your self: Who am I? When you receive your true answer, write it down. Then ask that true self another question that seems appropriate. Perhaps you will ask that self to speak to you about a feeling or emotion. You might say: Okay, so why are you so sad? Or: Why are you so angry? Or: Why are you so confused? Write down the answers you get.

Can you allow the truth to not only be spoken, but also listened to? Can you peel away the layers of self by really accepting the truths as they are revealed? They may be thin, almost transparent and easily acceptable truths at first, already known truths. Do not dismiss these truths, but really accept them, and then go deeper into them. Find your way into your tenderness, My Dear Ones, for that is where you will discover things about your self that you may not even be aware of, or that you have forgotten about, or been too scared to experience.

This is the process that must go on inside each one of you. This is the process of deep self-examination that you see going on in the world around you too. Do you not see the political, economical, and sociological questioning that is permeating your outer realities? Do you not see the environmental, as well as spiritual and natural phenomena that require such deep introspection, in order for change to happen? Do you not see that negativity, evil, and warring and disturbing truths must also become a part of your confrontation in order for growth to happen, both inside you and in the world around you?

I am asking you to go into your shadows, into your deepest selves, and rediscover your darker sides, but also your hidden treasures. I say rediscover, because that is what life is about, you know. It truly involves a deep excavation of the issues of the self, of issues already lived, that have been a part of your life all these many years.

Many of those issues have been your companions on your journey, even though they have felt like burdens. You know them very well. You will recognize them as you rediscover them, and you will know that, yes, you have carried them with you for a long, long time. You will rediscover aspects of the self that may have been buried for centuries, waiting to be dug out, released to a fresh new life, a companion aspect of self that is ready now to participate and evolve.

So, as I close my message for today, I ask you all to resolve to allow your inner selves, multi-layered though they may be, to speak to you, one at a time, with your hearts open and accepting of the tender truths these inner selves bravely dare to speak to you about. They trust you, you see? They feel safe with you. Your inner self, each layer, is asking you to accept that fact, with gracious humility, and to make them feel welcome, like a small child in your arms, as they whisper to you of their fears, their sadness, their pain, their sorrows, their questions, but also as they express their hopes and joys and desires for a new future with you, on your journey.

Meet your self today, your mature adult self, who is truly ready to hear, accept, and process the truths of the tender inner self, and to proceed on your journey. Good Luck!