Lots of people believe in them. Some will laugh self-consciously when they admit that, yes, they think they’ve got one. When others scoff, they will defiantly recount specific occasions when their angel has saved them from disaster.
   Catholic churches have more pictures of angels than the Protestant ones I’ve attended. Across the centuries, these angels have been painted by such great artists as Pietro Da Cortona (1596-1669) who painted the image, above, in 1656. But angels, of course, appeared much earlier, in the Jewish tradition, showing up in the Old Testament. And belief in angles is crucial to the faith of Islam. Muslims believe that angels record each person’s actions and take the soul upon death.
   Who are guardian angels? Some believers claim they have actually seen theirs. Others accept that angels are present to them as an energy that they feel.
   It’s a nice idea to think of having a guardian angel. I know lots of nurses who wear angel pins on their uniforms. And I’ve seen plenty of caregivers who seem like guardian angels themselves…

   While perusing a book of poem collected by Robert Bly, I came across something by a Norwegian artist named Rolf Jacobsen. Jacobsen, born in 1907, was considered Norway’s first modern poet.

Guardian Angel

I am the bird that flutters against your window in the morning,
and your closest friend, whom you can never know,
blossoms that light up for the blind.

I am the glacier shining over the woods, so pale,
and heavy voices from the cathedral tower.
The thought that suddenly hits you in the middle of the day
and makes you feel so fantastically happy.

I am the one you have loved for many years.
I walk beside you all day and look intently at you
and put my mouth against your heart
though you’re not aware of it.

I am your third arm, and your second
shadow, the white one,
whom you cannot accept,
and who can never forget you.

   Whether you acknowledge a guardian angel or not, it seems there is always a presence near all of us all the time. We may choose, at any moment, to notice this presence, to discover it and to embrace it as Love.

-Erie Chapman