Be an Angel on Call

 We live in troubled times. Economic conditions continue to be uncertain. Seldom is there anything uplifting or encouraging in the news these days. On any given day our politicians appear to have lost their minds, and as we watch them we are on the verge of losing any sense of peace or happiness. I, personally, don’t see any relief any time soon. So what can we do to get through this and come out on the other side still standing? We can help each other and most importantly we can show human kindness.

I lived and worked in Akron, OH for more than 10 years--I still live there part-time. I met many wonderful people and have some great friends that I never want to lose contact with. Akron is really where the idea for this originated. During the time I was there the Goodyear Blimp was often visible in the sky. Whenever I’d see it I always thought about an episode of the TV series Ally McBeal which was popular during the late 1990 to about 2002. I’ve told this story many times and I think it is well worth repeating. I hope you think so as well.

The episode is titled “Angels and Blimps” and Haley Joel Osment portrayed a little boy, Eric Stall, who is dying from leukemia. Ally McBeal, played by Calista Flockhart, is an attorney and is asked by the boy and his mother to help him because he wants to sue God. The mother explains that their health insurance won’t cover the experimental treatment and their church can’t help either. During their many conversations Ally learns that he is angry with God. As Ally probe more into the why Eric wants to sue God he tells her that “I just want to tell him some stuff face to face. I thought that maybe if I sue Him, after I get to Heaven maybe he’ll come up to me and say “Hey, what’s up with that? And then I can ask him some questions”.

In one moment Eric sees a look that pass between Ally and his mom and he ask “there is no God, is there?” So in an attempt to help him back to his belief Ally relate a story about something that happened when she was a child and also questioned the existence of God. She told him that one day she saw something that she’d never seen before and she didn’t know what it was. It was a blimp and her mother told her that God had men to make the blimp to remind us that he is up there and always watching out for us.

Eric tells her that he’d never seen a blimp except on TV. With this, Ally replied that maybe God communicate with people in different ways and for different reasons. “God sent a blimp to me but maybe for you“, she told him, “he will allow the Red Sox to win the World Series this year just to remind you he really is there…watching“

Then this little boy who is struggling between life and death looks at Ally with the most amazing and loving expression on his little face and says “Or maybe he sent you

Ally became Eric’s angel that day and you too can become an angel for someone who needs one. A few years back, the buzzword “random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” came on the scene. The idea was to do things that help someone out--family, friends, but especially someone you don’t know or don’t know well. These are things that can be done any time of the year and what better time to start than now. It is often the little things that we do for others that can bring the greatest joy to both them and us. Things like:

• Begin “operation kindness”.
• Let someone with fewer items than you go before you in the grocery store checkout line.
• Say something nice to the check-out person.
• Send a card to someone--just because.
• Put a coin in an expired or almost expired meter.
• Tip very well even if you think they don’t deserve it--they may be experiencing some personal crisis at that moment.
• The next time you are seated in a restaurant serve the waiter or waitress some love and kindness
• Say please and thank you.
• Spend one whole day being extra considerate of others and see if you don’t feel better.
• Ask the nurses at a nearby hospital, nursing home or assisted living facility to point out those that don’t have many visitors and stop in to say hello--all they may need is a little conversation.
• Read to the sick children in a hospital ward.

And, here is one we can do at any time and to anyone.

• Share a smile--a smile has the power to soothe, praise and lift the spirit or another. Smiling is also contagious. It connects us with one another. It’s a small miracle, a gift we give to others and to ourselves.

There is a wonderful little saying that I love, my mother shared it with me many years ago and I try to live with this in mind. I share this with you now in hopes that you will pass it on. “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” (By Stephan Grellet).

Be an angel on call and make someone’s day.

Love to all,

Nonna