In the Company of Angels

I think I will start this off with a verse of scripture, just to show I can:




Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. -- Hebrews 13:2 (King James Version)


Do you believe in angels?

Did your skin just crawl and your tummy twist with post-religious-upbringing-stress because you are uncomfortable with the entire concept and want to run away before they pass the collection plates? If so, you are the ones to whom I am writing this.

Or did your heart swell from the remembrance of such encounters and your hand shoot into the air as you jumped up and down shouting "Ooh, ooh, me! Call on me! I've got an angel story you won't believe!"? If so, stick around also -- this blog welcomes an "amen and hallelujah" chorus.

I have been on a strange and educational journey the past couple of years -- or maybe longer (as some of you insist). Quite possibly, the actual timeframe is my entire life. I can relate to that. But whatever the parameters of imaginary time and space limitations, my journey has always been in the company of angels.

Maybe I haven't always been as aware or willing to acknowledge that as I am now, when tripping over my growing angelic entourage leaves me no room for doubt. And please don't think about sending me to the padded-wall palace for a little R&R -- I have even spent time in the company of psych-angels and would not be deterred.

But in the name of brevity, I want to write about the Beach Angels of Volusia County, because they were the inspiration for this in the first place and the reason I am now writing this from North Carolina and not Florida. Confused? WHOSE life are we talking about here? Exactly.

I am, as many of you know, an incredible manifestress of jobs and living spaces. It has taken me years to recognize that about myself, but it is undeniable given my journey so far. Give me a few days, sometimes just a few hours, and I can relocate and be re-employed before you even get the usual new address/phone number message in your email notifying you that the gypsy wind has once more seduced me. However, in the vortex that is Volusia County, Florida, I found myself at once homeless and jobless and abandoning all hope. Thank goodness there was a beach and an ocean and a horizon to keep me from going under for good.

And there were wonderful places to live, right on the beach, but I needed a job first. And there were great jobs available, but no one was calling me back. Until one day when my phone rang, asking me to come in about a job that paid too little to live on, doing something I did NOT want to do anymore. So of course I said sure thing, and scheduled an interview with an angel. Oh, I didn't know it at the time and there wasn't the tell-tale aroma that so often precedes their arrival, but within 5 minutes of sitting down across from the woman who was hiring, I knew this was not about a job at all.

There were none of the usual interview questions. My resume was nowhere in sight. Instead, she unfolded a paper chart and started asking me questions about what was important to me in my life. Now, I was more than a little sleep deprived, and my boundaries were in shreds from my most recent encounter with the heart-stomper I contracted with for this lifetime, so what could I do? I answered the questions honestly and openly and from my soul. And halfway through the process, she stopped and showed me a book and said "This is what you should be writing." And it was something I had been thinking about, but had told no one. And she went back to asking me questions and writing my answers on her chart, and when she was done, she started at the beginning and read me... a description of myself.

Now it was not a description I would have given at that time, or any time for that matter, but it was truly who and what and why I am. As I left the office, she handed me another book about living your life based on your personal values, and on it was a sticky note on which she had written, "Be a voice for others."

And I drove home that day over the Dunlawton bridge with the beach, the ocean, and the horizon lifting my heart even higher despite my tears, knowing that I would be leaving this place I so easily loved. Did I leave right away? No. Did I slip back into the self-doubt and indecision that kept me spinning my wheels? Of course.

As my sistah Ruth says, "... angels [are] messengers - no free will. They deliver messages for the higher power. And they would deliver our messages, too, if we would stop thinking of ourselves as being inferior." Now we all know that I am sometimes a bit slow in responding to my messages. So it took me awhile. But then I spent the weekend packing up my stuff -- just in case. And on Friday, I applied for jobs in Asheville -- just in case. And Saturday, I loaded my car so on Sunday I could drive back to the mountains, back to my friends, back to where I started this adventure 2 1/2 years ago. On Monday, my first day back, I had a phone interview for one of the jobs I applied for on Friday. And I got the job -- in Asheville, where people are leaving because there are no jobs. And, thanks to said friends, I will be moving into my new apartment within days.

So here I am. Again. Not quite sure why or for how long, but absolutely positive that what I need to see, hear, and experience on this leg of my journey will be delivered by UPS (Universal Prodding Services) and that if I take the time to notice such things, I will find myself -- as always -- in the company of angels.