Creating Beauty, An Angel Message

I have felt angels near me on two occasions. I expect they've been around at other times because, well, angels are like that, but on these two occasions I am sure.

The first time was about 20 years ago. My inlaws hosted a sounding circle at their clinic and I was one of the warm bodies helping to fill out the circle. Most of it is long gone from my memory, but I do recall quite clearly being blocked.
If memory serves we sounded assorted vowel sounds and I think they were directed at specific people in the circle. We may have sung their names, too, I don't recall.
At one point I felt something in front of me and could almost see it. The being was at least as tall as the ceiling though felt taller. Even though there was no one physically present it was like I couldn't see through it. I felt that it was time to stop. I also knew, by distinct feeling, the presence blocking me was an angel.

The second instance was last week. This time the Archangel Jophiel stood by my computer for most of a weekend.
Here's some background:
I've had some niggling computer problems since about December. Windows 7 won't shut down properly at times for one. It goes right to the very last screen and is less than one second, if that, away from shutting completely when it freezes. I have to press the button to shut it off. I asked the nice people where I bought it and was assured that as long as it all but shut down properly it was nothing to worry about.

One a few occasions the display didn't go black after two minutes of idling like its set to do. That appears to have resolved itself. I recently tried Reiki on the computer and discovered if I did it during shut down it would proceed normally. When I didn't, it locked.

But the most annoying issue was every time I exited Word it said changes had been made to the normal template and did I want to save them?
This started one day in December after changes somehow got made to said template. I put them back the way I want and saved the changes, as one does. But it kept asking me every day despite me not having done anything to warrant it.

I am not computer savvy. This is unlikely to change. Consequently, doing anything beyond the most basic clean up and the occasional system restore I leave it to the pros. I'd checked for all the things that could be wrong. I found things that could be done, but they were beyond me except for the one that said I could uncheck the box that made this box come up.
I didn't, because there was always the possibility that there was a wee virus inside and I didn't want to forget it was there if I ever had to take the computer in to the shop.

Then last weekend I felt a presence at my desk. It made me want to sort out the template changes problem again. I thought about it then did nothing.
But then one morning last weekend during my meditation my mind went to the presence. I asked who who was visiting. The question was barely formed when she told me she was Jophiel. She told me to create beauty.
Part of beauty is strength, part of strength is deciding, and part of that is doing a thing you've meant to do for a while.
In short, I checked all the factors that may be making the template box come up, actually looked through them and couldn't find any evidence of them. There may still be an issue, but nothing obvious, so I simply unchecked the box that makes the box come up.
Shortly thereafter, the Archangel departed.
I have yet to try not using Reiki on shutdown. I intend to do so shortly.

So now I must create beauty in writing, in life, in wherever it can be made and by whatever means is available. Part of that is writing about the things we don't normally discuss, like angel visits.

Gratitude Monday -- As Promised, God, Edition

I promised God I would thank him publicly so here it is.
This happened:
Our computer crashed or claimed to do so Saturday night. We were terrified. Mike had been looking up information on hellebore when a popup came up saying a virus had crashed the hard drive.
We couldn't get rid of it and couldn't see the pop up behind it.
What we could see was a mostly blue screen behind it.

I presumed this was a scam so unplugged the internet as I could not make the popups go away. Mike suggested shutting it off, and as we were both panicking because neither of us have a clue, I pushed the button rather than shut down in an orderly fashion.

When I put the computer back on I got the usual screen about not shutting down properly and the choice of safe mode or starting normally. I chose safe mode.  Instead of starting it went to a screen offering start normally or the highlighted choice of using startup repair.
Tried that. It went to the Lenovo screen. Nothing else appeared to be happening. We left it a few minutes. Nothing happened. Shut it down from the button again as there was no other way.
After trying a normal start and getting this choice again, I shut it down deciding to let the pros look at it on Monday.
But I thought to try again and be patient. I did. I chose start up repair again and left it. Soon I saw some life as the second green button flickered. This gave me hope.
I live in fear of my computer dying even as I have most things backed up. What I hadn't backed up yet was the novella rewrite I had completed the day before.  I had an uncorrected version as well as the scrawled notes on the hard copy. I lost a hard drive in 2012 and this novella was on it. I found half of it back then and rewrote the rest from the hard copy.  I thought I might have to do something similar this time.

About 15 minutes had gone by. I was desperate. I prayed. I actually folded my hands at my desk and asked God to fix the computer. Then I said thanks and mentioned if it got fixed I would say so on my blog.
I opened my eyes and there in front of me was a small screen saying computer start up repair was searching for the problem.
Over the course of the evening it got fixed.
God got the program rolling, and I am grateful. Thank you, God.
Science did the actual repair work, and I am grateful for that as well.

Gratitude Monday – Thank You, Internet

I’m grateful to live in an age where contact is so easy. We may grumble about computers, curse them out and threaten them with defenestration, but they are a powerful tool and they make life easier in so many ways.

I’ve started doing some freelance work, another thing for which I am deeply thankful, and using the Internet has made finding my interview subjects for two possible stories easier. Two have long moved away while a third never lived here. She made the news by being lost out in the bush 15 years ago.

Simple Google searches found them. It took mere seconds. The finding part took mere seconds. The forming- the- thought- to- do- it- that- way part took somewhat longer. I still got there, though, so I’m grateful for that, too.