Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day was first celebrated in the 19th century when the country wanted to honor the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. It evolved to become an honoring of all those who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

We celebrate those who lost their lives on 9/11 on that date, but also on Memorial Day. Over 400 first responders died in the fall of the Twin Towers, including 343 firefighters and paramedics. While the people in the buildings sought to leave, the first responders rushed in. They didn’t challenge the people leaving. They were there to keep them safe. And those who left didn’t have the training that would make them helpful to others. It wasn’t their mission. The first responders were ready, willing, and able to serve.

That is how it is for firefighters. While others leave a burning building, they enter it.

Why are they doing it? It is almost incomprehensible to the average person.

America learned a painful lesson regarding its military veterans after the Vietnam War. Many in America objected to the war; some of those people dishonored those who returned from combat. So, besides the horror that some veterans endured in the jungles of Vietnam, they had to face being reviled by fellow citizens when they returned. We have learned to honor our veterans, whatever we think of the war in which they fought. And so it is for our first responders. We honor their uncommon courage.

Do you believe in angels? Imagine this—angels on a distant planet or star, perhaps Venus, the Big Dipper, or the Pleiades. What are they up to? Plucking their harps? Frolicking among the stars? Perhaps they are viewing us here on planet Earth from afar, cheering us on.

Clearly, that’s not us. We are the angelic first responders. Seeing the preciousness of planet Earth and the incredible opportunity for what human civilization could be… Seeing the mounting issues facing humankind, we chose to incarnate here in human flesh. We rushed to assist humankind, with its global warming, ignorance, the threat of nuclear war, and much more. We are the first-responder angels. We are not plucking our harps on Venus, or out among the stars of the Milky Way. We rushed into the building—this planet, this body of humanity. While others may be thinking about going to heaven, we know that’s where we came from. And we are bringing the gifts of the place from which we come here.

Planet Earth is like the Twin Towers or a burning building. It’s not on fire per se, though we have global warming. We have war and ignorance. Autocracy is rising. There are existential threats we face.

I came to Sunrise Ranch in 2000 as a first responder—for the Ranch itself and for the world. I went rushing into the building because I knew something was needed, and that I had gifts to bring to the situation so that Sunrise Ranch and Emissaries of Divine Light could fulfill its destiny to be a lighthouse for the world.

Like the larger Project Earth, Sunrise Ranch takes people who are ready, willing, and able to fulfill its destiny. It doesn’t happen all by itself. It doesn’t happen just because of its legacy. It doesn’t happen because of the deer and the elk and the beautiful valley. All that is wonderful and contributes to what we are doing. But Sunrise Ranch fulfills its destiny because we are ready, willing, and able as angelic first responders. Emissaries of Divine Light fulfills its destiny because there are people who are awakened angelic first responders.

So it is, whoever we are, wherever we are on planet Earth. We are all angelic first responders. It’s just that most human beings haven’t awoken to that fact.

How do we awaken the world to the opportunity we all have as angelic first responders?

The only answer is our own awakened awareness, and our expression and embodiment of it in life. This is our awareness of the transcendent context of which we are a part. It is our awareness of who we are, where we came from, and why we are here. With that awareness, we ready ourselves to speak and act in a way that shares what we know with the world. As with the firefighter, this takes training. So we prepare ourselves. We train ourselves to allow what we know deep inside to show on the outside. We become transparent in that sense.

Without this awakened awareness through people, and without people who are ready, willing, and able to share it, there is no hope. No human doctrine, sacred scripture, practice, or belief will save the day, no matter how true. Nothing from out of the past can save us now. There is no person of yesteryear who can do what is ours to do today. This work relies on our own awakening, our readiness, our willingness, and our consequent ability.

The lineage of awake human beings has prepared human consciousness for this moment. We stand on the shoulders of giants. But there is also a lineage of human slumber and even failure. Who will sort it all out? Only an awake person. Only an awake person can illuminate the lineage of angelic first responders on planet Earth.

This is the legacy of Emissaries of Divine Light. Lloyd Arthur Meeker, who was known to people who followed his teachings as Uranda, was an angelic first responder. And so was Martin Cecil, who led the Emissaries after Uranda. They were acutely aware that they were following people of great stature who went before them. And yet, they spoke from their own awakened awareness and called on others to do the same.

I had the honor of spending time in many assemblies of various types with Martin over a period of seventeen years. And I immersed myself in his writings and recordings during that period, and ever since. I loved him for the empowering attitude he held toward me and all others.

Martin brought a profound spiritual message to the world. It was not with the attitude I can, but you can’t. It was with encouragement: You do this too. Do this with me.

Here is something he said that had a profound impact on me. He challenged people by asking them this: When are you going to stop relying on the recorded words from Uranda and me, and teach out of what you, yourself, know? 

For you, this indirect quote is out of context as I present it here. And I don’t have a recording of his exact words. But others have confirmed that I heard him correctly.

To be clear, he, himself, had used Uranda’s literature in his teaching. And he had encouraged the use of his own words by others over the years. Yet still, he was calling on people to become empowered—to reciprocate with respect to what they had received from him, not only by repeating it but by doing what he was doing.

On another occasion, Martin questioned whether those present were able to speak on their own authority for an hour—as he had often done twice a week and more—without leaning on his message.

Sacred scripture can be powerful if used wisely. Uranda and Martin’s literature is a great treasure of Emissaries of Divine Light. And I advocate for its increasing use, wisely stewarded. But not as a substitute for what we, as angelic first responders, are called to bring to the world.

This is how the angelic first responder does their work. They bring the activating power of awakened awareness. In the end, the only meaningful response to that activating power is to become awakened oneself and to express the activating power of that awareness oneself.

Sometimes, people attempt to gain that activating power by association with enlightened leaders from the past. For Emissaries, perhaps that would be Uranda, Martin, or even Jesus.

Perhaps people will take me more seriously if I lean on them for power and authority. Perhaps I can use their power to meet the needs of today. 

The angelic first responders of yesterday cannot meet the urgent needs of today. But here is what happens. When an angelic first responder shows up, the legacy of awakened people through the ages rushes to them. It buoys them up, and they find themselves riding on the tide of that legacy now.

And because they are coming on behalf of all angels everywhere, they are not only lit up by love. They are backed up by the universe. They become expressions of Angelic Presence for this world.

When the clergy of his day challenged Jesus on his teaching, this was his response: No sign shall be given. He was from the same lineage they were. But he wasn’t dredging up something familiar from that lineage to give himself credence in their eyes. So they couldn’t fathom the truth of what he brought. No sign shall be given. They had an opportunity to receive Jesus’ presentation expressing his awakened awareness in the present and to receive it on its own terms. They had the opportunity to join him and do likewise. Sadly, most didn’t.

Be a tall poppy. I first heard that expression in Australia, where there is a history of English people being sent to penal colonies in that country. This history left its mark on the Australian psyche, with a tendency to think less of themselves. One result is that there can be a propensity, as an individual, to make sure you don’t stick out in a crowd. And if you raise your profile too high, you might get cut down, like a tall poppy.

But it’s not just Australians who suffer from tall-poppy syndrome. What do you say we reverse that trend? So when we see an angelic first responder, we don’t try to cut them down. We lift them up. We rise up ourselves. Let’s create a field of tall poppies. And when we see an angelic first responder rushing to the scene of the most urgent need in the world today, let us honor them for doing their work.

Today, I remember the angelic first responders of the ages. And I celebrate the angelic first responders of today.

Let this be our victory cry today. Awake! Arise! Remember that you, too, are an angelic first responder.