Brooklyn Woman

A Publication of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

DEC. 20, 2001 issue

The World According To Me

By Ryn Gargulinski

BE VERY VERY QUIET – I’M HUNTING ANGELS

What better season than now than to engage in angel hunting

Never mind deer season, even though there were plenty of them tied to car roofs whizzing by to convince you it happened recently -- December ‘tis the time for angel hunting.  Now I’m not urging you to take to the streets of Bay Ridge armed with a net and butterfly pole, ready to nab anything that resembles a halo.  But I am encouraging you to take a look at those around you, for real-life angles on earth, since there are sure to be many.  All you need is an open heart and an open mind.

Here would be a perfect time for me to digress, to say that I have already found some real-life angels and it worked out like you read about in fables or Guideposts magazine.  Not only did I help an angel, who appeared as a poor beggar woman in rags whom I had no idea was an angel, but she rewarded me with a million dollars and my dream car, a vintage lime green Volkswagen bug. 

Needless to say, that did not happen.  But I have found my share of angels in this lifetime.  The first massive trove I came across was this past October, while away on a spiritual retreat -- a perfect place for angels to tread.   Two of my friends and I were meandering around the grotto, this special hideaway sunken deep into the earth and surrounded by craggy rocks.  While reflecting on the beauty and awesome power of it all, one of my companions started excitedly pointing and jumping up and down.

“Look!  Look!  Can you see it?” she sputtered.  I was half-expecting a man with a gun or fully expecting a giant bug with 90 eyes to emerge.  Instead, after much insistence and her walking up to a huge boulder and outlining it with her capped fine-tip pen, we all saw the face of angel.  There were more from whence that came.  Angels were all over the rocks -- ecstatic angels, glum ones, ones that looked like aliens or the Pillsbury Doughboy.  One that was laughing.  Another looked like my Aunt Darlene.  

I guess it’s exactly what you can expect you throw two artists into a grotto with a little spirituality mixed in.   What’s even more fascinating is that the third party, who claimed to have neither an artistic eye nor imagination whatsoever, started pointing out her own angel citing to US!  Angels we didn’t even see.

Not all earthly angels are embedded in rock, however.   There are some living, breathing folk hanging around who seem to be put on this earth with the sole purpose of making our days a tad brighter if not changing our lives forever.  Sometimes everyday acquaintances turn into angels, like when I was aching to the point of exhaustion after walking 206 blocks through Gravesend following a day of campaigning in the race for our new mayor.  My friend pulled up in her car, out of nowhere, screaming “I knew it was you, I could tell by the hat -- now get in!  What are you doing all the way over here?” 

Sometimes the angels disguise themselves as shopkeepers who give you back that extra dollar that stuck to the five.  Or the cashier who lets you have the last two $4.99-a- pound Turkish figs for free.  Or the car wash fellows who neatly line up your dashboard with your cellphone, scraps of notepaper and 47 cents in spare change they found under the seat while vacuuming your vehicle.  And then we have the heavy-duty category of guardian angels.   These are sometimes full-time positions, shielding you from harm in Tompkins Square Park during the summer of the riots or intervening after you tumble beneath the F train while on your way to see the “Brady Bunch Live.”

In fact, angels of all types can be found just about anywhere.  Just don’t let skepticism close your mind.  And don’t think we have to wait until the holidays in December to seek them.  You don’t even have to be at an autumnal spiritual retreat carousing around a grotto, either.  We can look for -- and find -- angels every day.  Better yet, we can even attempt to make a habit of emulating them ourselves.