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Heartsick and in a state of shock, I sat at my desk
unwilling to believe I had just lost more than a year??™s
worth of research. The research, a compilation of personal
true stories, was slated for my second book on angels and
heavenly intervention. That day I had intended on making a
back-up copy of my files and was distracted by phone calls.
Thinking I was all done I placed old files into the trash on
my computer and emptied it. Within seconds I realized what
my distraction had just cost me. I had inadvertently deleted
all the files.
My stomach felt ghastly and fighting tears, I called out
to my husband, ???Shawn, if I empty the trash on my computer,
is everything really gone????
I know he heard the distress in my voice because he was
up the stairs in seconds, ???What??™s happened???? he asked.
I tried to explain what I??™d been doing but somehow had
gotten mixed up and deled all the files, rather than just
the old copy. Then I sat there in a state of shock.
The lost ???angel file???, was a collection of stories from
writers in a number of different countries and by losing the
file I lost not only the material but all the contact names
and addresses. With the file gone, there was no way to back
track and ever locate those same stories. I was devastated,
not believing that with one simple click, I had committed
such a costly blunder.
Now no one would ever read the story about an angel??™s
visit to a young, lost 11 year old boy, and no one would
read about the wondrous works of angels as they lifted a car
to save the occupants from an accident. I sat there thinking
about the many stories, those that demonstrated the power of
prayer, and those that showed God??™s miracles in our lives
and others that reminded us that death is not forever. I
remembered how a tragedy was averted when one writer spoke
of hearing the words, "GO CHECK THE BABY NOW."? I recalled
the words of a little boy to his mother, words that gave her
a cherished night with her son the night before his death. I
sat there with the beauty of the stories rushing through my
mind and I felt heartsick that now I could not share the
beauty of these hope-filled stories with readers
My husband sat at the computer searching for the missing
files. We have a program especially designed for locating
any file within the system. Shawn provided the program with
the name "angels" and the response indicated that ???0??? (zero
) files existed. He checked through systems but nowhere in
the system was a file hiding called ???angels???. In fact
nowhere could the word ???angels??? be found. It was as if the
entire file had never existed. He turned and looked at me,
???I??™m sorry honey, there??™s nothing there.???
I looked at him, fighting tears and speechless. I
silently pleaded with God for help.
Shawn gathered me into his arms. ???I??™m sorry honey, the
file is gone. There??™s nothing .???
When he left the room, I sat in front of my computer,
numb with shock. Unwilling to let go of hope that somehow
this stuff would show up I went through the same steps that
Shawn had just performed but the response still came back,
???Zero files found.??? I continued sending out my
distress signal to the only power I knew who could make
things better and for the third time I used the search
program to find the deleted files.
Unbelievably the Finder suddenly gave me a positive
response. I held my breath and stopped moving . I just sat
there looking at the screen and the the name of the file
that my program had discovered. It was "Angels On Earth".
Daring to hope that my prayers had indeed been answered,
I shouted for Shawn. I was paranoid about touching anything.
Shawn returned, sat at the computer and within moments we
were staring at this huge file. All the stories were there.
Everything that I had deleted had been returned. Awed and
overwhelmed, I stood beside him, tears just flooding my
eyes. An immense feeling of gratitude and relief washed over
me and gratefully I sent up my silent words of ???thank you.???
???I guess we just didn??™t scroll all the way up the first
time,??? Shawn offered as an explanation.
???Sweetheart, you saw it was gone. You saw the Find
program tell us more than once that the file did not exist.???
Shawn I prayed for help and got it.???
Shawn just smiled at me. ???I??™m glad it??™s recovered honey,???
he said.
Well there are some things that we just don??™t argue about
but personally, I think I just got mail from God.
(c) 2003 Ellie Braun-Haley
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Ellie is the author of four books and has had numerous
short stories published, most notably in Heartwarmers of
Spirit and Chicken Soup For the Soul. She is presently
gathering stories for a book similar to A Little Door, A
Little Light, stories on the power of prayer, angels and
other Heavenly Intervention type stories. She welcomes
submissions until deadline, September 30, 2003.? She can be
contacted at? shaley@telusplanet.net. (ask for story
Guidelines)
Special Note*
Ellie has been choosing stories for her new book and has
been going through her Angels On Earth files. Regrettably
there are some 57 writers (whose stories have been selected
to be published) who have changed their e-mail addresses in
the past few years and Ellie has been unable to reach them.
If you think you may be one of these writers please contact
Ellie
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