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In the celestial halls of heaven, the mighty archangel Michael summoned Mary with an urgency in his voice, "Mary, can you come in here please?"
Mary, who had not yet received her wings, moved anxiously as she entered Michael's ornate office. His voice softened as he said, "Mary, your 100 days are almost up. Fifty-seven times you've tried, fifty-seven times you've aimed to increase love, beauty, and truth in the world below. But each attempt has failed. You know the rules: every angel must create a unique change to earn her wings. Time's running out; just two days remain. Do you have a plan?"
Mary was expecting this conversation and her stomach was a knotted ball of fire. As she searched for an answer, Mary thought of the angelic legends such as Raphael who had introduced an 'attentional attractor', a unique way to draw humanity's focus to the present moment. She'd become an angel because she lived a life of virtue and love and service. And now she would not only squander her opportunity at eternal bliss, but her soul would be cast down again into a new living being. To live life, with all of its suffering, over again and again and again.
"Yes I have a couple more ideas, Michael," she responded, her throat catching as she spoke.
"Time is of the essence," he whispered, standing up and motioning for her to exit the office.
Mary started with something she called Harmony Box, an idea she'd always wanted to try. She spent the entire day on it, an intricate wooden box. Upon opening, it released a unique sound frequency that calmed aggressive tendencies and diffused tension.
Every inventive idea in the world she thought to herself, every groundbreaking invention had its origin in the angelic realm. Angels conceptualized these ideas in their celestial labs, and these concepts were then planted into the minds of humans capable of bringing them to life.
She tried it on a friend. She had her friend conjure up anger that she remembered from her time on earth. