Middle-Pause Pump-Priming Prompt

This ‘Easter Monday of the Angel’ are there Angels in Your Midst?

Or have there been times when you were the angel?

I just learned something.

I just learned that the Monday after Easter is a thing. It’s called Easter Monday and in the Catholic Church also the Monday of the Angel.

This is in honor of the angel who came to the empty tomb and told Mary that Jesus isn’t here because “He has risen.” Which is the core of the Easter message of overcoming death through resurrection–AKA Good News!

This weekend, I’ve been reflecting on death and what happens after we die. I’ve been reflecting on how our spirits, live on and what that might look like.

For example, I don’t think that when I no longer inhabit my body I’ll be a ghost. Or a disembodied spirit. Because I plan on being an angel.

How don’t ask me what the difference is in terms of how they look or move or what gives them shape or substance. I haven’t a clue.

My focus is on being an angel.

Angels watch out for us and intervene on our behalf. Anonymously. Stories abound of someone being pulled out of the path of an oncoming bus by a mysterious stranger who disappears without a trace immediately after.

That’s what I mean by angels.

I’m looking forward to doing posthumous random anonymous acts of kindness and beauty. Finding those lost keys and putting them in the basket by the door. Re-uniting estranged siblings. Deflecting bullets and defusing bombs before they can harm. Whispering ideas of peace, compassion, and healing into adversarial ears till they take.

So learning that today is the Monday of the Angel gives me hope that I’m on the right track. Aside from whatever I think angels are and do, they are God’s messengers. They bring good tidings wherever they go.

The writer in me is thrilled. This is right up my alley!

Which brings me to this week’s Middle-Pause pump-priming prompt:

You have some choices:

How was your holiday and what did you celebrate? There’s Easter, yes, but also Passover. Pasqual and Pessach. Did you attend a Sader, dye eggs, go to a sunrise service, or eat a chocolate bunny?

Or given this is Angel Monday, what’s your understanding of and/or experience with angels? Have you been visited by any?

This can be that stranger that pulls you out of harm’s way and disappears before you can thank them. Or the bearer of good tidings.

Or, when have you been an angel for someone else? Those random acts of anonymous loving-kindness. Or going out of your way to help a stranger with or without their knowing it. Or delivering a message of good news.

I’m willing to go first while you think about your answers.

I believe I am surrounded by angels all the time. They keep me safe and secure. Or when something critical happens, they minimize the damage.

Once I lost control of my car when I was driving too fast on slick wet roads. I went into a skid and found myself heading for a concrete embankment. I started chanting and praying, unable to do anything else.

An angel must have changed the trajectory of my car because I curved away from the concrete at the last minute. By then I was facing oncoming traffic in the fast lane. With a car headed right for me.

An angel intervened again. There wasn’t time to avoid hitting the car, but we didn’t hit head-on. Instead, the left front corner of my car hit the left front corner of theirs. Both cars were totaled, but all but one passenger walked away from the cars.

We all went by ambulance to the hospital, with mostly minor injuries. But no fatalities. It could have been so much worse. But thanks to what I call angels, that did not happen.

When have I been an angel for others?

When I helped Debbie Walker get new eyes via cataract surgery?

When I gave my friend rides back and forth to Children’s hospital so she could stay there with one of her three disabled children, a son who had operations on both legs and needed to be there recovering for six weeks. He was released right at Christmas time.

The hospital had several pallets heaped up with toys for their patients and we got to load up my trunk for this little guy and his little sister and older brother.

When we got home to their house it was clear we didn’t have anything for their older sister who was a teenager at the time. (She’s in the Air Force now.)

They needed sundries from the drug store, so I took her with me to get them. At the store I had her pick out some goodies for herself, given resources in the family were scarce that year.

She picked out a warm blanket to wrap up in, and a silly stuffed weasel wearing camouflage that made her laugh. And after caring for her younger siblings she so needed to.

My heart was so full from these ways of giving, that I’d say I was on the receiving end. But if this makes me an angel, I’m happy to play the role. Let me say a prayer that they are doing well as I’ve lost touch with them.

Now it’s your turn.

Again the prompt questions: How was your holiday and what did you celebrate? There’s Easter, yes, but also Passover. Pasqual and Pessach. Did you attend a Sadar, dye eggs, go to a sunrise service, or eat a chocolate bunny?

Or given this is Angel Monday, what’s your understanding of and/or experience with angels? Have you been visited by any? When have you been an angel for someone else?

In my book, we are all angels for each other. And we so look forward to hearing from you!

Marilyn Flower writes humor to laugh the changes she wants to see and make. She’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow my Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!