angels…

sunrise

Originally uploaded by jayfherron

In the bible the book of Psalms 91 vs.11 it says there are angels in charge of us-in charge of  our protection.

I know I’m not the person to explain what all of this means because there are doubts of a God or angels…but I know they exist.

It was angels that put my hand on the car door that delivered me to Florida in 1970.

The day I had left home in the suburbs of Washington was a fateful day in my future. I had spent the earlier part of the day being interrogated by the police. I had been an unwilling accomplice in some thefts. I was not a thief-I was just being made to be one, I being strong armed into doing it-my enforcer reaping all of the benefits, and I was left to pay the price.

It was easy in those days to manipulate me like that. A person really had no reason to twist my arm behind my back-just a small threat would make me thiers. I had been trained that in barracks D-only months earlier.

The police had  given me the night to think about it-was I going to jail alone…or was I going to tell them who was helping me? Helping me? It was so ironic.

That night I went to a going away party. I did’nt know the person who was going away-at that, I did not know I was going too. The fellow the party was for was leaving that  night for Florida. Angels guided me to that car-and I accepted the ride.

I never knew what the outcome was at the department store where I worked. The police knew who was the one that was with me-they just wanted me to point my finger at him so we would go to jail together,24 hours after the interview I was sitting in Jacksonville Florida.

I had no destination but fortunately the angels reminded me there was someone who I could connect with in Gainesville Florida. My host and driver agreed to drive me there-where I spent my first day in Florida in a Jewish cemetery.

I made my connection later that night-Fathers Day June 1970.

It was angels that led me to Micanopy Florida. The following morning I met several of them in person.

If I had not met these people-if I had not escaped the future I had in the DC area…my life would had never had hope.

In the bible-God has many names. One of those names is the BRANCH. It is so true-the branch,and how it connects.

My friend Bill Schaaf is the same age as my brother Frank. Frank was my brother who however manipulated the circumstances that sent me to barracks D. All of my life of knowing Bill I’ve never known any thing else but goodness and love. Sometimes life goes through several months and I might not see Bill-but when we do see each other it is a space of time that flows with goodness.

I met Bill in my first few months of being a resident of Micanopy. Micanopy in that time of the 70’s was becoming an artists commune-and the hippie nature of the art folk was of true peace and love-always real,always positive-always teaching.

Why I relate to God being sometimes spoken of as the BRANCH is how the friendship of Bill and my life in Micanopy in those days grew. Through the years how connections were made that led back to the original base. Keeping a source of goodness through the first meeting of the angels in Micanopy on through to today-and I know onward.

My course was going along the wrong path back then. I was broken with my experience in barracks D. It was easy for me to fall victim only weeks after being freed. I was used to it by then and my thief boss was leading me right back to another kind of space-jail,and the way I was broken in barracks D I would have been kept that way forever physically,worse than I am now mentally.

When I met the artists in Micanopy they all accepted me with love,although I’m not so sure it was as clear to me then-I know it is so now. If I had not had that welcome spirit of love I don’t think I would have made it to now.

I keep wanting to show you the BRANCH.

I have recently begun to help Bill around his studio-helping sort it out and clean it up for a sale of his art. This weekend was the event-and I spent both days present.

Yesterday was a sweet warm Florida fall day. I arrived at the gathering mid-afternoon and found the same peace as I found in Summer of 1970. I am blessed that I found Micanopy and the angels that led me there.

The way things grow-as the way of a branch on a tree.

Last year a friend accompanied me to my hearing in St.Petersburg with the VA Judge. I had only made acquaintances with her a few years earlier with the survivors art program-but through that we became friends. She is also a therapist-and was well heard in my case as she explained to the Judge her impression of my distress.

I did not know last year the power this friendship would possess-I did not really know that it was going to be, but angels did.

Some ways to understand how all of this works are not mine to know. My friend Bill is also friends with my therapist friend. The BRANCH reaches out. The same kind of goodness and love that came from all of those in Micanopy is the same kind of goodness and love this lady has-and the man she loves, his goodness radiates the same spirit.

I was too wild and out of control in my mind in those days in 1970 to see it as clearly as I see it now-but even from that point I never swayed from my belief it was a divine intervention that took me to that going going away party. I have always been thankful for that chance I was given to become a part of the branch that includes these people-my friends.

Yesterday at Bill’s studio we all were there and as the afternoon came to an end I was invited to visit my therapist friend and her husband at their home-just a short trip from Bill’s studio.

In the silence place in my head I was thinking how fascinating it was-how all of this comes together, the goodness and the peace. We sat there like kids in school eating popcorn and oranges and I was thrilled to be there and in awe of how things all come around.

In Psalm 34 vs.6 & 7 says that the angel of God camps around us.  I really believe if we look we see them.