How do you talk to your angel?

I love Paulo Coelho's writing. Each of his books never fail to give me this extraordinary feeling of serenity, and yet the irony to that is I feel this calm with such a great impact in different ways. I can't even explain why it seems that the timing of me reading a particular book, the book's theme coincides in some way with my life.Therefore I can't help but see his books as God's way of consoling me.

Among his books though, at this point The Valkyries would be the book which won the majority of my heart now. Having read four of Paulo Coelho's books before this, I did expect that the book would have the same serene, calming tone common to all of Mr. Coelho's writing but other than that I was not expecting it will surpass the impact that Eleven Minutes has given me.

I started reading The Valkyries on the 27th of January this year. Just from reading the title page, it has already captured my heart as promised as it was about the quest in finding your angel. I read on, without expectations. At page 40 though, I could not help my heart to jolt a little and melt with a smile as I look up, up and away. It was an extraordinary moment with my usual drink at my usual place -- fruit punch at Starbucks Raffles City. I didn't finish the book in one sitting, moreso, it even took me quite some time to read it as the succeeding days and weeks I had a lot of things going on during those times and so like my usual, I brought the book with me always in my bag wherever I went, with the intention of reading thru it bit by bit whenever I got the chance -- while taking a long bus or train ride or while waiting for a friend I was meeting up. So I read on bit by bit every now and then but it was when I was around half way thru the book that I got a long lag from reading it. It was around the second week of February that I think my fellow bookworm friend made a comment about the book. She asked me if I had finished reading it and when I said I have not, she told me to get back to her and tell her my thoughts about it after I finish reading it. It seemed like she didn't like how the book concluded.

So after then I started to have expectations on the book, I expected it would have an ending with an effect of something like that of By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept because we both agreed that we found that book's conclusion too hazy. It made me curious so that motivated me to finish reading it soon. So I continued to bring the book with me everday, wherever I went, like it was a necessity like my wallet that I could not leave behind when I went out, in the hope that I could read thru it during my free time. I wonder though why I have not devoted a time to actually put in my schedule to finish reading it at one weekend or something. Maybe because all the while my thoughts were then already in playback.

Anyway, as I've said earlier, The Valkyries was about the quest in finding and seeing your angel. Halfway thru the book, it has already mentioned that angels already talk to us thru different channels, like they manifest themselves thru other people who we encounter in our life. It says that sometimes, you have already seen and talked to your angel but you were just not aware of it because we are too absorbed into our own concept of angels that we expect to find our angel in an image of a beautiful being with white wings. But if you were given a choice, would you like to be aware that you'd be seeing your angel and talk to him if you knew who your angel was? As for me, I was undecided. The thought of seeing my angel gave me both the longing and fear, as I don't know how I should be when I get face to face with my angel in a place where people are watching your every move. I didn't know how to talk to my angel, I didn't know how to do channeling.

Today, I had an hour and a half free to spend the afternoon while waiting for an important appointment. I decided to spend it at Pacific Coffee, in The Hive at Raffles Place. I decided that I'd read the book to pass the time. As I sip my brewed coffee and flip thru the pages, after an hour and a half, I finished reading thru it, until the Epilogue and I was already impressed at that point and have concluded that I liked the book, including how it concluded. But being me, I read books from cover to cover so I read thru further until the last two pages -- the Author's note where Paulo Coelho confirmed that The Valkyries was taken from his real life encounters with finding his own angel so at 4:30pm on page 212, I have concluded that the book has surpassed all the effects of the other Paulo Coelho books I've read. I held on to it tightly as I could not believe the feeling it has brought me. I actually felt like how Paulo felt when he realized how he could see his angel, I realized my angel was with me as well.

Angels guide and protect us, even if we ignore them, they are just there watching over us, caring ang loving us in their own way. Yet sometimes we ask for more from them, we ask for a miracle just to admit to ourselves that they do exist. But really we don't have to test and wait for our angel to say I wish I could promise more before we believe because angels themselves are already heaven sent. So, need not have to wish more, as there has already been so much love given, that love itself is already the miracle we've been wanting to prove all along, manifested in friendship... and this is something that will be remembered...for lifetime.