NEW! Bookstore!

Locked & Loaded

By Marty Boyle

Locked & Loaded
Marty Boyle
(Pete, Gabe & Maggie!)

(This time around, Soul is excited about an idea, and has returned to the Great Hall to discuss it with her guardian angel, Epheniel.)

I ran up the steps, two at a time, and bounded into the Great Hall. I looked briefly for the Hall’s handysprite, Zeke, but saw no sign of him. He must be escorting another visitor. Hopefully, I’ll see him on the return trip. Quickly, I made my way to my guardian angel’s conference room, and knocked on her door. Noting its glow with a glow of my own, I popped my head inside the room. “Could we talk now or is this a bad time?”

She smiled and beckoned me into the room. “You look as if you’re in a rush, Soul.” As I walked into her welcoming arms, she added, “I always have time for you, Beloved. What would you like to discuss?”

“Well, I’ve definitely learned a great deal, and am intrigued how essential it is that we each make a difference.” She nodded and I continued. “It dawned on me that there must be more that souls can do to help humanity make the shift towards enlightenment than just by checking our thoughts, words and actions, and loving unconditionally.”

She chuckled. “You don’t think that’s enough?”

“Oh, I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy. I’m just saying that there must be more that we can do to move humanity up a notch on that ol’ Evolvement Scale.” I looked at her twinkling eyes. “Aha! I knew it! There is, isn’t there?”

“Yes, there is. Besides doing what you just described, souls can also send out Peace, Love, and Light Energy to heal your realm and all those souls within the Universe.”

“Sending out Peace, Love and Light Energy to all souls? Why do I have the feeling you’re going to tell me that this energy will not just go out to those whom we love?”

She nodded. “Your sacred task is to send this energy to all souls and all realms across the Universe – especially those people you may not love, Soul. It’s easy to send Sacred Energy to loved ones, but it’s critical for the evolvement of humanity to also send it out to those who have harmed you or others in some manner.” Epheniel paused when she saw my look of confusion.

“Let’s say that someone has hurt you physically or emotionally, and you perseverate on it, the way your tongue wiggles a loose tooth. And while you may claim that it’s just thinking – so what’s the big deal – what you’re actually doing is wrapping negativity around the situation, which, in turn, strengthens that person’s negative energy, further empowering them.”

“That gives a whole new meaning to Love thy enemies, doesn’t it?” I murmured, thinking of the many times I had nursed hurts. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not. The best thing to do is every time you think of them, release Ego and rise above the situation and look down upon it, as one might a chessboard. That allows you to see the Big Picture; you can often gain a great deal of understanding by looking at it from a different viewpoint. Then, blast them with Sacred Energy: Peace, Love and Light.” Epheniel paused. “You can also send Light to any troublesome situation. And, while you’re doing that, remember to send this Sacred Light to world leaders who are using war and genocide to fuel their own hate-filled agendas.”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “Let’s go back to what you said about putting Ego aside. What do you mean? What’s wrong with Ego?”

My angel smiled. “Ego was given to Earth-journeying souls for self-protection and to help them define who they are. But, over human time, Ego has taken control, trying to call all the shots. And, of course, Ego and Fear work together, so allowing both of them to make decisions for your life never bodes well. It’s time to thank Ego for all it has done for you, and then ask it to move aside so you can better hear your inner guidance. And by doing that, Fear lessens.”

She paused a moment in thought and then continued. “When you are angry with someone, you are surrounding them with negative energy. And when you send out Peace, Love and Light, you are actually sending it to their souls, who did not harm you. So, even if you cannot love some people, you can love their souls. And, while you may never know if the Light has caused changes, Trust that it has.”

“And those people to whom we send this Sacred Energy? Will they know? I can imagine people worrying that doing this may make them look weak in front of their enemies – or at least those who seek to harm them.”

“No, it’s similar to what happens when you practice forgiveness. The person doesn’t know you have forgiven them – unless you tell them – but your soul knows and can release the heavy burden it has been carrying.”

My eyes widened, as the possibilities flooded my mind. “Can you imagine how the planet would change if billions of people did just that? It’s a game changer!”

Epheniel smiled. “Exactly. And that’s why sending Peace, Love and Light is critical to moving humanity up a notch on that ol’ Evolvement Scale, as you so aptly phrased it. Instead of a game changer, it becomes a planet changer!”

“Okay, now that I have some understanding of the basics, how exactly would I go about sending this special energy?”

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Finally, she said, “Soul, we could continue to talk about it, but I think it would be far more effective if you experience it. I’m going to send you to the Great Hall’s lower level today to see another friend of mine for some hands-on learning.” I glanced at her nervously – ever on guard – especially after being plopped unceremoniously into my Ancient Rome lifetime. She laughed. “Remember to be open to all possibilities, Soul.”

