Guardian Angel — Preparation & Awareness

Daniel Hannford tuned out to the constant complaints from his three friends. He focuses on enjoying his delicious calzone, made with four-cheese sauce and slow-roasted chicken breast simmered in honey barbecue sauce, while they enjoy their meals at Fishetti’s Pizzario. He was painfully shoved back into now with a kick to his left shin from Joshua.

A tiny piece of chicken slid down his throat, and his body slid back gulping down enough air to prevent choking.

“What the hell is wrong with you!” he cried out massaging his left shin under the table.

“Now we have your attention. Why is it that whenever life tests you, you always squeeze through and survive with little pain?” Joshua question.

“Yeah,” Jose and Sean agreed. “Who the hell is your guardian angel?”

Daniel glared at him enraged and sighed heavily, sending back the throbbing pain in his right shin where it came from, with the help of his past stint in the Navy. He then unwillingly dragged them down Recall Retreat.

“Do you remember when we were in high school, and our teachers would walk in and give us surprise tests,” he reminds them.

“Yes, and you never failed any of them,” Jose said in reflection.

“But we did, and we are smarter and more brilliant than you!” Sean recalls.

“That part I don’t understand either,” Joshua recalls many incidents. “Who the hell was your guardian angel?”

“Preparation,” Daniel informs, still massaging his shin.

“Preper what?” they sang in unison.

“The only way I was going to get into college, was by a scholarship. I knew that my single mother didn’t have the money or support your family had.”

“You were in college on a scholarship?” They asked again in unison. “And said nothing about it to us.”

“I couldn’t tell you guys,” Daniel explained.

“So, you just prepared by studying, while we were idling,” Sean asked.

“My mother warned me that life begins to teach me vital life lessons from birth. That is why I cry when I am hungry or uncomfortable. That’s how I learned to walk and talk. How I learned that if I play with fire I will get burned,” Daniel recalls some of his mother’s teaching.

“So she warned you that life will always test you so you should be prepared?” Jose quests.

“Whatever situation I am in, there will be tests. And sometimes, the test has nothing to do with the circumstances,” Daniel recalls his mother’s words.

“But many of these tests are not good,” Joshua adds, thinking about his situation.

“But you can make better decisions than the ones life tests you with, from your experience and understanding of life,” Daniel alerts him.

They stared at him with a blank stare mixed with confusion.

“You guys aren’t aware of the life you are living?” Daniel asked, reading their expression. “Damn!” he exclaimed in shock. “So, awareness and preparation was my guardian angel!”

“You mean your success sat on your ability to be aware and you are prepared for whatever life sends your way?” Sean asked with popped eyes.

“Life isn’t as hard as many of us live it. Being aware shows you what can happen if you are not prepared,” Daniel explains.

“And being poor makes you more aware,” Sean adds.

“Poverty helps, but in a school/ educational environment, surprise tests are normal and are expected,” Daniel enlightens.

“So, it’s like heat stroke in summer and winter storm and heavy snow clean up in winter,” Sean’s understanding asked.

“Right,” Daniel said smiling. “Every situation or circumstance in life has certain things attached to it. Being aware of that allows you to prepare for it.”

Awareness and preparation are powerful tools that aid us in living a good life.

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

Our thoughts are tools or weapons and we have a choice on how to use them. Awareness and preparation are some of the tools that allow us to use our thoughts positively.

Than you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.