An Angel in Los Angeles

High winds in the Almanac's home base of Middle Tennessee yesterday left many anxious and alert, wondering if an incoming gust just might wield enough power to levy serious damage. In these moments of hunkering down, it's always a helpful reminder to know that we have help on the other side. Our Winter Spiritual Journal explored the many ways that the Angelic Realm has our back. They do exist! Below is a story (found on page 37) of a real-life angel encounter from editorial director Kirem Marnett, that very well may have saved her life. This Saturday morning, cozy up and enjoy this miraculous event.

I went back for the coat.

A lovely gift from my mother-in-law, it was a camel trench that cinched at the waist and hit right above the knee. In addition to the perfect fit, it had already served as a trusty travel companion shielding me from inclement weather on my monthly travels between Boston and San Francisco. Now in downtown LA at a video game convention for work, I quickly realized there was little need for such an item in the warm weather of Southern California.

So, that made it easy to forget … and leave behind.

With aching feet and a fuzzy head from champagne the team had toasted to celebrate the end of a long convention day, I walked into my hotel lobby and realized what I had forgotten.

Immediately, I ran back out to the curb to hopefully catch the same taxi I had just emerged from and was already thinking about what to say to the driver explaining the U-turn I was about to request. But he was gone. Despite it being around midnight then, it was apparent that time truly does not stop in Los Angeles. The amount of traffic was the same as it had been midday. Cars whizzed past in endless repeating patterns of white followed by red—headlight to taillight—streaming one right after the other. Seeing how so many cars were on the road, I figured it would just be another minute or two before another cab came by.