Epheniel rubbed her hands together and asked, “Are you ready?” When I nodded, she walked me back to the door, gave me directions, and handed me a pair of what appeared to be industrial-strength sunglasses and a pair of sturdy combat boots. I arched an eyebrow in confusion, but she ignored it. “You can’t miss it, Soul – good luck!”

My angel kissed my forehead and I left, the directions resounding in my head. Before long, I stood before a door that was more than a bit battered. A slightly bent sign – hanging off kilter – was next to it: Peace, Love, & Light Special Delivery Division. I glanced at the sunglasses and back at the sign. This must be it. I rapped quietly on the door. Instantly, it swung open and a blinding light greeted me. I fumbled for my sunglasses and slipped them on, trying to navigate my way into the room. “Uh, anybody here? Excuse me, but would you mind dimming that light a bit?”

Suddenly the intense glare flickered and faded. “Sorry, Kid.” I looked for the source of the voice as my eyes once again tried to adjust, but found no one. “Got carried away! Always like to give a bright first impression. Come in, come in! Get comfortable!” I removed my sunglasses and stepped forward.

The room was a large, open area, sparsely furnished and obviously well used. Everywhere I looked, there were scorch marks, gashes in the floor and dents in the sofa and chairs that looked as if an axe had been taken to them. I decided I would stand rather than sit on the sofa, which held ripped and soot-streaked cushions. I muttered softly, “This place gives a whole new meaning to the word distressed – more like destroyed.”

I heard a chuckle behind me and spun around, realizing that once again, I had put my celestial foot directly into my celestial mouth. There stood a rather short, pleasantly plump angel, hands on his hips, his angel toga in disarray. His soft, blonde hair was rumpled, but the welcoming smile on his face was unmistakable. He carried a clipboard, and absentmindedly twirled a pencil as he considered me. I looked down at his feet and was amazed to see combat boots similar to the ones Epheniel had given me. And is that an unlit stogie tucked behind his left ear?

“Casting a little judgment, eh, Soul? Be patient. You’ll soon understand why this place and I look the way we do.”

Once again, I crimsoned in chagrin. Have I learned nothing about the power of my thoughts? I smiled lamely, hoping to recreate his first impression of me. I gazed at him thoughtfully. “You look familiar,” I said after a moment. “Have we met?”

He preened a bit and straightened his shoulders, offering me his business card:

Sandro, Superior Supervisor,
Peace, Love, & Light Special Delivery Division.

“You probably recognize me. Most souls do.” He paused dramatically. “I was Sandro Botticelli’s original model for the cherub design around these parts – minus the stogie, of course.” He paused, put the unlit cigar in his mouth, and began to deeply inhale, and then released several competition-level smoke rings. Finally, he returned it to his ear and continued. “Afterward, I took his name so everyone would better appreciate my importance. Here,” he offered. “I’ll turn sideways so you can get a better view.” I stifled a chuckle and pretended to nod impressively. If nothing else, I had learned celestial etiquette. For the most part.

“Absolutely,” I agreed, “a cherub is exactly what you are!” Make that a cherub in combat boots, blowing smoke rings – from an unlit cigar. Will I ever not be surprised by what I find on this realm? I paused, hoping to move on from this discussion. “Excuse me, but is this the right place to learn how to send Peace, Love, and Light?”

“Yes, Soul. This is the place!” he beamed, pointing to the sign on the door. He looked around the room proudly.

“Do I need anything?” I stammered. “I didn’t bring anything with me, other than these glasses and combat boots.”

Sandro perused what appeared to be a checklist on his clipboard. “Don’t need a thing, Kid, other than your desire to help bring Sacred Light to the Universe. It appears there’ll be another entity joining us today, so we’ll just have to wait for his arrival,” the cherub murmured, checking his pocket watch.

“Hey,” I protested, “I thought no one used watches or clocks around here. That simultaneous existence thing going on.”

“I’m the exception,” he said, puffing up his chest slightly. “See?” I peered closely at his watch and found words instead of numbers: Time to send Peace; Time to send Love; Time to send Light; What the heck – BLAST ‘EM!”

“What the heck – BLAST ‘EM?” I repeated, dumbfounded.

“That’s for the really needy souls, Soul. That’s when there’s no time to ask questions – we just blast ’em with all of it – Peace, Love, and Light.” I nodded, idly wondering if my local discount store carried such a watch. Just then, the door flew open and into the room raced an entity, who in his hurried excitement, tripped on a familiar-looking errant apron tie, went sprawling and finally landed in a heap in the middle of the floor.

“Zeke!” I called as I bent down to help him to his feet. “Hello! I missed you earlier. What are you doing here?”

