For more than two years I have been very unhappy at a place I volunteer at to use as my office.  

A few months ago I learned from a Facebook friend this term "co-working", as in co-working space, co-working office, etc. These consist of rented office spaces shared by many. 

I realized I had been doing some form or another of co-working since I moved to Philadelphia in 1990.  With my first bookstore job, I used the upstairs office there after hours. Then, over the years, I used various college and university libraries, and on occasion one of the many public libraries in my town.

Even with a laptop, I found I needed shared office space of some kind because I liked to work in groups. (Probably something to do with my being an Aquarian!) 

When my partner Tom died in March 2013 of a long-term heart condition (he likes when I talk  or write about him - his spirit that is!), I was living in my favorite part of Philly - the West, or what is also known as University City, or the newfangled real estate term "left of center"), I had to move out, and was looking for another place I could use a computer and phone for several hours at no cost. Other options offered briefer periods sitting down, or longer periods standing up, but not both, and neither had a land line phone use option. 

 I figured maybe I should look for a place to volunteer. Surely there must be places where one can volunteer and have access to computers and phones for their own personal or business use? I set about to find one, and they had an active website, phone number, and volunteer program, but no one answered me when I tried them several times. Something told me to just look across the street. It was a bookstore that I usually ignored, because I buy my books either at a used bookstore, or dirt  cheap on Amazon, or at the Book Trader where I have a longtime running credit since 1990. I knew the owners and called the store to ask if I could volunteer there. 

The timing was good and I became their new staffer.

I was there for a long time, over four years, and over time my needs changed and I knew it was time to leave. However, I was afraid.

The store's owners had been supportive of me as a persun and as an artist for years, in various ways, including letting me store some of my belongings there during my difficulties in finding housing at the time. And they recommended me to concert bookers who hired me. They just were very supportive. 

I didn't know how I would leave, because I didn't want to lose what I thought I had - office space with supportive friends.

But in my heart I knew I wanted to go. But I didn't have another office space to go to, so I was afraid, and stayed.

The more I stayed the more in retrospect I see now that I was no longer a fit, and I was negatively impacting those around me. But fear kept me there. Fear, and scarcity thinking. I forgot that I was abundant and that I could create anything that I wanted. 

 I had been so used to not having, and being homeless, and in a shelter, and then on the streets (albet so resourcefully and sophisticatedly that it wasn't evident), that when I wanted to leave I couldn't see how I could do that and what I would use to replace the physical things I thought I had (office, place to store my things, etc.).

I would like to share with you what I learned:

1) The angels can help us with all kinds of things, big and small. We just need to communicate with them, tune in with them, and listen to them.

When I did, I started getting clearer and clearer on how unhappy I was. Little things started to happen, like my therapist beginning to talk about it - in a way reminding me. When we are suffering for long periods, our ability to sense our suffering wanes, and out tolerance for suffering increases. You can foget you're miserable. That's when it helps to have someone else remind you from time to time. I became more aware, and that's from staying in communication with my angels. 

2) Once the angels help us become more aware and we see more signs around us that it's time to make a change, we become more and more unhappy with the current conditions.

When you tell yourself you want something to change, and you ask the angels to help you change it, things will become very difficult, thereby almost forcing you to make a change in your life. You can either accept that opportunity, or in doing nothing sign up for even more pain in your life. The angels are by your side whether you're happy or not! But they definitely want you to be happier!

I became miserable and started realizing something needed to be done right away.

3)Once you decide to make a change, things move swiftly. 

I was in the shower and decided to trust the angels, love myself enough to end my suffering, and trust the universe and God to support me - I decided to tell the bookstore I was leaving. 

Not deciding was making a decision to stay unhappy, and I was making others around me unhappy, and they were making me unhappy, too. It was time to leave and even though I didn't have any answers, I decided to do it.

Once I did, things changed miraculously in less than 24 hours. 

First, my sweetie helped me see the stuff I had been storing was not an issue. He solved it by offering to pay for me to move it into storage. Done. I accepted.

Next, my nesting companion (I'm polyamorous) offered to let me keep things at his place. This meant I wouldn't have to worry about storing or driving nearly as many things far away. Done. Accepted.

 So, in less than 24 hours, my so-called "problem" had been resolved.

All because I stayed in touch with my angels, and let them work with me to get to a place of being self-loving enough to make a change, and trusting that the universe would provide!

4)Once you speak out your desire to change a situation, and you share your desires with trusted friends, earth angels come to your aid. 

Yes, the celestial angels of God, the spiritual beings of light and love we know as angels, are the primary element of angel healing and spirituality, but earth angels also are a major part of it. 

 The angels remind us in so many ways that we are much more loved than we know. We know, because the angels tell us, that we are abundantly loved by God, by Spirit. And by the angels themselves. 

 But they also show us that people love, us, too. In fact, we are surrounded by many more people who love and care about us than we know.

5)Coming to your truth, and speaking it out to others supports them as well. It allows them to help you, which helps them, and it allows them to come to and speak their own truth as well.

I know now that when I stayed longer than I wanted to, I was doing everyone a disservice, including myself. And now that I have told my co-staffers that I'm leaving in a month, I feel freer than I have in a very long time.

I am grateful to my paramours who support me in various ways, to my reading audience who is such a source of my joy and hope, and to the angels who help me in all things.

May you know the love and healing guidance of the angels soon, now and forever!