Do you believe in angels? I dobecause 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 asthey 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
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.”
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.
It’s 2020! A New Year, a new decade is upon us! As we are celebrating this new happening, our mind prompts us to take a fresh look at our relationship with others and ourselves. It’s a reminder to retrace our path, to dig into our goals. It’s a chance to set a renewed path tobecome better humans, and positively impact our surroundings.
How to become better humans by reclaiming our inner-thoughts
Some of our VoiceOasis Thinkers discussing how to redefine good
We live in a binary world where twofold concepts, such as good and bad, evil and angel, or love and hate seem to be the recipe to explain all life’s happenings. Such accepted beliefs become normal attitude when describing our connection with the world . That is to say concepts of being good or doing good are elusive and not easy to grasp. Such excessive influence of external voices is unconsciously reshaping our inner-self and undermining our quest to better ourselves.
This sense of loss echoes in Karen‘s words:
“Whether or not every human being on earth has the ability to do good—I do not know about that. But what I do know and what I believe in is that every human being is not born bad. How can an innocent newborn baby desire destruction, or anything at all?”
How can we shine our inner light on our surroundings and become better humans in such confined spaces?
Time to reclaim our rightfully owned inner-thoughts. We need to redefine ourselves in connection with our loved-ones and our environment, in both time and space because awareness equips us with the right tools to foster real changes.
Thankfully, there is a silver lining as to how to becoming better humans
“Becoming good is not impossible, it just requires being surrounded by good people,” indicates Boubacar, a millennial from Ottawa. Ali, another Ottawan millennial also believes that it is important to “figure out who you want to be, and just keep trying to be that person. And it’s okay if you mess up along the way, as long as you keep trying.”
The same positivism resonates in Grace’s words.
“I think every human being has the ability to be good and/or bad. Everything is shaped by the influences the individual surrounded himself throughout her/his life. ” – Grace, another millennial from Ottawa
Life on Earth is also bounded by something called time. In our lifetime, everything we do depends on the right timing. How many missed opportunities have we encountered just because of the wrong timing?
Good news! The New Year is the right timing to review our path.
“We are living in interesting times when it comes to defining “good”. Perhaps because there’s a big and fast increase in population, we are witnessing major changes in the environment and in technology. And power, now more than ever, belongs to very few people and organizations. Good can be seen as the achievement of a desired result,” argues Eddie.
How much good have we done? How do we feel about ourselves, and most importantly, how are we going to ensure we keep improving ourselves?
As a result, VoiceOasis wants to promote a message of love, of true human connections, and freedom of thought. We invited a group of 15 people to join their voices in redefining concepts of ‘being good’ and opening the discussion on how to become better humans.
Through their own words, these thinkers provide eye-opening and insightful ways to approach these crucial life questions:
Do you think every human being has the ability to be good? If yes, how do you define good?
What do you think one can do to become a better human being?
Should our desire to improve ourselves be a new year’s resolution or an everyday goal?
Do you think every human being has the ability to be good? If yes, how do you define good?
Most of our thinkers genuinely believe that being good is intrinsic to human beings. This thought resonates exactly with Wasil‘s words: “Yes, I do believe every human has the ability to be good,” as opposed to John who believes that “Human beings have zero capability to be good.”
For Ruth Tania, it’s also a definite YES. “I think human being has the ability to be good. Since they are conscious of every actions they make. And if you decide to hurt others or do something bad, deep down you know what you did wasn’t right.”
The same goes for Naya, but with a slight nuance as she does believe “that every human being has the ability to be good if they want to“.
Right off the bat, Ali also confirms his belief that being good is part of the human nature. ” Yes, every human being has the ability to be good. However, for some it may be easy and feel natural, whereas for others it may be hard and uncomfortable.”
Becoming better humans is a nurtured process
Many participants conveyed in their responses that being good is a process that we develop throughout our lifetime. Similarly, your background plays an important role in your ability to be good given to your ‘upbringing’ and ‘intrinsic personality’ as pointed out by both Ali and Boubacar.
“No one is 100% pure and good. Everyone will be selfish, nasty, or otherwise unpleasant to others at some point in their life. And that’s not something to be ashamed of. It’s part of being human. It’s part of maturing and self improvement. It only becomes a problem when a person loses the ability to be good.” – Ali
Boubacar mentioned that education, cultural aspect, and personal upbringing define someone’s ‘ability to become good’. “We are not born good, we become good by the good deeds that we do on a daily basis.”
The notion of evilness is also highlighted in participant’s responses. However, it is not painted in a binary way.
Hassan sets the tone with an unambiguous statement, “No one is born evil or bigoted.” and ” Each person has the ability to fight this cancer by seeking knowledge and facing fears.” He added:
“These traits are nurtured. They need a breeding ground of hate and fear of the unknown, false assumptions and a systematic rejection of self-evaluation. Since these traits are nurtured, then human beings are innately good. Even those who have been described as evil or bad can demonstrate good traits which prove goodness is inherent and that evil is a cancerous intruder that invades the human heart.” – Hassan
In the same vein, Jackie a millennial from Chicago agrees that ‘No human is really born evil.’
