“Who is that behind you?  He’s huge.” – – a client of mine at a church as I gave him a Reiki healing treatment.

A couple of Saturdays ago my friend Scott and I were driving to the Twins game when one thing led to another and I told him how I first came upon Elton John’s “Your Song,”  a tune I still consider to be the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.  It was Christmas Eve, and after the usual fighting and family chaos, I laid down with the little $1.50 turntable and radio combination my mom picked up for my gift for the year (I loved that little music box!) and started crying myself to sleep as I usually did.  I turned on the radio just as “Your Song” was coming on and I was suddenly transported to heaven.  For once my Christmas wasn’t ending on an entirely dismal note.  After I finished the story, Scott and I parked about six blocks away from the stadium as we usually do to avoid paying for parking.  As we walked by one of the local bars, Scott called my attention to a song coming through the window and into our hearing range.  It was Elton John’s “Your Song.”  Hmm . . .

Wrestling gently with a dilemma lately, I asked the assistance of an angel named Raguel with a matter close to my heart, and made it clear that sometime during the day, a sign that everything would work out okay would be very much appreciated.  So I headed out for my eight mile run, and stopped myself at one point on Cretin Avenue and found myself looking at the tiniest of feathers sitting in my path,  something I’ve heard is a notorious angel sign.   I’ve been having some vision problems lately, including an issue with occasionally having my sight get blurry and repeatedly unfocused in my left eye.  So after I picked up the feather and put it in my pocket, I was suddenly stunned a few blocks later that my vision was perfect just at the time I needed to see that feather.  Go figure.

As an aside, “Reiki” (alluded to in the beginning quote) in English translates to “universal life force energy,” and is a healing practice I’ve been doing for about twenty years now.  The church I would give treatments at in the early 2000’s was built on an old Native American burial ground.  It was not uncommon for “visitors” to show up as a gesture of support or even as a tongue-in-cheek gag, possibly so we wouldn’t take ourselves too seriously.  It worked.  From what my friend was describing during and after our work together, I’m pretty convinced he was telling me that we were in the company of the Archangel Michael, as one of the characteristics of archangels according many who write of angelic realms (Doreen Virtue in particular) is their immense size.  I remember dating someone in the late 90’s and telling her periodically about an angel story or two.   One night she turned to me and said “your whole life is like this, isn’t it?”  Well, not always.   But she had clued me in to fact that dealing with angels had happened enough in my life that I was taking it for granted.  Recently I came upon this Doreen Virtue quote: “Those who regularly contact their angels report great improvements in their lives.  They feel happier, more peaceful and confident, and less afraid of death or the future. They know they’re not alone because they have trustworthy guardians watching over them.”  Whether one believes in angels or not,  it’s certainly reassuring that something can help us get through tough times.  And enhance the good ones.

I still get this deliciously playful feeling that there are so many writers out there encouraging me to engage in the very activity that my parents told me not to.  I used to regularly at least pretend that there was some unseen force that I could call upon in my time of need.  Having it drummed out of me, I forgot about angels for years.  They obviously didn’t forget about me.  In early recovery I was turned on to a writer named Sophie Burnham who wrote several books about angels.  No offense to Burnham,  but I feel much more in sync with Doreen Virtue, and as a result with my own guardians and others.  This is no idle fantasy for me.  I don’t know about anyone else out there,  but I’m not averse to asking for a helping hand every now and then on any number of matters, and that’s the key:  if you truly believe in angels, know that they are respecters of free will – – they cannot help unless they’re invited to do so.  And when they do some truly miraculous events can come into play.  They didn’t have the power to stop my parents or sister from dying, but their presence was comforting beyond belief.

I love that I have permission to “play pretend” as an adult, and at least in my own life can vouch that angels are real.  I have zero intention of convincing anyone else of their existence, but I can say that those who don’t may be depriving themselves of not only immediate help in pressing situations, but also some downright fun companionship.  I’ve called on them for everything from healing a physical wound to finding my lost keys.  A friend of mine is close to giving birth, and she told me recently that this time around she’s definitely felt a presence she hasn’t felt in her earlier pregnancies, possibly because manipulative little I gave her a book about the Archangel Gabriel,  who “brings glad tidings of great joy” to those who will bear children.

The inherent peace, calm, and beauty added to my days when I remember to ask my angels to participate in my activities makes them so much more fun.  Make no mistake, angels also have a sense of humor, and how blessed are we that they look beyond our egos and see only our inner light.  Again, it makes no difference if we believe in angels or not:  they believe in us. Help in being happier is available 24/7.  All we have to do is ask for it.  And accept it.  It’s only until recent years that I thought the only people who could possibly benefit from those “abundance” or “manifestation” books that take up so much space on bookstore shelves were the authors.  I thought likewise about angelic realms until fairly recently.  Fortunately for me, I was wrong.  There is loving, playful, caring help always.  I’ve only scratched the surface of angelic realms here, and depending on the amount of feedback or Facebook “likes” I get I’m certainly willing to do more.  I could write about angels all day.  The least I can do is give a little press to a group of beings who make me feel so safe and loved so often. Just as long as I remember to ask for help. And there’s certainly no shame in asking over and over again.  As I understand it,  there are quite a few unemployed angels out there just waiting to provide service.  I’m in the process, as Doreen Virtue suggests, of getting into the habit of asking my angels for help with just about everything.  In closing I have to say that my original intent was to write about marathon training.  As I usually do, I sat to meditate beforehand, and as I sometimes do, I asked the Archangel Gabriel,  the angel of writers,  if there was something different I needed to write about.  What I just wrote began to take form almost immediately.  I usually get a really nice rush of satisfaction both during and after writing.  While composing this post, I’ve g0tten this otherworldly sense of warmth that feels so very exquisite.  Wow.  Thank you, Gabriel.  Thank you all angels.

Peace