Angels Running, a tip of the hat to Patty Larkin

Chorus:
“All those angels runnin'
Picking up the pieces
Putting back together hearts broke long ago
I know a good thing when I see it
And's a bad thing to let go.”

A Patty Larkin tune has been running through my head a lot lately. I heard it on a Christmas Album that I was playing. The song called Good Thing, (aka Angles Running) is a bit abstract when you read the entire lyrics. It's the chorus that gets me. I've heard both Patty Larkin sing it and I've heard Cher sing it. Either one, their voices are clear and exacting enough that I can understand every word of the chorus.

There is a visual there that I can see with very clear eyes. I think it is because that so often I think that I do see the angels running through my life picking up the pieces. I don't think that they put them back together though. I believe that they give them to God and he puts them back together. Let's just call it a theology thing, however, I'll admit that the entire notion really has no scriptural or theological basis at all. God doesn't need someone running around my life picking up the pieces. Like I said, he puts them back together, I know that he picks them up himself. However, there is a certain romantic picture that is brought to mind when you see the angels running about picking up little pieces of what? Broken hearts.

Broken hearts, they can be broken for so many reasons. Surely, most people have a vision of the pieces of broken hearts being swept up and being put back together because of a lost love. I thought that I had that experience once, but my heart was broken not so much because of a lost love, but because of a dashed dream. I was young and had never experienced a, “loving relationship” like the kind that establishes communion between two people. I had been involved with an older man who I had expectations of, he couldn't meet them because he was seeing someone else without my knowledge. I walked away with a broken heart. The pieces didn't get put back together, the results have been long lasting.

Hearts can be broken when a job prospect doesn't come through, or when a life is lost or when the last dip of Mudslide ice cream has been sold at Baskin Robbins. ( I don't even know if they have a flavor like that.) Sometimes hearts are broken over the trivial and I can't imagine angels running in to pick up the parts to repair such things.

I had a dream once of owning my own business, I did for three years and when the bottom fell out of it because of the economy right after September 11th, well, I lost it back to the original owner, I was heart broken, but what's more, I was ruined. One of the verses of the song says, “I've been around, I've been up and down, until I bent out of control. With your world all in motion, you got to put a ball and chain on your soul.” This broken heart experience put a ball and chain on my soul. I do believe that the angels are still running to pick up those pieces and the ball and chain is in place until they can get it all back together. It hasn't stopped me, I grab the ball and carry it, but I also move slower because of it.
The pieces of my broken heart are often found when a gift I've given, time, talent or treasure falls victim to disrespect. I don't feel as though that I have much monetary treasure to offer the projects of the world, but I do have talent, I have the same 24 hours in my day that everyone else has, in fact there are days that if feels like I have two extra hours. (see the paragraph below.) My heart is broken when my gifts of time and talent are no more respected than the pennies that get kicked down the street because people don't see their worth. Alone they have very little to offer, but together they are of greater value. Were they people they may have a better attitude about understanding one another's gift being of value.

I see the, “angels running picking up the pieces,” when I realize that it isn't a sin to be single or lonely. Though I do feel shame from those emotions sometimes. I believe that the angels put those parts back together and put them back into me as quickly as they can. Pushing me out “there” in hopes that I will keep trying. Establishing friendships and relationships is hard for me because of that very first dashed dream.

Just as the first verse says, “Well, I've heard enough and I've seen enough and I know enough to know, I know a good thing when I see it, and it's a bad thing to let go.” Hope is what I've seen, heard and know enough to know. I think that it's important to add faith to that mix. I think that hope and faith is the epoxy that the angels use to put the hearts back together.

Imagine, “all those angels running,” it has to be a daunting task.