Angels sure do come in many shapes and sizes. I recently got a puppy. She is so full of unconditional love. Her antics bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart. When she runs her ears flap like angel’s wings. How can you resist those eyes?

My dad has Alzheimer’s and recently his step daughters took him to Vermont to live. He can be very difficult and impatient at the best of times and with this disease ravaging his brain he gets paranoid and afraid very easily.

Long story short, after a month and a half in Vermont they are trying to ship him off to live with me in Hawaii. I go to Lithuania for the month of September so I can’t take him until I get home. I talked to him today and he is afraid and angry. There is a sweet young girl working in the nursing home they placed him in. I asked her to circle the date on the calendar when I will meet him and print out an e mail I wrote explaining everything. That way he can read it when he gets scared or forgets what’s happening.

Today she is my angel. Angels come in so many shapes and sizes. They are always there, right at the edge of our reality, waiting to help us, all we have to do is be willing to ask. I remember one of my mentors telling me that asking others to help was a gift for both them and me. People often enjoy feeling cherished and useful.

I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said commit “random acts of kindness and senseless beauty.” What would happen to the world if a whole bunch of us decided to make that our mission for a month or two? It might be a very different world!

Some of the things I love to do:

Put flowers on people’s windshield
Pay for other people’s parking meters
Buy coffee for the person behind me
Throw extra coins in the toll booth
Stop and let people in line
Smile a lot
Say kind things to strangers
Pick up liter
Plant flowers
Cut someone else’s lawn
Listen, really listen to someone else

Who can you be an angel for today? How can you make this world a better place right here and right now?

With love and aloha,
Susan