Encounters

When I do my one book-signing event a year, at the Psychic and Paranormal Expo held in Iowa every November, I often ask people to share a personal ghost story with me. And I’ve been lucky enough to hear some really terrific ones. I’ll never turn away a true ghost story!

But lately I’m considering asking people about other encounters they might have had. I’d be interested in cryptozoology sightings (seen a Bigfoot lately? Catch a glimpse of the Loch Ness monster on your trip over to Scotland?), ghost light spotting, or even a really well-told UFO story. The kind of encounter I’d like to touch on today, though, is angelic.

I know there are entire books out there about angel sightings and experiences. I’ve read some of them and enjoyed the stories quite a bit. I’ve read various magazines dealing with the topic. And I’ve heard some stories from others around me. A co-worker once told me of her father’s experience when he took a fall while working perhaps seventy feet above the deck of a Navy ship. He had enough time to realize he was going to die when he hit the flooring below, but just before he hit, something caught him and lowered him gently to his feet. Now, this man is an engineer, a profession based in practical science. But after that, he was a true believer.

My mother was also protected twice by the house I grew up in. Now, maybe it was angels. Maybe it was whatever haunted the place that had taken a liking to her. But one time when she was home alone –and this was during the day- she literally watched as a man tried to break into the house at the side door. Our side entrance had both storm and regular doors, and as she looked on, he pried and pried away at the lock of the door. She had already called my aunt (my mom was so freaked out by this that she didn’t even think of dialing nine-one-one. My aunt totally freaked out and called my oldest brother. And he finally said, hang up and call nine-one-one.) The police did eventually get there. They found the damage around the door handle from whatever tool the man was using before he gave it up and simply left. And then one of policemen said to my mother, “I have no idea why he couldn’t get in. He should have been inside in a matter of seconds.”

There was another time when a man doing roof repairs found a couple of tools and some pry marks left around one of the upper story windows and even one pane of glass that had been removed  from the outer storm window (this window was over a balcony). Again, no one could figure out how the would-be thief was never able to get into the house, because he should have been able to enter, no problem. I think the house looked out for my mom. And maybe angels, too.

I’m thinking not all angels are visible. For instance, what whispers in someone’s mind not to get on a certain plane or a train, and then that person finds out later that there was a horrific accident with few or no survivors? What is it that tells a person that someone close to them is very sick or in distress?

And who was it that came to me one summer afternoon when I was walking down the street on my way to a class, privately in distress over the rough time I was having both at home and in a serious relationship? He stopped me in the middle of the sidewalk to tell me that everything was going to be all right, and that I shouldn’t worry. He was very nice and very gentle and he smiled before he walked away from me. I turned around a few seconds later, after finally managing to process what this perfect stranger had just told me, and he was nowhere to be found. Not steps away, like he should have been. Not across the street like he might have been if he started sprinting as soon as we parted ways. There was simply no sign of him. Anywhere. But I’ll never forget that encounter. And it turned out that he was absolutely right. This is not a story I share lightly; in fact, I kept it to myself for years and I’ve hardly told anyone about it since. But I’m sharing it now because I think there are beings out there who do lend us a hand sometimes, whether in physical form, or in the quick flash of a thought or a feeling: to protect, to warn, maybe just to encourage or maybe even to all-out save a life.

Have you ever had an encounter you can’t quite explain?