A Bedtime Story

For you all.
From me, Nina.

Once upon a time, a beautiful angel set off to visit the earth. Never having been, she could only go by the words of other angel's who had already paid the planet a visit. While all enjoyed experiencing the textures, sounds and sights, most proclaimed they could never return. For you see, the lack of light and love was terribly missing and as such, well, made the angels feel rather sick.

This beautiful 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 really nothing 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. And 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. Heavy, 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. No smiles.

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 overcome 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 the 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, returning the smile.

Looking out at the swarm of the crowd, the angel asked why the people seemed to be ignoring one another, to be ignoring her.

"Oh well, big people don't talk to people they don't know. And, they don't believe in angels," the child responded.

"They don't?" asked the angel, rather flabbergasted.

"Nah. They believe in cars and money and jobs. Stuff like that," the child said non-chalantly.

The angel thought about that. Where she came from there is no judgment, there is no right or wrong. 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.

Suddenly, the angel 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 amazing and 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, simpleness is the most effective teacher.

The responses varied. Some ignored the offering of the card. Some seemed not to notice either the child or the angel altogether. Most of the rest took the card, stuffing it into their pockets. I say "most of" because one person, an elderly gentleman, took the card, stopped and read it. Looking down into the eyes of the child he began to weep.

"No one has ever told me that," he said, his voice trembling, burying his eyes and nose into a hankerchief. Looking up, he suddenly saw a beautiful, well, being before 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 increduously, 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.

Well, you can imagine what happened next. Tears of pain flowed from every person, followed by tears of joy and then laughter. While each of them experienced it 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, but every single person was offering up those around them some form of acknowledgement.

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 all 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 beautiful people, she looked around the planet and saw and sensed a lighter sensation. The bleakness had diminished, replaced by the embracing of inner love and joy, spreading out across the globe as people shared them. Oh, yes, there was still darkness. There were still people, often people of great earthly power she discovered, who refused or were not willing to embrace the light. And yet, a new movement had been created amongst the people.

For instead of believing in things, they returned to believing in themselves and in one another.