Carl's mother contacted me for periodic phone consultations with her son during his prison incarceration. He was serving seven years for two counts of a DUI causing death, the incident in question having occurred when he was in college. I followed the prescribed protocol and would wait for the call to come in. The pre-recorded announcement was the same each time — the call was originating from a prison; it would be monitored; it would disconnect in 20 minute intervals, and then I’d get another callback.
In the years I've read Carl, I've continued to see the potential for a much brighter future, one in which he will have made a difference in others' lives, inspiring them to rise up and make wiser choices along the way, spurred on by his efforts to do the same for himself. He was already influencing his inmates in positive ways by sharing his metaphysical understanding of life and the magic that results from living in alignment with the Source.
Carl was recently released and has been living with his mother. He called to schedule his own phone consultation, the first since his release. As I prepared for his consultation, I became acutely aware of angels gathering in my proximity. They usually announce their arrival with flicks of light, as though little matches are being struck all around me. It was clear they had a message for him and I began our session by telling him this.
"Carl,” I told him, “there are angels around you. They began showing up earlier this morning. I asked why they'd arrived, and they conveyed that they want you to know they're surrounding you. Protecting you! It's as if they're drawing boundaries... a sort of safe circle around you. They said they're 'monitoring the perimeter!'" Carl thought for a moment, and then explained the conditions of his release. He was serving the rest of his sentence under house arrest and had to wear a tracking device that monitored his movement. He was prohibited from going beyond a 150-foot perimeter around the house without the permission of his parole officer. Should he breach those boundaries, he would be arrested and returned to prison.
I assured him the angels were on the job and would help keep Carl inside the perimeter. A couple of months later, I heard from Carl again. He's given me permission to share this story:
I was recently given the approval to help out with a family garage sale. My parole officer reminded me not to go beyond my ‘leash’ of 150 feet. I estimated the approximate perimeter at the boundaries of my mother’s property and my parole officer agreed it was about right, but warned me that the ankle bracelet could be affected by walls and other variables. My grandfather and I were running the garage sale, and the weather was perfect.
Early in the morning, we were swamped with customers. During the only lull in foot traffic all day, a man of about 50 showed up. He had sort of a silent, confident demeanor. He looked around for about 15 or 20 minutes, walking quietly around the display tables. While he was looking, no one else showed up.
The man approached us, holding three collectible record albums. We hadn’t even realized we had them. My Grandpa said he could have all three for $25. The man opened his wallet, but only had $5 with him. He asked if we would hold them. He’d come back with the money. I said sure.
The man asked for my phone number in case he were to get lost and not be able to find his way back. Although we’d been writing down prices all morning, I looked everywhere but was unable to find pen and paper. I went in the house, wrote down my phone number and returned to the garage to give it to him. I thought he’d be leaving, but he continued to look around. A few minutes later, he handed me 5 or 6 little trinkets, asking me to add them to the rest that we were holding for him.
I looked for a bag to put everything in. We didn’t have any outside, so I went back into the house to get one. As soon as I got to the door, I heard the phone ringing and answered it. My parole officer was on the other end of the line screaming at me because I’d unknowingly gone outside my perimeter and hadn’t answered my breathalyzer phone. The officer threatened to send the sheriff to arrest me, but told me if I stayed within reach of the breathalyzer phone and passed the test, I’d be okay. I passed the test and stayed inside the rest of the day.
About forty-five minutes later my grandpa brought the things in and asked why I had not come back outside. I told him what had happened. He remarked on the strange man and said right after he left, a whole bunch more people showed up. By the time my grandpa had wrapped up the garage sale, the man had not returned. We kept the bag of things he wanted near the door for a few days, thinking he’d be back for them.
In the meantime, my grandpa researched the record albums on eBay. He found they were worth hundreds of dollars! Then he said: "You know the more I think about it, the more I think he was a guardian angel." I asked why he thought so.
I don’t know. Something about him, my grandpa said — "and he got you to go into just in time to catch the call from your parole officer. Also, he brought the record albums to our attention. We didn’t even know we had them, much less how valuable they are! Also, where did he come from? I never saw a car, did you?"
I thought about it. Nope. “He seemed to walk up out of nowhere,” I said. Grandpa laughed. “And he left the same way! I looked up and he was gone!”
As far as we’re concerned, he truly was an angel.