Real people. Real stories. Real Angels.
We are at Episode 10. Can you believe it?
I want to say thank you, genuinely, for all of the wonderful feedback. It makes a difference to us podcasters when we know that we have an audience out there listening. So I greatly appreciate it.
Now. I've got something a little different for you today, because as many of you know... I do love my books.
I'm going to bring five books to you in this episode. And I'm not going to rate them. What I'm going to do is share how these books came into my life over the past, well, thirty years, I would have to say. They're not all the same kind of book. Some of them are about learning to communicate with your Angels. Some explore signs and the possibility of connecting with people we've lost. And one is a beautiful work of fiction that I could not put down.
But the thing that connects all five of these books together is actually the timing. Looking back, it just seems that certain books have always landed in my life exactly when I was ready for them. You may find that out for yourself as well.
And here's a little tip while we're at it. When you keep hearing about a book... when someone tells you about a title, and then someone completely different mentions that same title, and then it comes up a third time... by the way, when you hear something three times? That is exactly what you need to do. Your Angels are telling you. So listen up when they talk to you.
Book One: Angelspeak
By Barbara Mark and Trudy Griswold
This one arrived at a garage sale.
I need you to understand something first. If you've been with me since the beginning, you know the whole story about the gas station and the Kentucky Fried Chicken and the boys and the moment I first started communicating with my Angels. Well, it was right after that. I was just starting to explore this, and I was like... there has got to be a book about this.
Now, at the time, I was in a bit of a transition period. I had just decided to leave real estate and move into stock promotion for publicly traded companies. I had received my first cheque, but I wasn't going to spend it all right away. So what I ended up doing, the way I've done for years now, is I grabbed myself a coffee on a Saturday morning and went garage saling.
And it was at the third garage sale. On a table. Angelspeak by Barbara Mark and Trudy Griswold.
I had said to my Angels, I need something to help explain you better. And here was a book called How to Talk with Your Angels. It could not have gotten any clearer.
Both of these ladies are sisters, by the way. And it was Barbara who first started communicating with her Angels. And here's what I love about this book. The questions that the authors themselves asked are written in regular text. And in red... the answers from their Angels.
I remember reading it and thinking, my God, that is the same thing that happened to me. Because Barbara describes being awakened from a sound sleep, the Angels telling her to get pencil and paper... and her arguing with them because she doesn't want to get up. She eventually gets up, just like I do, because they are so insistent. And the Angels' reply in red: Peace begins inside. Until you find peace there, there is no peace. Money will come. Keep the faith. The right people are here to help you on both sides. Be gentle with yourself. Be in the now. You did well yesterday, so enjoy today.
That is just magical from start to finish.
It is a very small book. You could read it in an hour if you wanted to. But it is a gentle, straightforward introduction to the idea that we can invite angelic guidance into our everyday lives. The authors share simple ways of becoming quiet, asking for help, listening inwardly, and writing down what comes to mind. Not a complicated book. It really isn't. It's approachable and encouraging, especially if you're just curious.
It will always be special to me because it was my very first. And I was so ready for it. Even though I'm a Kindle person, this one had to be hard copy. Some books just do. Even though I was barely spending money, I found it at a garage sale table at exactly the right moment.
That is exactly what I mean.
Book Two: Signs
The Secret Language of the Universe, by Laura Lynne Jackson
Fast forward many, many years to just a few months ago. I had just finished writing Amy and the Angels, received the International Impact Book Award, and I was thinking about creating Winging It with Wendy. I wanted to talk with real people about real stories about real Angels.
So I thought, I need to do a little more research. Who else is in this genre?
I was in bed one evening on my Kindle. I had just finished reading Kelsey Grammer's book Karen, about his sister, and when that book ended I felt like, okay, I need something. So I opened Amazon on my Kindle. And the very first book that appeared was Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson.
What better way to get a sign than a book called Signs?
So of course I downloaded the sample. I read the sample. And ninety-seven percent of the time, when the sample ends and it says do you want to buy it... I go buy. Because now I'm invested and I want to see what happens. That's who I am.
And I was hooked. It felt like, in a very long time, this woman was speaking my language. The way she wrote about signs. The connection just felt... familiar. Like finding a kindred spirit.
If this book was food, this would be sushi to me, okay? I could eat copious and copious amounts of it.
I even remember thinking, I have to get this woman on my podcast. And then a few days later, there she was on Oprah's podcast. I remember thinking... I can't believe Oprah discovered her before I did.
Signs explores the idea that people we love may continue to communicate with us after death through signs, synchronicities, and meaningful coincidences. Laura Lynne shares stories of people who notice an unexpected song, a particular animal, a name, a number... moments that feel significant. And rather than treating these as grand spectacles, the book invites us to notice the ordinary details of everyday life.
I had a friend who was looking for a sign after her child passed away. Her child's name was Shay. And at just the right moment... a truck went by that said Shay's Moving and Storage. Just when she needed it most.
That is exactly what this book is about.
Reading Signs was like meeting someone who put words into everything I have felt for so long. For me, this was the perfect book to discover while preparing for a podcast called Real People, Real Stories, Real Angels. Don't you think?
One note: the font is very, very tiny. So get your good readers on.
Book Three: The Light Between Us
By Laura Lynne Jackson
After Signs, I wanted to know more about her. Like... how did she become a psychic medium? How did this all happen?
I couldn't buy this one, by the way. Books are getting so expensive, you guys. So I went to the library. Both the one in Sidney and the one in Victoria. Every one of her books had been signed out, with a waiting list.
