August 22 is the official “Be An Angel Day.” It’s a great day to do something kind for your fellow man. Be a humanitarian. Give your time and energy to help someone in need. Talk to people, listen to them, and let them be heard.

Of course, it’s nice to imagine a world where every day was “Be An Angel Day!” Some people choose to live a life like this. Always looking for opportunities to help others, especially people they don’t know, people they have never met before.

When you hear stories about encounters with angels, they often involve the presence of a kind stranger:

“I was stranded on the side of the road. I had a flat tire and there was a terrible storm coming. Then, just out of nowhere a man with soft brown eyes appeared in a yellow pickup truck. He hardly said a word to me. He had the most beautiful smile and quickly fixed my flat tire just in time. I thanked him and tried to give him some money, but he shook his head and smiled before hopping back in his truck and driving away. As he drove away, a beautiful rainbow appeared!”

Have you heard this one, or a similar story like it before? There are many variations on the idea. Sometimes people see halos, bright lights, or even rainbows, too.

Is this an angel story? Was this a real man? Was this a man under the influence of an angel? My answer is yes, yes, and yes!

To me, “Be An Angel Day” is about opening yourself up to the angelic energy that is all around us all the time.

I have an angel story to tell, too. Only, my perspective is from that of the brown-eyed man in the yellow pickup truck. Last winter I found myself under the mysterious influence of an angel. It helped me to have a better understanding of how angels work.

I was shopping at my favorite second-hand store one Friday afternoon. My kids were with their dad for the weekend, and I was trying to find a way to distract myself from missing them.

Needless to say, I left the building with a shopping cart full of treasures. I unloaded the cart into my car and shut the doors to my car. I turned the cart around and was heading back to the store to return it, when I noticed a run-away cart rolling through the parking lot.

Everything happened really fast, but here is what I perceived in the moment. There was no one in the parking lot except for me. There were lots of cars, but no people, it was completely silent except for the rattle of the cart’s wheels as it rolled slightly down hill and towards a bunch of parked cars. The cart was full of merchandise, so it was rapidly picking up speed. The cart was easily eighty feet in front of me.

Without making any kind of judgement about the situation, I suddenly found myself running. The cart I was pushing had disappeared and it was just me, in my boots, my arms pumping, my legs stretching in a full blown sprint towards the cart.

It wasn’t until I was a few feet from the cart that I even registered that there was a baby in the child seat section of the cart. At that moment, I felt myself take flight and my arm, which was much too short to reach was suddenly on the handle bar of the shopping cart and the counter-weight of my body slowed the cart to a gentle stop just before it would have surely crashed into the front of a parked car causing the child certain injury.

By that time, the baby’s eyes were locked on mine. He was a cherub still in his first year. He had a bottle in his mouth and he looked at me with curiosity through his large sparkling blue eyes. Blond curls danced around his face, he was wearing a one-piece pajama… with feeties. I smiled at him for a moment, stunned, and then began to gasp for air.

I turned the cart around and that’s when I saw his parents, mouths agape. They were in shock. I rolled the cart back to them and the baby’s father slumped over the cart. The mother was sitting in a wheelchair, her eyes were as wide as saucers. She gulped and said quietly, “That’s my baby.”

I knelt in front of her and said, “It’s okay, he’s okay.” I was still panting pretty hard. She said, “I screamed.” I didn’t recall hearing a scream, but I don’t doubt that she did. Her husband had turned his back on the cart to help her from her wheelchair into the car when it had started rolling away from them.

The father was still slumped over the cart with the baby who was happily still sucking on his bottle with wide curious eyes. I put my hand on his back and said, “It’s okay, everyone is okay.”

He lifted his head with tears in his eyes. He hugged me and then tried to offer me some money. I laughed and said to both of them, and I don’t even know why I said this, but I said, “Our angels are with us today!” The woman looked at me and pointed as if she was looking at a ghost. It kind of freaked me out, so I turned and went back to my car and started to drive home.

As I was driving, I realized that my whole body was shaking and suddenly I started to cry. I had to pull over to compose myself. Everything was lit up inside of me, all the adrenaline that was rushing through me, was making my whole body shake and tingle. The tears were rolling out of my eyes. I had to just sit there in my car for a few minutes and focus on my breathing.

After I calmed down, I started to reflect on what had just happened. I know I didn’t see the baby until I was already in mid-sprint. I felt at one point like I had wings. How did I cover that much ground in that little amount of time? The way his mother looked at me… I think the late morning sun was shining behind me.

Perhaps there was a sunny glow behind me as I said that thing about the angels. Why did I say that? That’s not something I would normally say. It just came out! She thought she was looking at an angel! I was her angel! But, it wasn’t me, well it was me, but it was kind of not me, too.

As a Reiki practitioner, I am accustomed to channeling energy and offering myself as a channel to that energy. Perhaps the angels saw that opportunity in me. There was no one else in the parking lot. I was the only one who could have saved this baby from harm. I was in the right place at the right time and it was more than me just deciding to do the right thing. It was an unconscious impulse. It was my body moving into action before my brain even knew what was happening.

Then I had my “eureka” moment: “This is how it happens? This is how angels work?” I was actually asking these questions out-loud in my car. I felt a huge rush through all of my senses as if it was some sort of confirmation. This is how angels work!

Then I took a few moments to feel immense gratitude. I thanked Archangel Michael, especially, for always looking after my kids for me. Ever since my divorce, I had been asking Michael for his protection over my family. I have been in the habit of doing this on a regular basis. I always found it comforting and it helped relieve my own anxiety about being separated from them.

Now, I asked again for the angel’s protection. I promised to always be available to the angels for opportunities like the one I had just experienced. I hoped that others would be doing the same and that all our children would live safe happy lives.

I felt a connectedness to every parent of every child and felt the pain we all feel when our children are hurt and the relief we all feel when our children are saved. I felt a knowing that we all are so connected no matter our relationship. Mother, friend, stranger, we are all one in this life.

So on this August 22nd, this “Be An Angel Day,” I challenge everyone to open yourself up to this angelic energy. Open yourself up to the opportunities that are always around you for helping each other. It can be as small as opening a door for someone and it can be as big as saving a life.

The more we spread this awareness and openness, the more we can share these angelic gifts in the way they were meant to be shared: through selfless acts of kindness. I embrace the angelic in you, every day!

Bonnie Kelso is an Artist, Creativity Coach and Reiki Master. She uses a combination of energetic healing and visual art Creating Exercises to help people connect to their Higher Creative Self. She is the mother of two boys with whom she enjoys many outdoor adventures. She is now available as a mentor and Creativity Coach to others through Creating Your Experience. Her signature program, The ABCs of Conscious Creating, will show you how to open yourself up to your own creative power through specifically designed Creating Experiences.

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