Читать книгу An Angel on My Shoulder - Theresa Cheung, Theresa Cheung - Страница 11

I also believe that angels look over my shoulder as I work. I love what I do, but when I first decided to take the plunge and put my steady teaching and journalistic work aside and go freelance as an author, many of my colleagues and friends told me it was unwise as I’d never be able to earn a living. They were right. A book contract back then was like gold dust. I was strongly advised to get an agent, but I never needed one. After countless rejections I got my first contract for a book about health and that book led to another and another. And over the past eight years I’ve never been out of work.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, however, that I was finally given the chance to write about what I am truly passionate about – the paranormal. It wasn’t too much of a leap from health and popular psychology, because in my mind the only way for a person to feel truly happy and fulfilled is to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. I have to admit, though, that although I was thrilled to be asked I was also rather apprehensive. I knew that some people would think I was crazy, especially my old student friends and tutors from Cambridge, who had made it clear to me during my student days that they were highly sceptical of my belief in life after death. I knew I was putting my credibility as a non-fiction author on the line. But as my first paranormal book assignment was an encyclopaedia about the psychic world and my task was to present an objective voice, I didn’t think my decision would be too heavily criticized. Fortunately, that encyclopaedia went on to become a success, as did subsequent ones, and that success gave me the opportunity to write this book. When my editor called to ask me if I had any angel stories to tell, without hesitation I told her that I had enough to fill a library.

With the contract signed, I sat down in front of my PC to begin my first angel book. I opened up a blank document and stared at the cursor flashing on the screen. Though I felt tremendous happiness to be doing this work, I also had butterflies in my stomach. I had never written about my personal experiences of the paranormal before. I’d also never been entrusted with writing up the intimate personal stories of other people, so this was my greatest challenge to date as an author. I wondered if I was up to the task; self-doubt began to creep in. I needed to know if I could do this. I decided to ask my guardian angel for a sign.

I focused deep inside myself and asked my guardian angel to give me an answer. I concentrated long and hard. I poured my heart out with all the honesty, courage and conviction I could find. Then I waited for an answer. There was nothing. I waited again. Still there was nothing. I looked again at the cursor flashing on the screen. It was flashing impatiently and angrily at me. The angels clearly weren’t going to reassure me. Did they simply want me to get on with it?

I started to tentatively write down some thoughts. They were disjointed and confused at first, but at least they were a start. Then I dug out my Angel Talk files and mailbox and started to transfer stories. I was starting to create a book. I read through a few paragraphs and enjoyed what I was reading. Encouraged, I kept on writing. The words flowed.

After a few hours I glanced at my watch and realized I’d been working for three hours without a break. Time had flown by. I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, but the kettle wasn’t working. I tried the lights and it was the same. We’d had a power cut. I went back to my office. My computer had powered down and there was no power to switch it on. It was then that I panicked. I’d never had a power cut before, so hadn’t got into the habit of saving my work every few pages. Worse still, I didn’t think I’d even saved it at all. My entire morning had been wasted. Were the angels sending me the message that the book wasn’t a good idea?

Half an hour later the power came back on. Fearing the worst, I switched on my PC and to my delight all my angel files were there just as I had left them. I resumed my work on the book with a new peace of mind.

The most remarkable thing about this experience, though, is that later I found out that my house had lost power not at 1 p.m. when I went into my kitchen to make a cuppa, but at 10.30 a.m. Somehow, when all the other electrical appliances in my house had lost power, my computer had kept on running, allowing me to work uninterrupted. Sure, it’s possible that it had gone into battery mode, but for me there was no mistaking that the angels were sending me a message loud and clear. Once again they had shown me that when you start to acknowledge their presence in your life, you start to notice them everywhere, in everything – even a flashing cursor.