Jeanne Marie Ketchel
Channeled by Jan Ketchel

Dear Jeanne,
Do you have a message for all of our readers today?

Today is a good day to slow down and do a reality check of the self, the life begin led, the life desired, and the realistic steps being taken to achieve that desired life. Of course everyone has goals and everyone has desires, but most people do not achieve their goals and desires, simply because they do not care to do the work required to achieve them. It is far easier to live in the imagination of achievement than to do the work of making that imagination real.

To begin a process of change one must first set a goal, and then one must be willing to temper the enthusiasm for jumping ahead and instead begin the slow process of making change happen, slowly and methodically. Change, if truly desired and truly wanted, must be worked for. I am sorry to say that otherwise it is just a dream. Many stay caught in the dream, without taking action, and that is no better than no dream at all.

Taking a reality check is a personal process, but it can be universally described as a process of assessing the present state of the self. Determine where your strengths lie, where your weaknesses lie, what is useful and what can be discarded in order to move you, one step at a time, toward your goal. What in your life is absolutely necessary to maintain? What is absolutely frivolous and perhaps even a drain? What or who hinders your progress? What or who drains your energy so that you cannot even see beyond your own feet?

I suggest a lifting of the head next and a scanning of the horizon to shake you out of your place of reverie and/or complacency. Look into the future. What do you see for your self if you remain entrenched where you are now? Then look again from a new perspective and ask the self to describe a future with some simple changes involving releasing and letting go of that which is holding you captive. What does this future look like?

With these two pictures in mind, it is now time to look back at the self and do another reality check. Ask the self, truthfully: Which future is the right one, the future of spirit and desire for life or the present course of action? Which is the challenging one? This is perhaps the one that must be taken. And by the way, do not dismiss the look at the future of sameness, for it may be the far greater challenge, and more necessary. It may be far more difficult to remain upon the current path than to shift to a new one. Challenge the self to discover why each path looks the way it appears. Then challenge the self to take the next step into each future, in imagination, and feel what that step would be like. Then step back into the reality of now and ask the self which path feels most right to take and for what reason. Do you need to stay upon the current path, or are you clearly ready to take a new one? Only you will know.

This step by step process of reality checking may aid you now as the energy winds down into a distant rumbling on the horizon. Keep in mind that life is indeed full of many challenges, but keep in mind that those challenges are necessary in order to learn about your life, your specific life, as you attempt to remain open to learning the meaning of it, the purpose of it, and learn to be open to the magic of it as well.

As you take a reality check of your self and your life, I also ask that you remind your self of the magic of life, magic that you encounter each day, but also magic that you must learn about, learn to recognize, and learn to use for purposes of growth.

This magic is available to you simply because you exist upon that earth plane, but it can only be utilized if you allow your awareness to have access to it, if you allow your rational self to sit back as you allow your spiritual self to look out over the horizon of your life and see what is being revealed. Your imagination may be your greatest asset, and it may be quite underutilized in your daily life. And why is this so? I believe that most of you, My Dear Readers, too easily dismiss it as fantasy when, in fact, it may be your greatest asset in offering a catalyst of shift and eventual change.

Taking a reality check involves using your imagination to project a future that goes far beyond where you find your self now. See what happens as you follow your spiritually guided imagination and do a reality check into a projected future self and into the self of now. And then determine the steps needed to make those two selves align and begin the process of meeting, forming a new world for the self, an alliance that is aware of reality, but equally aware of the magic, for both are necessary in order to achieve clarity of purpose and meaning in life. Good Luck!