Do You See Angels?

Today, March 24th is The feast of Saint Gabriel—messenger to Daniel and John the Baptist and to Mary—Gabe was the angel who delivered Mary’s big, shocking news at the annunciation. Whether your faith considers that story a myth, fairy tale or a fact the point is that there are holy messengers in our lives. In AA we meet many of them—they appear to us in our home groups, as sponsors or newcomers and in that person who speaks at a meeting whom we never see again but who leave us with a perspective or slogan or phrase that changes how we think.

Bob E., AA conference speaker from new Mexico always told his Eskimo story—he was talking about angels.

Yesterday I was struggling again with my thinking—how I scare myself into fear and worry. I prayed for help and happened to add to my prayer, “Angels and guides, if you are there, please help me.”

At noon I walked into a clothing store and while browsing the shirts and shoes I saw some little renaissance angels on a shelf—I moved closer and saw that the three little cherubs were holding their pudgy angelic hands: over eyes, over ears and the last one held a tiny hand over her mouth:

These were angels saying: See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil.

I just had to laugh. And I had to buy them!

Who are your messengers? Where are your angels?

My Everybody

I have a bulletin board in my office on which I have posted pictures of women who inspire me. They are my “everybody”. I got this idea from Martha Beck (Finding Your North Star) who talked about how to get past being haunted by “everybody”, as in “everybody does that…” or “Everybody knows..” Create your own everybody” was her advice. She surrounded herself with other writers—living and dead—to create her own reference group.

On my wall are pictures of these women: Coco Chanel, Dorothy Day, Georgia O’Keefe, May Sarton, Wislawa Szymborska, Erma Bombeck, Helen Gurley Brown, Pema Chodron, Amelia Earhart and Audrey Tatou.

Each day when I look at those women I notice different things. Some days I am aware of their successes. Other days I might notice their creativity or their courage. Recently –struggling with a relationship question—I noticed that they had all had heartbreaks and big challenges in relationships—and survived. Today I noticed that these are women who defied what was expected, who risked—often quietly—what was expected of them by society and by those near to them.

These are my everybody. Who is yours?