Earth Angels

Have you ever had the experience of encountering a human being whose energy was so gentle, kind, uplifting and loving that you were sure you’d been in the presence of an angel?

Most of us have had this type of encounter at least once in our lives (and often more than that), and it usually occurs when we’re in a crisis or challenging situation with few options and very little hope.

It might be the person that pulls over to help us when our car breaks down in the middle of nowhere.

It might be the person on the other end of a phone call when we’ve lost a wallet or something else of high value.

It might be the person in the emergency room when something terrible has happened to us or a loved one.

It might be the person in the checkout line at the grocery store who sees how sad and exhausted we are and says or does something that makes us smile.

And so on.

How many times have you been that angel for someone else?

While I believe that beings from the angelic realm do show up in the earth realm to help us during a difficult time, I also believe that we all have the potential to be earth angels for each other. In fact, that tribal interdependence and connection is our true nature—it’s how we’re wired. We’ve simply been taught to be overly independent and self-sufficient and to handle life on our own.

We need each other. Not just in times of crisis but all the time. Sometimes we need an angel, and other times we need to be someone else’s angel. This is how our beloved Creator expresses love to us: through each one of us. We are ambassadors of Divine Love. Unfortunately, we often forget this because we’re so busy trying to keep up with the many demands and distractions in our lives.

But what if we recognized—truly and intuitively knew—how interconnected we really are, would that change the way we showed up in our daily interactions? What if we understood that each and every thought we think, word we speak and action we take impacted the entire collective of humanity, would that change the way we engage with life?

I think it would.

Love is medicine. It is the healing balm that soothes us and reminds us that we matter.

Lately, so many people I know have been asking themselves, “What’s the point? Why am I even here? How can I move through another day of this?" This speaks to feelings of being invisible, disconnected from others and adrift without a clear sense of purpose or meaning.

How does this happen?

It creeps in when we’re feeling unloved. And yet, love doesn’t come from outside of any of us. It’s always experienced within. We always have access to it, and the easiest and fastest way to connect with love is to invest in loving ourselves. When we do that, we fill our own empty cups. If we do that until it’s overflowing, we naturally want to share that love with others, especially those that need it the most.

Think of it as using your candle to light the candle of someone whose flame has gone out. Even the smallest gesture, when filled with love, can inspire someone to take a step forward after a long period of being stalled out.

We live in a web of inter-being (a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh). He said, “Nothing can exist by itself alone. It has to depend on every other thing. That is called inter-being. [...] There is no being; there is only inter-being.” And, “We cannot be by ourselves alone. We can only inter-be with everything else in the cosmos.”

Don’t you love that?

If you’re needing love and support today, be on the lookout for an earth angel to show up.

If you’re feeling good today, be on the lookout for someone who needs your love.