I often felt I've had at least two angels in heaven watching over me. Of course my dad. Then my cousin Debbie who left the world at the much to young age of fourteen.
Growing up we had a cabin at a resort area near Klamath Falls called Rocky Point. We owned the middle cabin. My Uncle Frank and Aunt Velma (set of parents number two) owned the cabin to the left as you faced the front of the cabins. And my grandmother (Nanny) and her husband Cecil owned the cabin to the right. Every other Christmas all of our families would meet at the cabins for an old fashioned Christmas. Yes we did exchange gifts but the gift exchange was just a small part of the holiday, hidden amongst the skiing, skating, sledding, game playing, cutting and putting up the tree, good conversation, eating some pretty darn good meals. There were always close to thirty of us. At the time I had my going CPA practice with over four hundred clients. There was a lot of preparatory work done each December to get ready for the onslaught of work heading my way in January. The four hundred organizers had to be printed, collated, stuffed in envelopes, stamped, and mailed. Supplies had to be order. The tax program had to be loaded and refined. Because of the volume of work I was always the last one leave Portland and the last one to arrive at the cabin. I with very few exceptions traveled alone.
One Christmas trip to the Cabin I will never forget. The cabins were roughly three miles from Portland. A few mountains along the way and some mountain roads when you got within an hour of the cabin. The cabins were roughly at the elevation of over four thousand feet. I had expertly navigated Interstate 5 and the Willamette pass was going over the mountain near the cabin. I don't if you have ever been in the mountains in Oregon at night but I can tell you that it is pitch black. There are no street lights. On a cloudy night stars don't help. Neither do headlights. They allow you maybe to see five feet. Believe me I am not taking literary license here, five feet is generous. I was the only car on the road. I was the only person in the car. The radio wasn't going (no reception. Then I heard it. Then I hear my Angel. My cousin Debbie's voice very clearly said "slam on your brakes." It scared the holy heck out of me but I listened. I slammed on my brakes. I missed a three hundred pound bear by inches. Had I not listened I would be dead.
I can't say for one hundred percent certainty that I believe in angels. I can't say for one hundred percent certainty that I don't believe in angels. I can say with one percent certainty that I experienced the un-explainable. More than once. Twice actually. The second story will go untold for the time being:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/23/national/a010142S14.DTL
Whether I believe or not I love the idea of angels. So pure. So beautiful.
Certainly there are earth angels:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/california-family-answers-balloon-letter-santa-5-year-old-girl-article-1.996392
Speaking of angels here on earth, lets here it for EMTS, First responders, and rescue workers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/23/texas-family-rescued-from_0_n_1167788.html?ref=impact&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-nb%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D122850
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MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
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4 comments:
It would be nice to believe in angels. It would be nice to believe in God, as long as it was the loving, helpful one and not the angry judgmental one. Alas, I manage to get along without both, not to mention without Satan or the Antichrist, who/whatever that is supposed to be. Maybe that tends to balance out.
Earth angels? Well, some very nice people at any rate. So cute about the balloon requests.
EMTs and other first responders? Absolutely the next thing to angels, and should be admired and revered as such.
What lovely Christmas memories, Bill. I, too, remember when the extended family would share Christmas. Bless Debbie for saving your life.
Yes, I do believe in angels and I do believe they watch over each of us (altho probably shaking their head in frustration periodically). And, yes, I believe angels walk among us, sometimes in the guise of people like the CA couple, who made the little girl's Christmas dream come true, sometimes in the guise of rescuers and responders, sometimes in the guise of someone who's simply there when we need them, friend or stranger.
Pat, I'm with you in attitude. The God I believe in is loving, patient, forgiving and helpful.
Wishing everyone here, lurkers and responders, a Merry Christmas, filled with love and laughter. We're fortunate in having two friends, each of whom would otherwise be alone, join us for dinner.
Hi Pat
My belief system is for be to be God loving not God fearing. It also has room for anyone to believe as they wish. Who am I to tell people what and how to believe? I just know what works for me. And I witness by the way I lead my life not by browbeating people to believe like me and make them feel like they are going to Hell if they don't.
I loved the balloon story!
The EMTS and other first responders are what I go everyday heroes. People that go quietly about their jobs and save lives in the process.
Bill
Hi DR
Debbie was a very special person. Hadn't been sick a day in her life. I studied with her one night, helping her with her math. The next day she died. Rare form of leukemia. Heaven is a better place with her in it and the earth is less without her.
I am glad you believe in angels and that they watch over us. There are just so many signs of them being real.
How did the balloon get to the right couple that would do something with it? That is unexplainable when you think of how many places it could have landed.
You believe in the same type of God I do.
What a great Christmas you are providing for friends that would normally be alone. That makes you an angel in my book.
Merry Christmas.
Bill
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