Angels

I've been seeing Angels lately and they look nothing like Caravaggio's angels with their dark clothes and bent brown wings. They don't resemble Raphael's round faced cherubs.They don't descend from the heavens, robed in white, with glowing halos on great swan wings. They look nothing like the Hallmark card image of angels in fact they look just like us.

So, how do I know they are angels? Because they just show up, when you aren't paying attention and they bring you the very message you need to hear even when you don't know it. They appear in your life for no explainable reason and give you things you need, give you things you didn't know you need.

The Angel I had yesterday, we'll call her Jeanette, arrived in the store while I was working. She tells me she has heard of Mike's cancer and wanted me to know some things. She tells me she's walked my walk. She says she "gets it" and that not everyone will get it because you have to be in it or have been through it to really get it. She says it's hard, and I believe it because it is. She says there are really big benefits to come and that I can't see those now but I will. She says that cancer will either drive us apart or bring us together and after she listens to me talk about my relationship with Mike she says that if Mike and I are close and our love is strong now and if we make it through this as a couple that I will look back and see that what I feel for Mike now is nothing compared to what I will feel in the future.

She tells me to keep on living our days and making the most of them and not to put our lives on hold waiting for appointments and treatments but to do things while we wait, do what we love and love it while we do it. She tells me stories of her husbands battle with cancer and hers too. She tells me that it was love that kept him going even when the doctors said he had a year. She tells me even the doctors were amazed he lived for 40 some years afterwards.

She says I'll be OK and that I will be strong and that we will get through this and we will learn how to cope. She says this all while looking at me with bright eyes and a smile and I believe her. She hugs me tight and tells me once more that I'm going to be OK...that we are going to be OK and leaves.

So, this is an angel, no wings, no feather, no halos, no fanfare, just jeans and a red T-shirt. Just a regular looking person...like you, like me... sent at the right time to the right place with the right message and a handful of hope. A miracle...a freaking miracle.

Peace,
Karen