Do you believe in angels? I do because crossing the path of loving angels, these people who have been there for me all my life is a marvelous blessing. Besides, the good thing is, my angels look like me as they are made of flesh and blood. Ultimately, they are humans to the core.
The Blessing of Crossing the Path of Loving Angels
There is no greater blessing than being shadowed under an angel’s wings. As Maya Angelou gracefully describes it in her poem Touched by An Angel, “It is only love which sets us free”. And I am talking here about the love of an angel. It is a feeling of no other. Some of us may have been crossing the path of loving angels from time to time whereas others may have been living it daily. It’s all about acknowledging it.
Lately, I have been thinking very hard about life, forgiveness, happiness, love, etc. Just the deep life thinking. In addition, I looked at my life and considered several events; small ones and big ones, sad ones and the happy little moments. Therefore, I realized that we are sometimes lucky because of some special people in our lives.
Crossing the Path of Loving Angels Can Drive Confidence
We often need to hear from someone that we got this, and that we can do it. As much as it is important to be confident and all, and to believe in ourselves, we sometimes need this little boost to help us become that confident person we were always meant to be. According to Brittany Packnett’s words in a TED Talk, confidence requires permission. We sometimes need someone to give us this permission, and to let us know we are not alone.
Often, we get to a crossroad in our lifetime. I mean this point in time that forces us to look at our life’s path from an outside point of view. As we revisit the various corners of our life path, we realize that we are lucky, but not because we are not hard-working individuals, not because we do not give our 110%.
Crossing the Path of Loving Angels Can Positively Impact our Life
In fact, we are blessed because we have crossed the path of many angels. During our lifetime, a group of select people, at specific points in time, have been there for us. Their roles? Giving us the permission to become a better version of ourselves.
I know because some of these amazing people have been there for me. To me, they are like angels, but I don’t mean some kind of spiritual beings looking over me from way above. I refer to them as angels because they are sometimes able to push their ability to be good and do good beyond human limits. They usually take upon themselves to make you and I feel better, even when we do not deserve it. Thanks to them, we grow everyday into a better version of ourselves.
Types of Angels Who Have Been Crossing our Path during our lifetime
These angels can take different faces. They can be a sister, a friend, a mom, a dad, a mentor, a teacher, a co-worker, a brother, a cousin, a lover. Sometimes, an angel can just be a stranger with a desire to help others. Whoever they are, they all have one thing in common: a desire or need to help others. As such, I spread them into three different categories:
- Permanent Angels (PA)
- Temporary Angels (TA)
- Would-be Angels (WA)
Permanent Angels (PA)
To me, a permanent angel can be anyone in our surrounding, but someone who flies almost above us. You can almost see these people’s wings. Ironically, PAs seem to be above us because they are humble enough to place themselves in a position to always serve other human beings. Doing grand gesture, changing lives without asking anything in return are PA’s main characteristic. A PA is someone close to what is described as saint in holy books. PAs love deeply and can sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of love.
Persona
For instance, imagine somebody in a family who always remembers everyone’s birthday. This person always ensures every family member feel special by always reaching out, but easily forgives when the family ignores him or her. Picture a dad who can deeply channel his inner love to forgive the murderer of his daughter. How about a total stranger who plunges without thinking, without hesitation into a river to save someone’s life!
These are all examples of permanent angel’s behaviour. In every situation, one needs to be selfless, forgiving, courageous, and loving to the core to be able to act like this. Once you can behave like this, you definitely become a permanent angel. You earned your wings.
Downside of Crossing the Path of Permanent Angels
PAs are often seen as either “too good” or “inhuman”. Some people, even those who benefit from their selfless acts are sometimes dubious, ungrateful or look down to them. Honestly, I am not sure if I could ever find within me the strength, courage, love, and understanding to forgive someone who hurts my kids with no reason. I have a deep respect for PAs, but I would shy away from walking in their shoes. PAs are difficult to love, but easily command respect and maybe admiration. Someone you wish you could look up to, but you know deep down you can never be like…. Unless… Unless you learn to channel profoundly your inner love.
Bottom down – there are only so few humans who can rise to the state of PAs within their lifetime. However, anyone who has the chance to cross a PAs in their life is blessed.
Temporary Angels (TA)
Now a TA is someone you and I can be or at least look up to. I would compare a TA to a penguin, a bird with wings that cannot fly. Why? TAs are profoundly humans. They navigate often in a grey area between good and bad. TAs do love and can make sacrifices from time to time. They can understand and are endowed with the ability to forgive.
As opposed to a PA, a TA is more logical than intuitive. TAs live in constant fears. Fears that they will lose something or someone valuable to them, fears that they may not gain something as valuable as what they put on the table for trading. However, they can do great acts of love from time to time. TAs will do selfless acts very often for people they deeply care about.
Persona
Examples of TAs can be a mom who makes the ultimate sacrifice by pushing their kids out the way in the wake of an imminent accident. Another good example is a lover who puts their partner’s happiness above their own, so much that they physically feel their partner’s pain and/or joy. A friend who is happy for their friend’s success even when they just failed themselves in the same area. Most human beings act from time to time as someone’s else angel.
Again, as Maya Angelou says it, we can all “be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”.
TAs Downside
Well, it is not easy for TAs to win their wings as their halo flickers too much, merely disappearing. Being deeply human is a TA’s Achilles heel as they are affected by their own internal conflicts. When looking at a TA, we usually see ourselves in a mirror. We congratulate ourselves in others for the good deeds and we ferociously deny any misbehaviour. “Nope, I would never act like that”. As binary individuals ourselves, we associate and disassociate ourselves to TAs. It is as C. JoyBell puts it:
“There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human- in not having to be just happy or just sad- in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time.”
― C. JoyBell C. (Goodread)
Would-Be Angels (WA)
I see WAs as people who sometimes forget about their humanity. They are the definition of what is called a constant work in progress. Nevertheless, they are very self-conscious and spend most of their time dealing with feelings of regrets. As such, their guilt pushes them to try doing better everyday. On the other hand, they can be as bad as they can do good. They would tend sometimes to focus more on their bad side without even realizing it. WAs deal everyday with a load of pride and self-love that can undermine their ability to love truly.
In a nutshell, WAs are loving, but conflictual and very sensitive beings. They can help, rescue, and even sacrifice themselves for others. But, most of the time, they will expect something in return or at least bet on a future return.
Persona
For instance, a teenager who loves his or her parents, but keeps hurting them. Except, each time the teen would feel as bad as the parent who has been hurt. He or she would try fixing things by apologizing, but would later repeat the same hurtful behaviour. Another persona can be a co-worker who has a tendency of showing off or diminishing other employees as a way to ascertain/establish his or her role. However, he or she would always feel bad afterwards and feel the need to constantly apologize to others.
Disadvantage of Crossing the Path of Would-be Angels
As they say what is said is said and what is done is done. Therefore, saying sorry will never erase completely the damage that mean words or bad behavior have done. Although WAs truly carry good in them and are also endowed with the ability to love, they usually leave a bad impression. Since they keep multiplying the same bad behaviours, people might tend to forget about the good deeds that they do.
Conclusion
With everything that deals with categories, there is no watertight division between the three types of angels. As such, some people might not fit in any category. Others might combine some of each type’s characteristics or alternate between two categories.
To summarize, we are all lucky to have at some point or another crossed an angel’s path. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, we can all be an angel in someone’s darkest moments. This is one of the best features of humanity.
