Oct 9, 2024–Once, as he lay as close to dying as he has ever come, he heard from angels.
They texted him.
It is already an unreal state of being when you exist in that place between life and death. You exist. That is all. You cease to worry about paying the utility bill, what you are going to wear to the dance, or fixing the fence. You don’t think about cutting the grass or cutting your hair.
There is no fear, anxiety, worry, or anger. The closest emotion might be joy–the joy of release from all those other emotions. You exist, and that suffices.
You become detached, acting as both observer and observed. The dominant state is curiosity. Who are all these people hovering around you, trying to push things into your arm and pull things out of your veins?
While floating in this state of between-ness, he remembers getting a text.
The text read:
I am sending you thoughts and prayers for healing and well being.
That was it. That was the text. While trying to figure out who sent it, he drifted back into unconsciousness.
Later (he had no concept of time) he received another text:
Know that many folks have you in their prayers, and are sending you the most amazing and healing energy. God Speed.
Angels. It had to be an angel texting from Heaven.
The next text confirmed it:
Know I am there with you.
By now, he was further along the path of healing, and able to sort out what was happening around him. The texts were coming from someone he considered a casual acquaintance. And that matters. It was not a childhood friend, a religious figure, or someone with whom he’d shared intimacies. It was someone he sort of knew but didn’t know they knew him.
And that’s what made those thoughts and prayers more special.
The simple texts sustained him. He meditated upon each message as one would a passage from the Bhagavad Gita.
Why would this person reach out?
How did they know his situation?
What made them take the time and trouble to figure out how to contact him?
After he emerged and went through a a few months of recovery, it was fascinating to realize how most everyone in life–work colleagues, friends, some family, clients, associates–were not even aware he had essentially been out of action for six weeks. That was OK. He actually preferred it, not being the sort to share personal drama.
Yet this one human being took the time and trouble to send healing thoughts from almost the first day. From that, he learned a lesson.
He is no longer uncomfortable with “what to say” when encountering a friend going through any personal loss. All you need to say is, I’m thinking of you and praying for you. Yes, thoughts and prayers.
The power lies in the idea that a fellow human traveler has focused their mind on another and his situation. I am convinced we exist within an invisible connective tissue of minds and matter. I once was walking through a Renaissance Festival when a stranger in sackcloth and sandals, carrying a walking stick, approached me and said, “I sense you are suffering and in need of prayer. Can I prayer for you?”
I didn’t hesitate. It has nothing to do with respective faiths. I will always let someone pray for me. And he did, there in the midst of fellow travelers buying trinkets and sipping grog. I walked away a little lighter, because the man’s prayer had lifted some burden I didn’t even know I bore.
It was some weeks later that the final text came from his personal angel:
How are you doing today?
Still sending tons of positive and healing energy. Still praying for you.
Thoughts and Prayers. They really work.