“We’re all born innocent and as we grow we learn the difference between good and bad and right and wrong. It’s a choice to define yourself as a good person or a bad person, but I believe we can all be good.” says Jackie.
Life’s path has an impact on someone’s ability to be good
The impact of life’s hardship are present in two participants’ talk.
“While I believe that human are not good all time due to influences like the hardship that we endure, the ability to be good is within all of us. The act of being good involves being kind to every souls–humans and non-humans, sympathizing, doing selfless acts, and caring for others.” – Magdalande
This thought is also found in JJ‘s reasoning:
“Everyone was good once in their life, then life really hits them. So, I would say it depends on their way of living. Anybody can be good, but staying good is another question,” argues JJ.
What do you think one can do to become a better human being?
Becoming a better human being involves self-improvement
It’s about being ‘your best self everyday’, trying ‘to be kind to others’ and treating ‘everyone like you’d want to be treated’ says Jackie. To Magdalande, becoming a better human is about ‘reflecting on whether their actions made a good impact or bad impact, and thinking of ways they could help others especially those in need.’
For Jennifer, it means having “self-discipline, such as regular exercise, healthy diet; using dialectical thinking to see the positive side of anything; regulating your behavior and being considerate of others.” – Yu (Jennifer)
Self-improvement is the willingness to go the extra mile by ‘doing what’s right’ and “act in a way to be able to live with everyone”, affirms Ruth Tania.
To Diana, it is also about working ‘on oneself’. “Never quit the process of learning, wondering, and fixing the vicious habits. “Better” comes along with improvement.”
Bettering yourself calls for consistency
“There’s no specific way for someone to be a better human being, but if they keep trying to always make the right choice even when it’s not easy I call it being good”, says Naya
JJ also reasons that consistency is key. She says: “To become a better person, quitting is not an option”.
Others believe that faith is the solution to become better humans
On this note, Wasil believes ‘that we are the better version of ourselves when we act in good faith’. And, John argues that we can ‘only’ improve ourselves ‘through believing in Jesus’.
Bettering ourselves is inherently connected to our sense of community
Boubacar says that one can reach such goal “by being surrounded by good people because humans live in society and society (the environment) plays on our behaviour.” Ali also points out that you should “Treat others as you you’d want to be treated”. Furthermore, ‘humility and empathy’ are key.
On the same note, Eddie explains:
“It’s not only what we can do, but it must be an obligation for humans to understand and search to understand the system we living in. Humans who wants to see multiple communities living in harmony MUST be aware of the system that was normalized to us by the people from the 20th century and before, and reject it from their lives. This is so we can finally understand what being a human really is in its nature.” – Eddie.
Karen affirms that ‘people are capable of change’, and ‘the past has the information to theorize a future’, but cannot define it.’
“A genuine change of heart with strength that lasts more than a day or two is powerful enough to change the direction of a person’s “theorized” future; the kind of future that data, an non-living entity that I value so much as a Software Developer, can predict.” – Karen
Should our desire to improve ourselves be a new year’s resolution or an everyday goal?
An anonymous response: Improving ourselves should be an everyday goal
In response to the appropriate time to improve ourselves, all our 15 thinkers agree that ‘it should be an every day goal’. It can be something as simple as “trying to minimize your carbon footprint or simply smiling and being kind to everyone you meet during the day”, declares Grace. As JJ points out, “you should live for the moment and not the future”. How do you reach such important goal? By starting ‘small’ and working ‘your way up’, to paraphrase Ali.
This endeavour should also affect positively ‘the people around you’. And, “it should be a goal for a person before every decision is made”, says Karen. Ultimately, “people should not wait until a new year to set up goals for themselves”, explains Magdalande. In the end , we need to “set goals for ourselves every year, and achieve them day by day”, adds Jennifer.
New Year’s resolutions: elusive concepts?
Some participants do not believe New Year’s resolutions are useful. “I don’t let these type of “western” concepts regulate my daily vision of reality. What is a new year’s resolution in reality?”, argues Eddie.
“At this point in time, one must constantly seek the truth from history and understand the system where we are living so we can be part of a collectiveness and have one common goal: to stop “the few that have the power” from controlling our lives, from brainwashing and dividing the masses and destroying our planet,” says Eddie.
New Year’s resolutions bear reminders and a sense of a new beginning
However, some opinions carry an open door to the importance of New Year resolutions. In that respect, Diana considers a New Year’s resolution as a necessary ‘reboot’ and a ‘sense of a new beginning’.
“The ‘New Year’s Resolution’ is the perfect ‘excuse’ to reconsider why, what and who is important and what should be left behind. The desire to improve ourselves should be an everyday goal, but we also need the sense of a new beginning. It “should be a restart on the desire to become better on a daily pace”, adds Diana.
