Saints serve as role models as to how we should live and angels provide us the guidance and protection needed to live thusly. You’ve probably used everyday phrases like, “You’re an angel for helping that person,” or “She’s a saint for dealing with that person with such patience and grace.” We encounter such angels and saints often. With my new job, I see them every day.

The everyday angels and saints that I see every day live at, attend or work at New Danville, a farm-environment master-planned community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities so they have the opportunity to live, learn, work and grow in communities of their choice. My job is to garner funds for their programs, activities and facilities; while I work to find support, I am finding attitudes, empathy, patience, grace and love befitting everyday angels and saints.

My first day was last Wednesday. One of the first orders of business was to be introduced to the team members and to some of the clients – we call them Wranglers – as they gathered before starting the day’s activities. Within less than a minute of standing in the room of about 40 people I felt love, support, empathy and humanity coming from all corners. And humor, as well as energy and enthusiasm that I look forward to tapping into every day.

That’s the point: In all people is the potential to be either angel or saint, or both. Everyone has the choice to live that way; everyone has the choice to see such characteristics in others. It is best to not just observe everyday angels and saints, but to learn from, grow with and become energized by them. They are around us all everyday.