When people ask me if angels are real, I like to give them a quick way to spot-check. All you need to do is review all the times you should have been dead.
This can apply to things like car crashes, bowling ball head injuries or falling under a moving subway train when you were drinking heavily in New York.
It can also apply to getting bit by a rattlesnake in your Tucson backyard. Granted, the rattlesnake bite I received one morning may not have actually killed me, but it could have certainly messed me up royally. When my friend was bit by a rattlesnake, she nearly had to have her leg amputated. When I was bit, I didn’t even realize it — at least not at first.
I had been clearing out all that metal debris artists like to collect in the corner of their yard “because it seems like you could make something out of it.” Once the debris starts getting as high as the 5-foot fence, a clearing-out is in demand.
When I picked up a metal cylindrical piece of something or other, I suddenly heard that telltale rattle sound. I automatically panicked, flinging the debris across the yard and as far away from me as possible.
That’s when I felt something oozing down the front of my shin. I looked down to see two little fang pricks on the front of my kneecap, with a clear liquid dripping down to my ankles. Yikes! I’d been bit.
Since I had a client coming for reiki in about 20 minutes, and I didn’t feel like I was dying, I opted to call that 1-800 nurse line rather than head to the emergency room. After answering dozens of questions from an on-call nurse, and promising I’d seek medical help if I noted any symptoms, we ended the call convinced I had indeed been bitten by a rattlesnake. No symptoms ever came. At all.
In fact, the only real evidence I had of the bite were the two fang pricks. I had not even seen the snake, nor have I seen it since.
When I told my beau about the incident, he said the same thing I had been thinking all along: “Thank you, St. Michael.” I had been doing energy work that had involved asking for Archangel Michael’s protection for several weeks. And evidently he obliged.
Stories like this thrill me, and not just because I didn’t have to miss a reiki session. They serve to remind that we’re protected and safe, that angels are looking out for us. And if you’re not sure if they’ve been working in your own life, just think of all the times you should have been dead.
