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| Newsletter "From the Heart" |
| Wingless Angels | In April of 1975, John Stewart released the album, Wingless Angels. John had replaced Dave Guard in the Kingston Trio and performed with them from 1961 to 1967 when they disbanded. He has done many albums since that time, and I like them all.
I love the concept of “wingless angels” because that aptly describes many people in my life who have taken an interest in me. There were people in my early childhood, during my adolescence when I was not particularly likable, and throughout my adulthood who gave of themselves with no expectations to get anything back. Mentoring is not quid pro quo. Wingless angels are not in it for the money.
Lowell Grottveit was one of those angels. I worked at a non-profit human services organization that he had been a part of almost thirty years before I came there. I was off on my own in Sheboygan, which almost sounds like a country western song title. My own boss was a good guy but not the most helpful and he was 65 miles away. I think he thought I should get all I needed to know by osmosis over the miles that separated us. It wasn’t working and I stumbled onto Lowell down in Milwaukee – another CW title.
Lowell’s hair was pure white and he had some degenerative problem with his back and he walked stooped over. It had been years since he’d stood straight by the time I met him.
His eyes were kind, his voice gentle and his smile was mischievous. He always had a gleam in his eye that portended something funny right around the corner. He was in constant pain that I could see on occasion as he winced as he got through the day.
Whenever I needed to know something I called Lowell. I couldn’t make a question too stupid for him, he was that gracious. Later he would become a vice president and I an area director. Although I didn’t report directly to him, he was always there for me. I KNOW I had to irritate him at times but it NEVER showed.
Shortly after we were both promoted he fell one night at home getting out of his chair and broke the back that had been so fragile. He became quadriplegic and ended up in the VA hospital in Milwaukee and then moved across the state to another. At first I was a real jerk. I didn’t go up to visit because I was afraid I couldn’t handle it – like it was my problem. I certainly didn’t earn the genius award back then. After my first visit, and I saw him lying there on a ventilator, my heart broke out loud.
But there were the same eyes with the same twinkle, and, early on when he could be off the ventilator to talk, the same gentle voice. Later I would try to read lips. Sometimes I would bring my guitar and one time my friend Ed came with his banjo and we put on an impromptu concert for the ward. As we closed with Amazing Grace I could see tears streaming down Lowell’s cheeks, and years later I get emotional just writing about it.
The nurses told me that I should make him write to me so I’d ask him questions – as dumb as any I’d always done. One of my most prized possessions is a letter he wrote by sipping and blowing into a tube that could control a keyboard. It took him ten days to write it. He was a saint.
One day near the end I was told he didn’t have long at all I just left work and drove for three hours to see him. He was pretty much comatose, but I sat with him and told him everything I liked about him and played my guitar and sang. He died shortly after that and my friends Ed and Jim and I played for the funeral. He left a lot of us who would miss this gentle, caring, unassuming man who made such an impact on our lives. There are those who rocket through our existence and leave a flash. Lowell had the force of a glacier and left a different landscape with his passing. Come to think about it, he probably had wings.
So tell me:
Are you a rocket, or a glacier?
What do you do to positively impact others?
Who is etched in your heart and memory as a wingless angel?
Who do you want to think of you as a wingless angel?
Get back to me and let me know your answers.
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This has been something "From the Heart" Vol. 8 # 4 © 2008
Dave Aardappel, Alpha Coach
920 451-1588
920 451-0255 FAX
DaveAardappel@alpha-coach.com
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Challenge: Make a list of your angels and start writing to them if you can. Let them know your appreciation and how you are passing it on.
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Totally Useless Trivia Question of the Week: Fill in the blank:
It leaps, it creeps, it slides and glides across the floor,
I know that you will adore ________.
Totally Useless Answer to last time's Useless Question: What is the first great truth of Buddha? We do everything we can to avoid it, but the first great truth is: Life is difficult! Don’t believe the snake oil sales folks who try to tell you otherwise. I wrote that last part, not the Buddah.
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Give a friend a free gift by having them sign up for my newsletter by clicking: www.alpha-coach.com/signup.asp.
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Coaching is helping you touch others' lives positively.
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I am available as a professional speaker and can build seminars and workshops for you on many topics like, "How to Be a Wingless Angel in the World” E-mail Barbara Elliott Eaves from the Sum People Agency to engage my speaking services at sumpeople@wi.rr.com and she will take good care of you.
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If you know of someone who may like getting these newsletters or may be curious about coaching, please forward this to them, or have them sign up at www.alpha-coach.com. Remember, the 1st session is free! No risk! Such a deal!
If you believe you've gotten this newsletter by mistake and would like to be removed from the mailing list, please let me know and I'll take care of it. Thanks!
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