When Angels Whisper: Sharing Stories of Hope

By Cheryl Mcdonough

In When Angels Whisper, Cheryl Mcdonough shares some of her personal struggles over the past thirty years with addiction, illness, and the deaths of loved ones. Throughout her journey, she has been on the lookout for affirmations that things would turn out all right, that she was not alone. Each day she asks herself, What am I supposed to learn? What spiritual lesson am I being taught.

Written over the course of ten years, her guidebook offers readers the opportunity to pay attention to their own angel whispers that, if heeded, will lead them to a happier and more peaceful existence. All of us are presented with difficult situations in which we need to decide to be a victim or a victor. This book is about learning and growing through tragedy rather than allowing these situations to beat us up and leave us feeling helpless and hopeless.

Life is a series of lessons that, if we take the time to pay attention, will teach us that we are never alone. The author is reaching out to everyone who needs a do-over, to those of us who need to wake up and take an active role in our daily life, to anyone who needs to become more spiritually aware and centered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532017988

Cheryl Mcdonough

Cheryl McDonough is a graduate of Immaculata University and lives in New Jersey with her husband of over 30 years, Joe, has two grown sons, Ryan and Gregg, and recently became a first-time grandmother to Sterling Rose

Book preview

A Poem To My Boys….

My child is like a book, I borrow a book from the library

my child has been lent to me by God.

A beautiful and perfect soul

entrusted in my care,

so that they may fulfill their destiny,

not the one that I should choose but rather the one that was truly meant to be.

In a book I admire the cover, but I realize it’s true substance is inside.

I admire my child’s cover,

but I realize his true beauty lies within.

The book has a certain view;

my child has his own thoughts.

I can’t change the book;

it’s someone else’s verbiage.

I can’t change my child,

his thoughts are all his own.

I treasure the book for its uniqueness;

I treasure my child for his soul.

I respect and care for the book,

I respect, nourish and love my child.

I realize that when I finish with the book,

I will return it to the library.

When my child’s destiny has been fulfilled,

he will return to his God.

The world will have been a brighter place because of their uniqueness

I will be a better person because of the experience.

Cheryl McDonough 1989

Finding My Path

I RECENTLY STOPPED BY A local park to calm down from a very stressful day. The park is near my house and it sits directly in front of a nearby River. There’s a small park with a few benches and a gazebo that are directly in front of the river with a little beach. Outlined all the way around the river are very tall weeds. I stop there from time to time to mediate or pray. It’s always quiet and peaceful and the view is incredible. It just happened to be a few moments before sunset. I said a silent prayer in gratitude for the good things that happened that day and then slowly looked up at the weeds directly across the river in front of me. They hung at the edge of the river with a perfect break in them. I watched across the river as the weeds swayed rhythmically with the wind. The way they moved in unison so softly was calming and very serene. The break in the weeds mesmerized me for some unknown reason and I stared at it wondering where the break led. It suddenly dawned on me why this feature caught my attention. I realized that it was difficult to tell where exactly this break in the weeds led. The break allowed for the river to take a small path to the side but I couldn’t tell how long it was, what direction it went in, or which way it turned. In the seconds that it took for me to ponder where this path went, the sun began to set and lit up this open pathway and all of the water in front of it. There was a perfectly illuminated triangle and a path along the river that began to glow in bright orange, yellow and beautiful red colors. This illuminated path lit up the triangle in the weeds and then a path across the water that led directly in front of me. The sun was hitting these weeds from behind and only allowing the sun to shine through at this specific opening. It was an amazing aha moment because I understood why I was there that day. I was working in a job that I loved but had a difficult administrator and was as stressed out as I could be. I wanted to leave because I knew the situation had become very unhealthy for me. It scared me to make a change and although I felt strongly about leaving I was scared of the what next. Like the path, I didn’t know where my future was heading but I knew I had to follow the path that I felt in my heart was right. I had to go out on a limb and trust that I would end up exactly where I was being led and exactly where I was supposed to be. From my vantage point I could not see which way the path turned, how far it went, whether it was okay or not but it was illuminated like I was supposed to trust and follow it. It was at that exact moment that I very clearly heard follow me. I literally looked around to see who said it. No one was there I was alone. I was being told on some spiritual level to take a leap of faith and trust that I would end up where I was supposed to be. I needed to follow that path; the one that I know in my heart is right and know that there was no other choice. All of my life, I did what everyone else thought I should do, what was expected of me. I knew that now I had to follow that calling that I was feeling and trust that everything would work out. It was the most amazing thing and for the next couple of weeks, I thought about what happened on that riverbank that day, on a daily basis. It just so happened that it was a week before Christmas so it was occurring at a time of year that lent itself to self-reflection. About two days later, this individual, made his last snide remark to me and I resigned on the spot. I wondered the entire time that I worked there why I stayed when it was so unhealthy for me. I asked myself all the time, what am I supposed to learn from this? What am I supposed to get here? I have a habit of looking at life and my day spiritually. Always asking myself what spiritual lesson I was supposed to learn. I’m a true believer that we are spiritual beings having a human experience rather than human beings having a spiritual existence. After resigning I finally knew the answer. It was about me having enough self-respect to not allow someone to treat me in a way that I didn’t deserve. It also was about me finally following my heart and not what was expected of me. For the first time in my life, I felt that I was following my calling and that calling was writing and sharing about all that I had been through and all that I learned through those tough life lessons. No matter how rough life got, I always ended up okay and there were signs along the way to let me know that I was never alone. I was constantly reminded that God was with me. I realized several days later the significance of the triangle. To me it represented body, mind and spirit, the coming together of all three in a balanced and healthy way. Lit up because all three were in unison and working together in a productive way. I remember several years ago when my sister said, How come all of these crazy things happen to you? How come you have all of these signs? I told her that it didn’t just happen to me, I was just paying attention. I was paying attention to all of those little signs that happen to all of us throughout our lives. There was no difference between my sister and myself I was just paying attention. They were happening to her also. They happen to everyone and they seem to occur just when we need them the most. I know there have been several times when a simple sign changed the course of my life and the viewpoint of my attitude.

Why Now?

T HERE ARE THREE THINGS in life that I know for absolute certainty. One, I will die. Two, I have to pay taxes every year by April 15, and three I am never alone. God is and has always been with me. It’s usually in some affirmation that comes to me as a very simple message. Whether it was an audible voice in my kitchen or on a river bank, someone saying something to me just at the right time, or my life being steered in a direction that I would never have considered but eventually worked out. Our world is in such a state of chaos and yet I take comfort in the fact that I know that I am not alone. I also realize that I am a part of everything and everything is a part of me. Call it what you want, God, The Almighty, Spirit, Energy, Universal Energy, whatever, it all means the same thing. Something bigger than us is at play here and if we learn to trust that inner voice and follow the path we are being led down, life becomes a true string of miracles. I believe that God has never left me, even when it feels like he has. He has always been there to let me know that everything will be okay no matter what life throws at me. Not only is he with me but also I know he loves me where I’m at in that very moment. It all happens so perfectly even the imperfections are