To my wonderful Guardian Lynda C. Mullins. You inspire me with
every breath.
I feel very blessed. That is all.
There is not a lot left to be said about angels that hasn’t
already been imagined. A lot of people talk about seeing them here and now, and
others say we wouldn’t know them if we did see them. I like to think that I’ve
seen plenty of angels, and maybe when I did I left a good impression or at
least something not altogether embarrassing. But this isn’t about real angels,
not ones with wings, halos, cherub faces, or even the mighty warriors written
about in the bible. This is about the ones who vote themselves to be a real
life flesh and blood angels right here on earth. I bet that if you look around
you right now you would see them. Lots of different ways a real life angel or
hero can appear, but I’m only going to really talk about one.
Guardians.
People have joked that thunderstorms are the angels at play
up above. That they are crashing around, or maybe even arguing, and maybe just
maybe if you want a laugh you could pretend that it is the angels bowling in
heaven. Each strike is a boom of thunder. I like to think that some days when
it’s really storming there are children born on those days to do great things.
Like some great Kings are born on a thunderous day - something picturesque.
But even so I imagine on the day that a Guardian is born
you’d see the sun shining and that that whole day, or if it were night, the
light breeze would be all you would find. I like to think that the angels would
have stopped their bowling, and maybe arguing, or whatever it was that they
would be doing would be on pause. I like to think it because I have a suspicion
that they would want to see whoever it was new to our world who could be
certainly so lucky as to be given double the amount of love that a natural born
person should be given.
Sometimes I imagine the angels all gathered around outside
of the door, pushing and shoving, maybe even a tiny bit jealous, because the
person in that room, even if her or his parents don’t know it, will do
something incredible some day. Incredible you say? Why, yes, yes I do.
You see every person has a certain amount of love. A body
can only hold so much it seems, but these people, well, its just not ever going
to be known just how much they can hold.
So yes, on that shiny day where all is still a child is
breathing and moving in its own mother’s arms learning right away how it will
be for them… Maybe more times then they know.
But what happens then you ask? Well I can tell you!
Growing up like an average person, only the maker and angels
knowing the truth as they follow this body around just how incredible they
really are. I like to imagine they peek in every so once in a while and maybe
even ask the maker “Now?” And he has to chide them “Not yet”.
You could spot them if you really knew how to look. A lot of
times they were the oldest and cared for their brothers and sisters, at other
times they are just someone who stands responsible far earlier than the body next
to them in the classroom, but all and all its safe to say that the life of a
Guardian is wrought with great tests.
If you are gifted with extra love, it is as it should be
that you should be tested. The angels all would nod that this should be so, but
no one but the person themselves knows how difficult that really is.
Then comes the patience because the person is growing, and
aging, making choices maybe that are not so good, and the angels will even
scratch their heads time and again, asking the maker if this really is the same
soul they welcomed into the world, but he would only smile at them with that
knowing smile. No body but the maker really knows the true secret of growing
such a guardian.
So times passes. Seasons come and go, and the person might
even go into a very normal life, one that seems destined and finished, nothing
so special about it. After more time fades one by one the angels leave far
away, busy, and off to bowl once again, they soon all forget even who this
person is besides a very regular one.
Pretty soon no one is watching.
The person is just a person once more.
…
So then a regular thing on a regular day, another entirely
different very regular person comes along. He or she is by one way or another
just that… Oh so regular.
In fact she/he is so regular that the room is very empty
when this person is born. In fact it is so empty that it is barely a whisper
and everyone and everything is moving along as if he or she barely existed.
The person being even so regular that if you looked outside
during the time of their arrival there is a slight rumble. Busy, busy, even the
heavens have not noticed her or him.
This person is not aware at all of who he or she might be
and even if this person were to take note they might find themselves altogether
regular and that would do no one any good, so it is best that at so young an
age, this regular person is completely and utterly and regularly - a baby.
But secretly the secret remains, and it is as if creation
itself waits.
Until one day it is so regular a day that the baby find
themselves utterly alone. In all goodness they do not even know it, and at
least that is as it is for now, because no one should be alone, and to know it
would only be very irregular.
When all seems so incredibly lost, a tiny memory comes to a
tiny angel who is worried about the tiny regular baby as is his job. He stops
what he is doing and decides to visit the maker on whim. Certainly there is
something to be done.
In between the normal busy goings on he asks quietly in the
corner near the throne to the maker, “Now?”
Almost no one hears him, but it is as if time stands still.
The maker does hear him and turns his head. His smile is not small and he nods.
One by one the angels remember. In one voice they say in
wonder “The Guardian”.
Rushing and tripping over one another they rush to the side
of where last they saw this once incredible person who came long ago on a very
warm and bright day. They search the house, the job, even this persons own
children’s rooms but the Guardian is gone!
They search high and low until one angel finally yells
“Here!”
One by one the angles collect around the room of a place
they have never been before. This place holds a baby, a very regular child, but
it is inside of that room and inside of the arms of the once upon a time
incredible person. Those arms hold the baby like it is never to be so regular
again. The angels look around oh so confused.
Is it possible they ask,
- barely, maybe,- it cant be
so!, they all argue but the tiny angel steps forward.
It can be he says, but it is incredible, and just as
incredible as we all had wondered before.
He says this oh so slightly, as to be almost unheard, but he
is heard this time so far and so wide, that the maker, the angels, and all of
the world is impacted by it forever to be changed.
Just how much love can these people hold? One asks. This is
not just any person, the tiny angel answers.
This is a Guardian.