Sample from UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTERS (From Part VIII: Lessons from my angels.)

THE GIFT OF THE SWIMMING-POOL ANGEL

When I was eight years old, I secretly went into a swimming pool at a summer camp and hid in the bathhouse.  I was on the run because of the Nazi persecution during the Hitler era; and I feared that the men who were supposed to be protecting me were turning on me as well.  You can understand that I was extremely scared.

One morning, I was sitting on the gate of the swimming area, really feeling the scare, when suddenly I realized an angel was taking a seat beside me.  I knew he was an angel because he was present and not present at the same time. He had what you might call a half-presence.

For a long time, we just sat in silence, side by side.  Finally the angel said, “Look, you may not understand why all this is going on. You may have fear and doubt.  However, whenever doubt strikes you in life, check the power.  Just go to a swimming pool and watch them wave you in.” 

I was eight. I didn’t understand what the angel’s promise meant or how it would help me.  I felt so powerless that getting a free pass to any swimming pool forever didn’t mean much.  All the angel got out of me was a shrug and a jerk as I kept kicking the gate.  Finally he just faded away, and soon I wasn’t sure that an angel really had come to be with me or whether I had a waking dream.

I was rescued out of that swimming pool, and I am now 86 years old. The amazing thing about my waking dream 78 years ago is that in fact swimming pools are open to me without charge whenever I test my so-called “power.” The guards at the gate either seem to recognize me and wave me in, or they are somehow distracted and don’t bother with me at all.

One day, I said, “Enough!  I don’t want keep defrauding these pool operators” -- but the next time I wanted to go swimming, I forgot my wallet. 

OK, I said to myself, I’m not going to crash the gate. I can’t anyway.  This is one of the best guarded swimming pools I know.  You have to buy a ticket and then present it to a second guard before you can get in. So I just decided to picnic in the park right behind the pool. 

As I unloaded the car, a vending machine supplier drove up and I noticed for the first time that there was a back gate for service personnel.  The driver brought in a cartload of supplies, got back into his van and drove off.  However, he forgot to close and lock the gate.

I looked up to Heaven and I whispered to my angel, “Okay, I’ll take the free ride one more time,” and I walked in.  But the experience left me perplexed. Where--I thought--where does my special power really come from?  Can such power be summoned up and if so, what does it take to do so?  If a sense of entitlement can open a swimming pool gate, what other sense would open more meaningful and important gates to me and to other people?