{"id":135,"date":"2011-02-08T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html"},"modified":"2011-02-08T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T01:00:00","slug":"undercover-angel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html","title":{"rendered":"Undercover Angel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When my now 23 year old son was 14, he told me &#8220;Mom, I&#8217;m an undercover angel sent to teach you patience.&#8221;&nbsp; I smiled\/grimaced at that statement, since I knew it was true.&nbsp; Nine years later, he&#8217;s still teaching and I&#8217;m still learning.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>The life lessons that often come fast and furious, courtesy of a universe that only has my highest good in mind, are sometimes delivered on the &#8216;wings&#8217; of such angels. &#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it be lovely if our experiences were only fun and joyous, colorful and easy?&#8221;, I ask myself.&nbsp; &#8220;But then&#8221;, the inner dialog continues, &#8220;you wouldn&#8217;t have developed the emotional and spiritual muscles that keep you healthy and offer you fodder for your writing.&#8221;&nbsp; How cool is that?&nbsp; Is it worth the trade-off?&nbsp; I suppose so.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>One of my hats is as a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. Daily, I remind my patients, some who want to be in the hospital for the solace, support, safety and stability that the setting offers and others who are quite vocally opposed to being there,&nbsp; &#8220;This is graduate school and you are the curriculum. Learn as much about yourself and who the man or woman in the mirror truly is, as possible. Be a life long learner. There are no grades, no pass-fail.&#8221; Some of them smile with understanding and acceptance of what I have said and others look at me as if I am speaking gibberish. Huh? <\/p>\n<p>When I gaze backward at the life lessons that have come my way, I wonder what I have traded for such wisdom.&nbsp; Mostly fear, self doubt and sometimes self loathing. Times when I am consciously aware of my choices, I learn a great deal about what is possible for me and those I serve as teacher, writer, healer. First, though, I need to follow the principle &#8220;Healer, heal thyself.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>What undercover angels hover about you?&nbsp; What are you willing to learn from them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When my now 23 year old son was 14, he told me &#8220;Mom, I&#8217;m an undercover angel sent to teach you patience.&#8221;&nbsp; I smiled\/grimaced at that statement, since I knew it was true.&nbsp; Nine years later, he&#8217;s still teaching and I&#8217;m still learning.&nbsp; The life lessons that often come fast and furious, courtesy of a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,13,19,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angels","category-blissfull-thinking","category-empowerment","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Undercover Angel - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Undercover Angel - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When my now 23 year old son was 14, he told me &#8220;Mom, I&#8217;m an undercover angel sent to teach you patience.&#8221;&nbsp; I smiled\/grimaced at that statement, since I knew it was true.&nbsp; Nine years later, he&#8217;s still teaching and I&#8217;m still learning.&nbsp; The life lessons that often come fast and furious, courtesy of a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-08T01:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Undercover Angel - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Undercover Angel - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"When my now 23 year old son was 14, he told me &#8220;Mom, I&#8217;m an undercover angel sent to teach you patience.&#8221;&nbsp; I smiled\/grimaced at that statement, since I knew it was true.&nbsp; Nine years later, he&#8217;s still teaching and I&#8217;m still learning.&nbsp; The life lessons that often come fast and furious, courtesy of a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html","og_site_name":"The Bliss Blog","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","article_published_time":"2011-02-08T01:00:00+00:00","author":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EdieWeinstein1","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html","name":"Undercover Angel - The Bliss Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-08T01:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-08T01:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2011\/02\/undercover-angel.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Undercover Angel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/","name":"The Bliss Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Edie Weinstein","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386","name":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","caption":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW"},"description":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a colorfully creative journalist, inspiring transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, editor, radio host, BLISS coach, event producer, Cosmic Concierge, the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of Embraced By the Divine: The Emerging Woman\u2019s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose. She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. Edie is the founder of Hug Mobsters Armed With Love, which offers FREE HUGS events on a planned and spontaneous basis. www.opti-mystical.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.opti-mystical.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","https:\/\/x.com\/EdieWeinstein1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/author\/eweinstein"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}