the sticking handle

When I often talk to people about asking the angels for help, they tend to almost freeze, trying to think of something huge in their life that they need help with. Because people believe that the angels are there to help us with the big life decisions and challenges and that it is wrong to disturb them for the small 'petty' things.

But this is not so.

The angels are always with us and always wanting to help us. We just have to ask for their help. No request for help is ever too small for them. They do not judge things the way we, as humans, do nor do they think that a request is too small or insignificant and not worthy of their attention and help.

The angels want to help us with anything and everything in our lives. They want to be in our lives all the time, daily, and that means being part of the small stuff as well as the big challenges. But we need to invite them in to help us. They will not help us without us willingly and freely inviting them.

Today I want to share an experience of something trivial that I asked the angels for help with and how quickly that help came when I finally asked for the help.

I was traveling to Northern Ireland to visit family and friends. It was only a week's visit so I decided to take carry-on luggage that I could take into the aircraft cabin.

I left my home early in the morning and made my way to the nearby train station, pulling my trusty suitcase behind me.

When I got on the train, I noticed that the handle on my suitcase was stuck. Now, this wasn't the first time this had happened but always, in the past with some persistence, the handle would click and close. This time is bluntly refused to. I was on my first train ride and was already stressed because the handle was, plain and simply, stuck.

I moved onto my second train journey to the airport and, trying to stay calm and composed, I again tried to push the handle down on my suitcase, but still it just would not budge.

At the airport, I had to go through security and put my suitcase through xray with the handle sitting high and proud. And me quaking in my boots incase someone asked me to push it close in order to go through xray... thankfully they didn't. So already, without being consciously aware, the angels had already stepped into the situation to try to make things as easy and smooth as possible. But the handle still remained stuck because I was so focused on the suitcase and my immediate internal panic that I never thought to ask the angels for help. So they couldn't step in and fix my suitcase without me asking.

Sitting at the departure gate waiting for the plane to arrive I was, quietly and discretely, trying to still push my handle down but still it would not budge. By now I was really panicking. Clearly the handle was well and truly stuck and there was no way I'd be allowed to take a suitcase with a stuck handle into the cabin. And if I had to put it in hold, what way the chances that my handle might get stuck and get broken in transit. What was I going to do?

Before I could think of a plan, our flight was called and I made my way to passport control, trying to remain calm so no-one would pick up on the crazy panicky sensation racing through ym veins, before heading outside to board the plane.

At the bottom of the steps, I tried to quickly push my handle down but it wouldn't budge. Now I was seriously panicking. I just did not know what to do.

As I climed the stairs awkwardly carrying a suitcase with the handle still poking up, I just said to myself "I don't know which angel I need to help me, but please, angels, help me!" And, immediately after thinking those words in my head, I heard the name "Michael".

I reached the top of the steps, smiled (nervously) at the welcoming cabin crew and made my way to my seat, still thinking how on earth I was going to sort this mess out, feeling guilty that I hadn't mentioned it to anyone earlier and might cause the flight to be delayed because of my stupidity.

There was one last chance.

I reached my seat. There was a member of the cabin crew nearby and she asked if I wanted help putting my suitcase in the cabin above. I politely said I could manage (I was totally bricking it by now) and pretended to calmly reach down towards my suitcase handle as if I was about to easily and smoothly close it.

I placed my hand on top of the handle and "whoosh" without any effort whatsoever the handle shut close with such speed that it caught my thumb in the process. The pain of nipping my thumb just didn't register. I was just too elated that the handle shut close in the nick of time, that I didn't cause a commotion on the plane by not being able to get my suitcase in the cabin locker, and that there would be no delay due to my lack of asking for (human) help.

I sat on my seat and just smile saying "thank you, thank you, thank you" to Archangel Michael for getting me out of that sticky (literally) situation.

But the adventure and fun didn't stop there. In order for me to get to Northern Ireland that day, I had to change at London which meant catching a second flight. Was it just a fluke that my handle closed just the very last second on the first flight? What would happen for the next flight? Would it close again or should I walk around carrying my suitcase and not opening the handle again incase it did get stuck a second time?

Again my mind went into a bit of a tailspin.

But this time I stopped it. I decided to trust that everything would be just fine. And, if my handle stuck again, I trusted that Archangel Michael would step in and help me out a second time.

So I relaxed and when we landed I lifted out my suitcase, carried it down the plane steps, pulled up the handle (with confidence) and headed on to the next flight. And as I was standing at the bottom of the steps of my second flight, I gently touched the handle of my suitcase, placed a little downward pressure on it and it closed, smoothly and with ease as if it was a brand new suitcase and as if what had happened earlier in the morning had been a mere figment of my imagination.

Since then my suitcase handle has stuck a couple of times but each time a quick little jiggle has freed it and it has easily closed, without my having to panic or call on the angels for help.

No matter how small or trivial our problem might seem to us, the angels are always eager to help and support us. Archangel is the head of the Archangels, the angel who ensures the rest of the angels are doing their jobs. So he's pretty important in the Archangel world. If he, the guardian and prot4ector of everyone who is in need and facing a crisis, is willing to step up and help me with a stuck suitcase handle, I think you can feel assured that all the angels are willing to support you in everything you experience.

With love and angel sparkles, Viv xx