iStock_boy with dogLast week, I was invited to speak to a class of 4th graders at our local school about my work and life as an animal communicator. I loved sharing with this group of aware and sensitive children, most of whom had story after story about their close relationships with their animal friends.

We practiced some telepathic communication, and I talked about ways that they can learn to better understand their animals’ thoughts, feelings, and wishes, along with listening to their own intuition.

After I shared my experience with my Facebook followers and in my online classes, I received so many responses from people “of my generation” saying what an amazing shift this is–and what it would have meant so many of us to have had this kind of experience and validation as young children.

Our world really is changing. There is a much greater openness to telepathic communication in both the scientific community and mainstream culture; children are being raised to honor and develop their intuition along with other skills, and people all over the world truly are becoming more open, more aware, more sensitive, more compassionate.

I see this every day in my work…and can track the changes from when I started out in this field many years ago. My animal friends and teachers also share their hope with me. They feel the shifts and the changes, and many are doing particular work with humans to help to facilitate this evolution.

Sometimes it can be hard to see this in the middle of all of the other aspects of life on this planet that make it look as though we are not heading in the right direction. Yes, we have a lot of work to do. Yes, there continues to be a great deal of suffering, violence, and devastation in our world.

And yet, I have great hope…and so do many of my greatest animal teachers, including whales, elephants, dolphins, cats…our world is changing. As I looked into the eyes of the kids I talked with last week, I could feel this. As one boy said to me,

My animals are my best friends. When I’m quiet and still, I know how they are feeling, and they know how I am feeling. They are just like my brother and sister.

May we all continue to learn to walk side-by-side as full partners with our animal loves–our brothers and sisters.