Read

November/December 2001 Featured Stories
Anna’s Message

by James Twyman

This is from a letter written by James Twyman, the former Franciscan friar turned Troubadour of Peace, to his students and supporters, collectively referred to as the Beloved Family. He relates a conversation he had with a special little girl named Anna who he met at a monastery in Bulgaria.

I looked toward the door and was surprised to see a small girl standing in the doorway.

Br. Matthias took her by the hand and led her over. She sat down across from me, then looked into my eyes for the first time. I smiled and she smiled back, but there was some fear in her eyes, and I realized why. She didn't like to talk about the gift, and she knew that's why I was there. There was a part of Anna that wishes she was like other children, but she knew she wasn't. She wanted to be home with her family and friends, but instead she was far away at a monastery with monks who loved her, but weren't family. She looked at me and suddenly realized I was seeing into her. Then she looked toward Br. Mathias, the guardian of these special children, and said something.

"She wants to know how long you've had the Gift?" Br. Matthias said.

"Well, about five months now, ever since I met a child named Marco. Does she know Marco?"

Br. Matthias asked her then said to me, "She has never met Marco, but she says she knows who he is...they all know each other apparently. That’s part of the Gift."

"Yes, I've heard that before. They seem to be aware of every child in the world that has the Gift. Would you ask her the same question she asked me, how long she has known she had the gift?"

"She has known she was different for only a couple of years, but she has always been able to work with her mind. She just didn't know what it meant. As far as she knew it was very natural, and this is what most of the children think. They don't realize that other children can't do what they do. That is what gets them into trouble sometimes. They do something fantastic like bending a spoon or something, and then they're branded. Sometimes people understand and are not afraid, but most of the time people are very afraid. Maybe they think it comes from the devil or some evil force. Then they feel isolated and alone. That's why we want to find these children, to help them develop their skills but to also teach them the foundation of love. That is all that is really important."

[I will now eliminate Br. Matthias' translation and write as if I was speaking directly with the girl, though of course I wasn't.]

"Anna, do you know why I'm here?"

"You're here because you have the Gift. Someone gave it to you because most adults don't have it."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know...maybe because they don't believe anymore, or maybe because they've forgotten how to do it. But there are a lot of children who have the Gift. They're everywhere and I can feel all of them."

"What does it feel like," I asked her.

"I can't describe it. It's just there, like something you've always known about."

"I was once told that the children are building a kind of web...a way of protecting it and helping everyone on the planet grow. Is that true, Anna?"

"I don't know," she said.

"You mean, you've never felt this way before?"

"I just wouldn't say it like that. You see, the children aren't really building anything. The web is already there."

"Already there," I repeated. "Where is it exactly?"

"It's everywhere...don't you know that? The web is love...that's what I've learned since I've been here. Love is everywhere because it is the only thing that is real. But it needs to be strengthened by people, and that happens when they think about it. So that's what the children are here to do, to think about the web of love and make it strong."

"Another child told me that there is a question you are all asking the world. Can you tell me what it is?" I asked.

"The question is whether you're ready to act as if you're loved by God. People think that God doesn't love them, and so they act as if that's true. That's why the world is the way it is right now. They say with their mouths that God is there and loves them like a mother or a father, but they don't believe it in their hearts. But what would happen if they really did believe it? Then the love that's all around them would start to extend from them to touch other people, and then everyone would be healed. It's really very simple. So the question just has to do with whether people are willing to accept what is already true."

"To accept what is already true?"

"Yes, because that's how we feel it. The children are here to feel what is true, and to help others do that as well."

"What about the psychic powers?" I asked. "Why do some children have them and others don't?"

"Everyone has them, and they're also not important. The love is what is important, and strengthening the web. When you feel the love then things just happen by themselves."

"You mean the Gift?"

"Yes, the Gift. How did you get it?" she asked as she leaned forward, suddenly very interested.

"I met a child just like you, and he touched me," I said to her. "After that all sorts of strange things began to happen. I was able to see inside people and move things with my mind. Can you do those things."

"Of course."

Let me show you something." There was a vase with a bunch of flowers sitting in the window sill. Most of the flowers were open but some were still in tight buds. I could feel her sending energy to the flowers. In fact, for a second I thought I could actually see a stream of light coming from her, at first very broad then getting narrower until it was like a laser beam focused on one of the buds. I watched the vase as did Br.Matthias. He didn't seem at all surprised; as if he was about to witness something he has seen dozens of time before. Within seconds I thought I saw the flowers begin to move, then I realized it wasn't the whole bunch, just the one bud that she was focused on. It began to open, at first so slow that it was almost impossible to tell. Then it began to speed up and within a minute it was like all the other flowers in the vase.

"That's what you need to do," she said to me. "You need to stop being so afraid and open up. Then more light can come into you. Then you will look so much more beautiful."

She said these things with such innocence, but I could also feel more wisdom coming from her than I thought possible. These children were more than an evolutionary leap; they were spiritual masters returning to the Earth. More and more this idea came into my mind, and more and more I started to believe it.

"Anna, if you could say anything to all the adults of the world, what would it be?"

She thought for a moment, and just for an instant I remembered she was still a little girl, though the most incredible little girl I had ever met. Her eyes rolled back into her head as if she wanted to give the best answer she could. Then she looked at me and said, "I would tell them to realize how strong they are, and that the more they love one another the more that strength comes out. People are so afraid of their power because they think they will hurt one another. But the more they hold back the more they do hurt one another. It only seems like there are a lot of us here. There really aren't. There's really only one of us, like all the psychic children that know about one another. We know about one another because we're joined together, and some day all the adults of the world will know the same thing."