Rumors of Angels

I like to think that I am as aware as I can be about angels among us. I don't mean those artsy ones that the City of Los Angeles commissioned years ago. Nor the winged benevolences we often see depicted. Nor the "fallen-trying-to-get-redeemed" scruffy variety Hollywood likes to parade against type before us. And not even the more literally accurate many-eyed, many-winged type that Madeleine L'Engle portrays so effectively in her writing. No, I mean the sorts of angels we find out about only because something out of the ordinary happens because of them.

I like to think that I've been pretty good at summoning angels when I needed them. One of the times I remember best had to do with a funeral I was doing for a dear friend, a man (and whose family) for whom I cared deeply. I was praying off to the side in preparation before the services began, and I asked God to send me an angel because I needed the support. Done praying, I began to walk slowly to the place I was to take, but across my path came a man I'd never met. He introduced himself as a mutual friend of the deceased, and put his arm around me, and told me that our friend had told him how much I'd meant to him. He looked me right in the eyes and said, "I know this is hard for you, but God is with you, and you'll do fine." It was just the sort of intervention I needed in that moment. I was blessed.

I've had many other similar experiences, enough that, when we speak of rumors of angels, I tell folks, the rumors are true!

Another one happened to me just last Friday-- only this one was unbidden and took me by surprise. A man I'd never met at the gym before struck up a conversation with me. As men do, he asked me what I did. I said, "I'm a writer." Right away he said, "Then you may be interested in this movie I just saw a day or two ago." And he handed me "Peaceful Warrior." And he let me take it home! Really, that was all the conversation the preceded his offering, but of course we took a moment for a little more talk after. (He's a photographer.)

Anyway, I was a little skeptical about a movie that starred Nick Nolte as being "inspirational," but it was! And I have to say, over a weekend when sporting events were full of disappointments and downfalls, "Peaceful Warrior" did it for me.

There was a lot of spiritual wisdom in that move-- and I mean of the genuine, not the hokey Hollywood kind. It says its based on a book, the Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and the book, too, might be a good read, I don't know. I liked the movie, though.

Most of all, given where I am in both this life and this "transition," being "in the neutral zone" (as William Bridges puts it) or just the "middle muddle" (as we used to say in bereavement group), "Peaceful Warrior" gave me a story of encouragement and what Buddhists might call "right thinking." I mean, I even suspended my disbelief enough to embrace Nick Nolte as a spiritually wise man!

So I recommend "Peaceful Warrior" for your viewing pleasure-- and your spiritual growth.

And I begged my new friend to keep it for a few more days so I can see it again! Wanna come and watch it with me? HA!

Blessings!