That made my heart so happy.
The Light Between Us is a more personal look at Laura Lynne Jackson's life and her experiences as a psychic medium. It's about becoming aware of what she understood to be the ability to connect with people who had died, and learning how to live inside that experience. The messages and the stories that shaped her understanding of life and loss. And it returns, time and again, to one central idea: love and relationships can continue to matter deeply even after someone is gone.
If you heard my last episode, you'll remember Kaiden's story... how his mommy came to visit him in the night after she passed. This book spoke to that. Deeply.
I want to share something that happened to me after my dad passed.
I had a dream I was riding a float in a parade. I'm talking the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, okay? A big deal. And I have no idea why I'm on this float. But I looked out into the crowd, and there was Dad. He wasn't older, the way I had known him toward the end of his life. He was young and he was handsome and he had these sky-blue eyes. My father was very handsome. He also knew it... I'm just going to add that.
I ran up to him in the crowd and I said, Dad, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead.
And he said, I just want to let you know I'm okay. I'm good, and I'm really happy.
I remember looking at him for a minute and thinking how wonderful he looked. So much vitality. And I said, okay, Dad, good, I'm so happy for you... and then I ran back and jumped on the float.
I can't explain the parade. I can't explain why I had to get back on the damn float. But I woke up feeling like I'd really seen my dad. And you don't forget those kinds of dreams.
That's why The Light Between Us touched me so much. It actually spoke to some of those experiences. So if you've loved and lost... you are going to love this book. It doesn't erase grief or pretend that missing a person is easy. It's not about that at all. It just shares that what you feel may not be as alone as it seems.
Book Four: Guided
By Laura Lynne Jackson
I genuinely cannot tell you which of Laura Lynne Jackson's three books is my favourite. I really, genuinely cannot.
Signs made me feel understood. The Light Between Us moved me with stories of connection and loss. And Guided speaks to the way I try to live and make decisions.
Guided takes the conversation in a whole new direction. It explores what it means to live with a greater sense of inner direction. She writes about our intuition, our spiritual guidance, and the possibility that we can learn to recognize what feels right for us, even when we cannot see the full road ahead.
The book encourages reflection on how we make choices and how fear can drown out our quieter instincts. And how we might become more attentive to the nudges, the coincidences, the inner feelings that seem to point us somewhere. The ones that just keep coming... kalalana, kalalana, kalalana... you know the feeling. It's those types of things.
And it's not only noticing the sign after something happens. It's asking your Angels: how do I move forward while life is still unfolding?
That question is everything.
The reason this one resonated with me so much... as the businesswoman in me... is that I think of all the decisions I made while building World Tree Technologies. I honestly don't know how I would have done it without the guidance and support I felt along the way. That doesn't mean every decision was easy. It means that through uncertainty, I had a sense that I wasn't doing this alone.
That's why Guided explained so much of why I felt so guided.
If you are somebody who is starting a business, running a business, or just in the middle of it and needing some help and support... this is exactly the type of book for you.
Book Five: The Ones We Wait For
By Michael V. Ivanov
And now I'm going to take you on a completely different note to end things off.
This one is a novel.
The Ones We Wait For by Michael V. Ivanov is not a guide to communicating with your Angels. It's not a collection of accounts presented as true experiences. But this one reminds me so much of Amy and the Angels. It's fiction... but it invites us into a world that lets us imagine what might be possible.
The book follows a woman after her death, as she begins a journey toward heaven.
She takes the train.
Now, for anybody who knows me, everybody knows how much I love trains. There is something about them that is romantic and mystical... that feeling of leaving one place behind and travelling toward somewhere you haven't even seen yet. So the idea of taking a train to heaven? That just really resonated with me.
When she steps off the train, a young man helps her discover the place before she passes through the gates. It's that in-between spot. And it's a beautiful story that unfolds through their conversations and the path she had to travel to get there... looking back at the life she lived, the people she knew, and the meaning of the experiences that brought her to this point.
The author gives us this tender, imaginative way to think about the great unknown. I can't tell you that heaven is a railway station. I simply, definitely cannot. But you find yourself hoping that it might be something like this. And it's that feeling that stayed with me the most.
When I finished this book, I was left with an absolutely lovely feeling. It is magical. And if there's a journey waiting for me one day... which there will be... I just truly hope I get to take the train.
Your Turn
So there you have it. Five books. Three very different paths in my life, and so many reasons why they matter to me.
Angelspeak arrived on a garage sale table when I was just beginning to understand what I was hearing. Signs showed up on my Kindle the night I was thinking about doing my podcast. And just days later, there she was on Oprah's show, with three books. I felt like I had gone to a sushi smorgasbord. The Ones We Wait For reminded me of how much comfort a beautiful piece of fiction can offer.
I'm not asking you to believe everything that I believe. But if you're curious, or if you're grieving, or if you've had an experience you can't quite explain, or if you simply just love a really good story... I'm hoping that maybe one of these books will speak to you.
Go to wendysburton.com to send your story, subscribe to the show, and find all the links below. Amy and the Angels is out now in audiobook, narrated by me... so if you'd rather listen than read, you can take Amy wherever you go.
And when you subscribe, you'll receive a little gift from me... a guide to help you meet your Angels, learn their names, and ask for those beautiful gifts that are already waiting for you.
Thank you, as always, for being here.
Stay curious. Follow the nudge.
And remember... we might not be winging it alone.
Real people. Real stories. Real Angels.
Get Amy and the Angels: Paperback | Kindle
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