To Jackie a New Year’s resolution, “is just a reminder to get us back on track from a busy and possibly not so good year”.
A Last Note on New Year’s Resolutions
“Whatever it is, everyday you should try to exceed from the previous day. Now it’s not always easy and that’s why new year’s resolution are there to remind you that you can have a new beginning and decide to change things.” Grace
Going Forward
To sum up, the effort to become better humans and improve our surroundings is an ongoing quest as pointed out by most participants. However, defining good and applying such good in one’s life is not easy. This is the aim of this whole brainstorming exercise. I am grateful to witness such important gathering of thoughts on the beginning of the year. Together, we can continue opening our inner-thoughts and our hearts to become, each and everyone of us, an agent of change for our surroundings.
Happy New Year to All! May 2020 be a voiceful year filled with blessings.
Please join your voices to our outspoken thinkers. Voice your opinion in the Comment section below. You can also contact us or subscribe to receive more uplifting and inspiring messages right in your inbox.
Understanding indigenous arts matters because they are of a different kind and make you journey through time. They tell stories and educate. Native arts take you on a journey painted of human struggle, but of beauty. Their ingenuity depicts a path filled with sadness, but with pride and resilience. Ultimately, they uphold a sacred legacy to preserve. Get on a a journey towards understanding indigenous arts. Read through to discover these insightful native voices
We are Resilient by Tara-Lynn Kozma-Perrin – Photo by Paul Gino Ulysse Photography
I had the chance to attend two Native gatherings in Montreal, Quebec, and in Ottawa, Ontario. Both times, I felt a surge of emotions since guests were taken on the path of aboriginal history.
The Montreal workshop provided the audience with an insightful window into indigenous life in Canada. We learned about their struggle, their pride, their courage, and their pledge for ultimate peace.
Shifting of Energies by Cedar-Eve Peters – Photo by Paul Gino Ulysse Photography
We also tasted delicious indigenous dishes and admired captivating pieces of native arts.
The Ottawa’s gathering was an intense workshop with role plays that took every participant to relive an indigenous personal experience through time in the Canadian landscape.
They say seeing in believing. I’d say feeling is believing to a greater extent, feeling is understanding. I think it is from such beliefs that this indigenous group invites Canadians of all backgrounds to participate in an exercise to walk a mile in an indigenous person’s shoes.
Through emotional role plays, participants learned about Native history in Canada. After the story was unfolded, we got to touch the feather of peace and was able to feel this deep human connection. There was a call to stop fighting one another, to forgive, and instead to start building together. One thing I learned during these meetings was the importance of learning and acknowledging the truth because this will free your soul. You will then be free to forgive, to understand, and accept others. You will be free to love, freed of fear.
At VoiceOasis, 2018 was a great year! We had on board our first male guests. The most outspoken ones and as a bonus they are #MaleAlliesOnBoard for women’s cause. Discover VoiceOasis Best of 2018.
Watch this interview with one of our outspoken male guests, Dainton Haase.
Discover how we put our voices together to inspire and uplift in VoiceOasis Best of 2018.
2018 – Year in Review
See more in this video: Year in Review: Best of 2018 at VoiceOasis
“she has made me more open to different viewpoints and helped me learn about the issues. Without her, a lot of my views would be apathetic, but she has opened my eyes, and I am grateful for it.” [Robert Chon about his wife]
2018 is also memorable because of some outstanding blogs:
At the end of the year, we showcased a project, which was aiming at giving a second life to urban arts in the city of Ottawa: Rediscover the Ottawa Mural Boxes. See the striking pictures of the boxes by photographer Paul Gino Ulysse in this video.
Your voice is your number #1 weapon. It can lift somebody’s spirit and lighten your own soul. And Christmas is the time of the year when your voice matters the most. This is the perfect time to make an impact on the world, one person at a time, one voice at a time. Use your Voices of Christmas to uplift and inspire.
Your voice allows you to express yourself, to tell the world you matter. Your voice has healing powers. The kind words you utter with your voice can make people feel better, can even save somebody’s life. Your voice can bring joy to someone and brighten their day. Your voice can comfort and empower others to raise their voice for good.
This Christmas is the time to shut down all negative voices inside of us. These voices that remind us about hurt and pain, about failures and mistakes.
Use the power of your voice to remind yourself that you are deserving, that it’s okay to make mistakes, that you deserve forgiveness, you deserve to be loved, you deserve to be happy.
Use the power of your voice to bring joy and happiness to others this Holiday.
To help you achive your Christmas goal, VoiceOasis is inviting you everyday until two days after Christmas to inspire yourself with words from a wise voice. Check out our website and social media channels for inspiring, comforting, and healing words. Get into the magic of the season!
To start off, some wise words from Helen Steiner Rice
Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.
