A reason to believe in angels Published June 8, 2009 By Maj. Elizabeth Clay 305th Maintenance Squadron commander JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST -- Guardian angels are thought to be spiritual beings who are "assigned" to assist people here on Earth in various ways. Some say they interject themselves into our lives in the form of a thought that spurs us into action, or appear as a real human being to lend us a hand when we need it. Oftentimes, guardian angels can be a neighbor or supervisor, who for a short time, enter our lives to share their experiences with us. Are angels real or imagined? Are they human inventions designed to help people cope with difficult problems? Only your faith or experience can determine their reality for you. Let me share a "guardian angel" experience that I had about four weeks ago. Just a little background is needed, though, before I begin. Most of us in the military lead fairly busy lives. And this particular day was no different: Enlisted Performance Evaluations were piled up on my desk, I had meeting after meeting to attend, two physical fitness failures to deal with, a Letter of Reprimand and an Article 15 to administer. On top of dealing with our daily matters, my squadron was at the tail end of preparing for a weeklong Logistics Standardization and Evaluation Team visit. We were all pretty stressed out and tired. In fact, that morning, my first sergeant made a point of telling me how stressed out he felt, and that he needed a break from dealing with all of our personnel issues. We both vented about our stress levels and went about our day. My "angel" experience begins at the Base Exchange just before noon. I had just walked out of the UPS store after being shocked at the price it costs to ship an item. I must have had a worried look on my face when I left the store because this very nice woman walked up to me as I was exiting the BX and said, "Good morning. Are you okay? You know, you looked really stressed, and stress causes the face to look really tired." I said, "Hi. I didn't know I looked so stressed, but thank you for telling me." She introduced herself as Anna, and then we chatted a short time about all the things going on that caused me to be so busy. Before she walked off, her last words to me were "Don't stress over things that you have no control over." I said, "Well Anna, it was nice meeting you. Thank you for the advice," and I walked off with a smile. As I was walking back to my car, I couldn't believe what had just happened. Never in my life have I had a stranger say anything like that to me; especially after a discussion like the one I had with my first sergeant that morning. I thought to myself, "How ironic the timing was of this encounter." Before I reached my car, I looked over to see where Anna had walked off to and, poof, she was gone. I felt so enlightened after that short conversation that I rushed back to the squadron to tell my first sergeant what happened. I told him I just had a visit from a "guardian angel," and that she had a message for us: Don't stress out. After that, I went about my day with no worries. I believe at any given time we can be human guardian angels to someone. Was Anna really an angel sent from God? Probably not. She could have been just a figment of my imagination. Or maybe she was just a nice lady who wanted to offer some wisdom to a stranger. Whether Anna was an angel or not, all that matters to me is that for a short moment in time, someone or something came into my life and said a few words that will forever change the way I deal with stress and the way I speak to others. What you do or say can have a lasting impression on someone--even a passing stranger. I don't know about you, but I believe in angels.