I wrote this in 2008. Interesting that I used the phrase Love In Action. Little did I know at the time, but 8 years later I would create a website with those words. And not only that, on the back of my business card is the statement "You are beautiful". Apparently, I took some of the energy of this essay with me as I built my site. It was fun to read through this - and see who I was at the time - still very childlike, unlike today where I struggle some days to feel that part of me much less smile. But like this writing shows, that part of us is always there. (Also of note - how long this piece is. This was before I became a mom and could get lost in thought for hours instead of 20 minutes. 🥰😂 )
Enjoy!
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Once upon a time, a beautiful angel sent off to visit the earth. Never having been, she could only go by the words of other angels who had already paid the place a visit. While all enjoyed experiencing the textures, sounds and sighs, most proclaimed they could never return. For you see, the lack of light and love was terribly missing and as such, made the angels feel rather sick.
This particular angel, while a realist, was also the proverbial optimist with a heart of pure radiant joy and kindness. When asking the other angels what they had done to inject some light and love into the planet, she was met with a sense of apathy and dismissal. There was nothing really that could be done, they said. Just pray.
Determined to prove them wrong, and knowing angelic prayer was simply not enough, she set her intention to locate herself on earth. In the blink of an eye, she found herself in the middle of what appeared to be a large city. She looked around in awe at the crowd of people milling around her. She jumped at the sound of a horn blasting itself off to her right. She gazed skyward and was amazed at the heights of the buildings. Why, some appeared to almost reach the heavens!
Then there were the smells. Oh, the smells! What a glorious, strange concoction of smells she experienced. Heavey, sweet bitterness hit her senses hard.
After adjusting to the sensations around her, she noticed the people. Most looked, well, sad. It was almost as though most were sleep-walking. Half awake. Most surprising to her was how, in spite of the large numbers of people walking right past one another, even at times bumping into one another, not one person looked another in the eye and offered acknowledgement. There were no greetings. Very few smiles too.
But why, she wondered. Don't these people realize what a beautiful, amazing gift it is to be alive? Don't these people realize how many beautiful, amazing people are walking right past them?
A sense of darkness overcame the angel. Looking around, desperately hoping for some ray of light to exit from one of these humans, she remembered the words of her angel friends. She began to understand why they did not desire to return. Maybe this really was how people were. Maybe there was no hope for love to govern this species and the planet.
Threatening to get lost in this thought, she turned her thoughts to love and, using her intention, asked to be shown SOME sign of love. Some ray of hope.
And just then, she looked down and saw a child looking up at her with a look of inquisitiveness.
"Are you an angel?" the child asked.
"Why yes I am," the angel responded gently with a smile.
"I thought so," the child said matter-of-factly, returning the smile.
Looking out at the swarm of the crowd, the angel asked why the people seemed to be ignoring one another, ignoring her.
"Oh, well, big people don't talk to people they don't know," the child responded. "And they don't believe in angels."
"They don't?" the angel asked, rather flabbergasted.
"Nah. They believe in cars, money, jobs. Stuff like that," the child said nonchalantly.
The angel thought about that. Where she came from there was no judgment. And yet she suddenly realized that maybe the reason people seemed to be so sullen was that instead of believing in themselves and in one another, in love, they instead believed in things.
Reflecting on that, the angel suddenly had an idea. Looking down at her new friend, she asked the child to help her with something. Whispering in the child's ear of her plan, the child nodded enthusiastically, agreeing to help.
Taking one side of the street, the small child began approaching people, saying hello and offering them a small card that said "always remember how beautiful you are". That was it. It wasn't a plan designed out of the intellect. It wasn't one that would win a Nobel peace prize. It was simple. And yet sometimes, simplicity is the most effective teacher.
The responses varied as those cards were handed out. Some ignored the offer. Some seemed not to notice either the child or angel. Most of the rest took the card, stuffing it into their pockets. I say "most" because one person, an elderly gentleman, took the card, stopped, and read it. Looking down into the eyes of the child gazing up at him, he began to weep.
"Forgive me for the tears, but no one has ever told me that," he said, voice trembling, buying his eyes and nose in a handkerchief. Looking up, he suddenly saw a beautiful being in front of him. Was this an angel? And if so why was he suddenly seeing her now?
"My, my god, are you, are you what I think you are?" he asked incredulously, his voice small.
The angel smiled, took his hand and nodded.
Well, by this time, a small crowd had gathered to see what all of the commotion was about. One by one, the small child handed each of them a card, which each read. And no sooner had they read the words on the card and felt what it meant to them in their hearts, did they see the angel.
You can imagine what happened next. Tears of pain flowed from the people, followed by tears of joy and then, laughter. While each of them experienced the emotions in their own way, each felt something new and alive within as a result. Suddenly, people were talking with one another, laughing, some even hugging. Every one of them was offering up those around them some form of acknowleldgement.
Love In Action, is what the angel and her child friend decided to call it. It was an activity the angel took upon herself to deliver daily to cities and towns and villages across the planet. There was certainly a need for such a message as she soon discovered.
On the last day of her mission, as she silently said good-bye to the earth and all of its people, she looked around and saw - sensed - a lighter energy. The bleakness had noticeably diminished, replaced by the embracing of that Love within, that joy, spreading across the world as people opened up to it and passed it along to others. Oh yes, there was still darkness and acts of evil. There were still people, if you could call them that, usually of great earthly power, who refused or were unable or willing to embrace that Love. However, a new movement had been created. A spark, lit. For instead of believing in things, they remembered how to believe in themselves.
And each other.