letter from an angel

(for all those whose lives were changed after being loved by a greyhound)

~ by Stavros Phillips

Beloved,

I never speak with words, but your heart can hear me true. This is how I am made.

Remember when I came into your life? Did something in your soul come alive and open up to the calling in my eyes? How did you understand what I offered to you?

Somehow you knew something special was being offered and took it gladly, with a knowledge deep and sure that I would not betray you. I had no speech and yet you understood what I had to share with you.

I came to you as flesh, like yours, and as blood, like yours. Innocence is all I have against the confusion that the words of men can create, sounds that have the power to hide your inner grace from your mind. My eyes speak true with my innocence and somehow without logic you understand this.

My speech is of the heart. My speech is of the spirit. Words can lie. The pure soul shining from my eyes cannot, and the song of joy I sing with my body and with this, my life, will not.

We two have much to exchange without words in our time together. In the opening of our souls your soul opened to a depth of love like none you've ever believed was possible. This I give to you, for this is how I am made.

Flesh fails as does blood and we share this in our natures too. It may happen that my time with you is short and I must go ahead. Know then that the surest sign that you have received my gift in full measure is the inconsolable pain your opened soul feels. And when words get in the way of true understanding, and you cry "Why?", know this – I have gone ahead because I know the way.

Don't forget what we shared. Don't forget again what we together learned to remember, and what our spirits know without words. We have learned of love. In our empathy we have learned of all that we share in common which binds together all made of flesh.

If these lessons we've shared grow dim with time and you become confused at the end, do not be afraid. True as always my spirit will come for you. Safe within my loving embrace I will show you the way.

This is how I am made – an angel in spirit, an angel in flesh. This is what I am.

Your beloved,
Your angel