“Same as ye, Lass. Ah heard ye snuck into the Great Hall without me noticin’, so Ah went to Epheniel. She tells me ye’re going to take this class.” His eyes shone with excitement. “So Ah says to her, ‘Epheniel,’ Ah says, ‘would ye mind partnerin’ her up with me?’” He glanced at our instructor and then whispered to me, “Every soul needs a partner, Soul. ‘Sure, Zeke,’ she says – she has such a guid heart – ‘help yeself.’ And here Ah be!” he ended with a flourish of his arm and a deep bow.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” I said, kissing him on the tip of his nose. “We’ll learn together!” He blushed and we turned back to our instructor. “Sandro, do you know Zeke?”

The angels grinned at each other and nodded. “Old friends,” Sandro replied. “We play together on the Great Hall bocce ball team. I’m quarterback, and Zeke plays point guard. And, we’re pretty darn good, if I do say so, myself.”

I was befuddled. “A quarterback and point guard in bocce ball? Somehow, that doesn’t seem right.”

Sandro lifted a combat-booted foot and sniffed. “You also didn’t think these boots seem right. Be open to all possibilities, Soul!” He paused and handed Zeke a similar pair of boots. “Oh, and now might be a good time to put on your boots.” He waited a moment while we did just that. Putting down the clipboard, he rubbed his hands together. ”Shall we begin?” Zeke and I nodded vigorously, although, truth be told, it was hard to tell if Zeke was excited or more than a little nervous over what was to come.

“Okay!” the cherub said, as he picked up the clipboard, made a notation, and then stuck the pencil behind one ear. “Let’s get started. First thing you’re gonna learn, Kid, is how to summon up energy in order to send it out. Have a seat on the floor and get comfortable.” We plopped ourselves down and settled in. “Now, clear your mind of riffraff.”

“Riffraff?” I asked doubtfully. My record wasn’t so good in that area.

“You know, riffraff – stuff – chaos. Go ahead and try it.” I looked at him dubiously, but closed my eyes. I gently waved away doubts, and found to my surprise, that my mind was clear; no riffraff to be found. My eyes flew open in amazement, and I found him grinning from ear to ear. “Every soul can do this. There’s no Highly Evolved Requirement here.” I eyed him with suspicion. Obviously, he had been talking with someOne. He laughed. “Let it go, Kid. Go on. Just close your eyes and do it again. I’ll talk you through the rest.” I did as he directed and soon my mind was once again clear.

“Okay, good. Now what you want to do is visualize white Light at the core of your being. Some think it’s easier to think of the area behind the belly button, but since I never had one of those, that particular image doesn’t work for me.” He waited a moment as I followed his instructions. “Got that?” I nodded.

“What you want to do is bring the Light throughout your entire body. First, send it slowly down your legs to your toes. Let those toes squish in its beauty.” He waited while I wiggled my toes. “Then, allowing some of it to stay there if you can, bring the rest slowly back up through your legs, your torso and down your arms and into your fingers. Slowly, gently, feel those energized fingers of yours!” Again, he waited while I flexed my hands. “Now, leaving part of that Light there, move the rest back to your torso and on into the crown of your head. Gently, slowly, allow the Light to touch every part of you. If you can become familiar with this feeling, it won’t be long before you can get to this stage almost instantly.”

I felt a warm glow grow within me – I’m doing it!

“You are, Kid – keep it up. Feel the energy. Now, we’re moving on. Let’s say that your friend, Zeke, here, is down in the dumps and in need of Peace, Love, and Light. You’re going to visualize him and then send a blast of energy to him. Try it now.”

I did as I was told and instantly heard a whooshing sound, a squeal and something hit the wall. Hard. My eyes flew open and much to my dismay, there lay Zeke in a crumpled pile across the room. His clothes were scorched and his hair singed, with little wisps of curling smoke rising from him.

I jumped up and ran over to the sprite, appalled that I had hurt my dear friend. As I stood over the small entity, my feet grew warm. The floor was still sizzling from the heat of the last blast, and I suddenly understood the need for combat boots. Even so, I jumped from foot to foot and wailed, “What have I done to you, Zeke? Does it hurt much?”

Zeke looked up at me a bit dazed, grinned, and then shook his head. “Nah, ye can’t hurt me, Soul. Now ye see why souls taking this course need a partner who isn’t concerned with that mortality thing!” I gently brushed him off and extinguished the small brushfire on the hem of his apron, before turning to my instructor, who was grinning at me.

“What’d I do wrong?” I asked.

“Wrong, Soul? You did nothing wrong!” Sandro rubbed his chin in thought.

“But I can’t go around zapping people like that. What do I say, ‘Here’s some Peace, Love and Light energy. If it doesn’t kill you, it’ll help?”

He laughed. “I gotta admit, Kid, you’ve got some powerful stuff there. No doubt about it.”

Zeke looked up from the floor with crossed eyes. It was clear his head was still spinning. “We just need to fine-tweak yer delivery.”

Fine-tweak yer delivery? I could just imagine the television teaser for the news some night: Local woman jailed for destruction of entire town. Claims she was sending peace, love and light. Grand Jury not buying it. Film at 11. Sandro could sense my hesitation.

“Come on, Kid. It just takes practice. Let’s try it again.” He glanced at Zeke. “Maybe it’ll be a better idea if we put our sprite friend right by the wall – unless he prefers the trip across the room?”

Zeke shook his head as if to unscramble his brains. “Wow! That was great! Let’s do that again – including the trip across the room!” He leapt to his feet and stood in front of me, more than a bit wobbly. “He’s right, Soul. Don’t give up – zap away!”

My instructor waved his pencil at me as an idea hit. “Maybe this time, Kid, let’s see if you can direct the light in a single beam, rather than a general blast, okay? That might be more effective.” I nodded and closed my eyes. I quickly cleared my brain of its busyness and felt the light again spread throughout my body. More quickly than before, I seemed locked and loaded. “All right now, Kid. Zap ‘im!”

I released what seemed to be more of a beam of light. Instantly, I heard the shattering of glass and my eyes flew open. A wild missile of brilliant white light bounced crazily off one wall and into another like a cosmic super ball, crashing into everything it met. It was now clearly evident why the furnishings in this classroom were not only sparse, but distressed.

In the meantime, Zeke was having the time of his life, clapping, cheering and doubling over in laughter as my misguided light continued to go berserk. A moment later, the light missile honed in on its target and crashed into Zeke’s rear end, causing him to tumble all the way to the wall, where he once again lay in a heap, laughing hysterically.

“Oh, dear!” I yelled as I ran to help him to his feet. Again. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea. I don’t seem to be getting the hang of it, do I?” I looked at Zeke. “Are you okay?”

“Again!” he gasped between waves of laughter. “Try it again!” I looked at the cherub, who shrugged and grinned, as Zeke rubbed his rump. “That’s some stuff ye’ve got there, Lass!” When I looked more than a little skeptical, Sandro smiled.

“Kid, sprites make great partners for this, don’t they?!” He looked into my eyes. “Look at him. He’s fine. We’ll just work with you until you have nailed this down a bit more before sending you out into the world, okay?” I nodded dubiously and he laughed. “Peace, Love and Light Energy are the most powerful tools your planet possesses. Most souls just don’t know that yet. I hear that once you get the hang of this, your job will be to help teach others how to do it.” He grinned, pointed his cigar at me and added, “You’re not going to try to take my job away from me, are you?”

“No need to worry about that. Now, please tell me how to harness this thing. The Great Hall needs their handysprite, so I had better learn quickly.” Zeke continued to grin idiotically and I worried that while he might not need to concern himself with that mortality thing, his brains might be permanently scrambled. But, since no one else seemed to be the least bit worried, I gathered my courage again. “Okay,” I sighed. “Let’s try it again.”

We worked on my delivery for a long time. Before I had mastered the basics, my explosive energy had somehow mysteriously managed to turn Zeke’s hair neon green, had given him several pairs of donkey legs, and was responsible for the still-smoldering debris that was once known as the sofa. All the while, the cherub clapped his hands delightedly. In fact, the only time that he had appeared to become the least bit impatient with me throughout the lesson was when he hadn’t ducked quickly enough and my energy beam had beheaded him. It had taken more than a couple moments to resolve that little consequence.

At last he decreed that I was ready to try my stuff out on the earth plane. The thought crossed my mind that he was releasing me because he had had quite enough of my stuff, but I thanked him for all of his help and half-carried Zeke out the door, who was still grinning, giggling and protesting that he wanted more. Sandro waved good-bye and returned the unlit cigar to his mouth.

“Remember to watch out for the neighbor’s dog, Kid!” he called, releasing an exquisite smoke ring. “Don’t let your mind wander or you won’t know what havoc may result!”

“I’ll be careful! Thanks again!” I called, waving goodbye.

Zeke and I slowly walked down the corridor, back to Epheniel’s conference room. I was trying to process all that I had learned, more than a bit nervous about the neighbor’s dog – and the rest of the town. After a long moment, Zeke looked up at me and smiled. “Ye be pure dead brilliant, Lass!”

I grinned. “Thanks, Zeke. And if my Handy Dandy Scottish Phrase Guidebook is correct, ye be pure done in!”

“That Ah be, Lass,” he replied, as a grin spread over his face. “That Ah be!”

[Excerpt from This Time Around – https://www.martyboyle.com – mjboyle607@aol.com]