A couple of years ago there was an article by a columnist I enjoy that I saved. The basic idea she shared was to be an angel for others. I’ll try to hunt it up and give an exact quote.
I was thinking about what Gordon shared in his quotes about and along with the movie It’s a wonderful life. The one about angels being like Mafia, Vonnegut hoped. Love that quote!
I was thinking of someone I’ve met only fairly recently but she has shown a side of herself distinctly angelic, while you would look at her life and think she has been anything but.
To watch and listen to her interact with someone who needed a little kindness was a wonder. Her sense of joy and inclusion was a gift in a difficult day.
It made me think how often do we realize if we’ve been someone’s angel? or conversely, how often do we miss the opportunity for being one? (I’ve seen some of that too, and undoubtedly missed opportunities of my own.)
Someone I know can usually top a distress story with a minor distress of her own. She doesn’t realize she is doing it, but it’s not a lot of help either.
A number of years ago I saw a lovely older woman coming out of my bank. She was dressed as though she were going out for lunch. I told her how nice she looked. (She did!) (I, by contrast, was just schlepping along.) She told me it was the first time she’d been out in a number of years (yes, years!) as she had been taking care of her husband. I forget now if she had someone who could come in that day.
I’ve thought about this encounter so many times. If she had not told me, I would have had no idea how much my comment meant to her. I often compliment people, but I don’t know that any compliment I’ve ever given has meant this much.
I try to stay aware (awake) to the times I can be more outward directed.
How about you? Have you found yourself being the answer for someone else, or someone else being there for you at a time when you needed it?
We could be card-carrying members of BAAFO.
Karin
Categories:
Just thinking
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2 comments ↓
Karin, beloved.
Here are some verses I sent my dear one when she was losing an 8-year battle.
Feel free to share with any in need…
[BTW, I wish I could join that club !]
I located some beautiful psalms Leonard Cohen [yes, THE Leonard Cohen !] wrote in his” Book of Mercy”. Here are two I’d like to share-
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In the eyes of men he falls, and in his own eyes too. He falls from his high place,he trips on his achievement. He falls to you, he falls to know you. It is sad, they say. See his disgrace, say the
ones at his heel. But he falls radiantly toward the light to which he falls. They cannot see who lifts him as he falls, or how his falling changes,and he himself bewildered till his heart cries out to
bless the one who holds him in his falling. And in his fall he hears his heart cry out, his heart explains why he is falling, why he had to fall, and he gives over to the fall. Blessed are you, clasp
of the falling. He falls into the sky, he falls into the light, none can hurt him as he falls. Blessed are you, shield of the falling. Wrapped in his fall, concealed within his fall, he finds the place, he
is gathered in. While his hair streams back and his clothes tear in the wind, he is held up, comforted, he enters into the place of his fall. Blessed are you, embrace of the falling, foundation of
the light, master of the human accident.
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You let me sing, you lifted me up, you gave my soul a beam to travel on. You folded your distance back into my heart. You drew the tears back to my eyes. You hid me in the mountain
of your word. You gave the injury a tongue to heal itself. You covered my head with my teacher’s care, you bound my arm with my grandfather’s strength. O beloved speaking, O
comfort whispering in the terror, unspeakable explanation of the smoke and cruelty, undo the self-conspiracy, let me dare the boldness of joy.
I hope you like them as much as I do.
They are amazing. I love Leonard Cohen’s voice and songs. I didn’t know he had a book of Psalms.
Yes, falling to the light, that’s like Gordon wrote that Vonnegut wrote. I have to go look at it again to see exactly what it is.
Just looked it up: falling and developing wings on the way down.
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