The Angels Among Us

How nice it is to spend time with the angels among us.

Each Friday for the past three years, I've listened to the patient and supportive words of instructors working with the disabled people who ride at the stable where I volunteer. On days like today, when I'm needed to lead or side-walk a horse, my admiration for these instructors increases.

Each accomplishment is celebrated, each glimpse of understanding is affirmed, each utterance is acknowledged. The enthusiasm and caring is infectious and impossible to resist. Today, watching people called to this work, my reflections turned to my own family.

My younger sister recently retired after 25 years teaching special education; her younger daughter followed her mother into the field. In the early 80's I became friends with a woman who taught daily living skills at a Rehabilitation Center for the Commission For The Blind. That woman, who has since become a special education teacher, is now my sister-in-law.  

How nice it is to spend time with the angels among us.