Tuesday 19 November 2013

Do you believe in guardian angels?

I've never really believed in guardian angels, but recently, I've had a weird feeling that someone somewhere is looking out for  me. I know. It sounds odd. But there have been several incidents in the past few years where what could have  - even should have - been a total disaster have, by a twist of fate (or of angel...?), turned out better than they should have.

Here are three examples:

1. When I hurtled down the stairs ten years ago, head first and not touching a single stair, literally flying from top to bottom, I somehow managed to turn 90% so that I was at right angles to the staircase. Had I not turned, I would have broken my neck on the front door. As it was, I broke my back (bad enough) but I'm still here to tell the tale.

2. When my beloved Titch died while I was out riding him last year, we were going along a quiet country lane. I very nearly took the (busy) road, but decided against at the last minute. Titch went totally ballistic with pain, and we would most certainly have had a horrible accident had we been on the road.

3.Yesterday, I went for a long ride on Fairfax. On the way home,one of  the reins broke (to the uninitiated, this amounts to a brakes failure). We had crossed roads, galloped hard, in fact had an adventurous time, but when the incident happened, we were walking beside a field, with no hazards (and little pressure on the reins). It was pretty hairy, as the only way to stop a horse with one rein is to go round in cicles, and it was very difficult gaining control. But we could have been in the middle of the road, or galloping, and in the latter case, I don't think we would have stopped at all.

Or I suppose I could say that my guardian angel wasn't paying attention in the first place...

34 comments:

  1. If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that I have a guardian angel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting. Surely, if guardian angels do exist, everyone must have one; otherwise that'd be a bit unfair on God's part, wouldn't it? So there must be a heck of a lot of them out there. Or perhaps they hot-desk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure there are, Tim, and some of them make terrible mistakes...

      Delete
  3. I'm glad you're alright. Had someone chewed his reins?
    I'd like to suggest a poem by Kate Barnes, called "Other Nations" , which pivots around her rein breaking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll look it up, ER. And no-one had chewed them. They just came apart where the rubber joined the leather. Quiitte new, too. I have complained!

      Delete
  4. Sorry, I don't believe in angels, guardian or otherwise. What I do believe in, however, is luck; and I think you've been very lucky. Long may it continue.

    ReplyDelete
  5. While I like the idea of guardian angels as such, I also like to think that it's our own (conscious or unconscious) decisions and actions - plus a huge portion of coincidence - that determine the outcome of situations like the ones you described.
    For instance, you flew down the stairs (why did your guardian angel allow it to happen?), and it was you who turned 90 %. Also, it was you who took the quiet country lane with Titch on that terrible day. And you were the one to walk beside a field with Fairfax.

    When I was little, I had a similar picture to the one in your post in my bedroom. It showed a little boy and a girl picking flowers very near a deep drop, and their guardian angel looking on, hands and wings spread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't take me too seriously, Meike. But I like the idea of guardian angels!

      Delete
  6. Ooh, tough question, Frances. Part of me says yes, there are guardian angels, but the thought that comes to mind is the 1956 movie "Somebody Up There Likes Me" which somehow, in my mind, replaced whatever theology I had learned in five or six years of Sunday School. Lots of people call it luck. A friend of mine called it coincidence.
    I guess it doesn't matter what you call it, because in your case it certainly seems to work.
    K

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you Google them, Kay, there is lots of "evidence"!

      Delete
  7. Coincidence, luck and time and place... Guardian angels? No. Whatever, though, we're all mighty glad you escaped the worst on these occasions, Frances.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Wendy. I would like to finish that book before...well, before my guardian angel gives up on me.

      Delete
  8. What were the guardian angels in the Phillipines/Haiti/etc up to? Must have been tea break! (I would like to believe in them though )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, I know. Too many disasters, Frances (or too many tea breaks).

      Delete
  9. PS….glad you survived all your near disasters.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Who knows? But when it's your time to go its your time to go, why does one person live, or come away with a scratch when the person next to them dies, and the ones that amaze me, are when fit strong people rescue some one from drowning, some times more than one person, but the rescuer dies? How do they get them to shore safely only to die them selves, glad it has not been your time! You certainly are quiet strong of nerve to keep riding out on your own though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. That rescuing thing is odd, isn't it, especially when the "rescued" one is a dog.

      Delete
  11. It can be absolutely scary to think of all the things that could go wrong. GOing down the stairs in that way sounds perfectly horrendous, how did you manage to do it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easily, I'm afaid, Jenny. It was dark, my son's house, bannister didn't reach all the way to the top...all too easily.

      Delete
  12. There certainly could be Guardian Angels with all the near miss accidents we can all remember. It feels good to think we may be cared for, perhaps for a reason?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, Fanny. It's a lovely idea, even if I don't really believe in GAs.

      Delete
  13. I'd like to believe in guardian angels. It was one of the prayers we had to say in the morning as children. As an adult, I just think they have a hard time keeping up.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I must be the biggest sceptic in the world. A guardian angel would have to rear up in front of me to believe in him or her. You are certainly very accident prone though Frances.

    ReplyDelete
  15. No, I don't believe in guardian angels. There's just luck - one kind sends you falling down the stairs, the other stops you breaking your neck when you land.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How very pragmatic, Patsy. But I have to agree.

      Delete
  16. Luck is as much a superstition as a guardian angel, in its way. Having trust that one is looked after gives a feeling of hope, perhaps? It's no bad thing, I'm sure.

    But a guardian angel allowing something to happen is a misunderstanding, surely. Things go wrong, natural disasters happen, mistakes are made. If one is lucky, or has a guardian angel who is on the ball, the worst doesn't happen. I'm jolly grateful when I've got away with it again, one day I may not and then my unfortunate angel will be taken to task by its superiors if it was something preventable - and a typhoon isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's a lovely idea, Frances, and perhaps some incidents are averted by an other-worldly hand. I like to keep an open mind!

    ReplyDelete
  18. You certainly seem to have someone or something on your side, Frances - thank goodness :-) x

    ReplyDelete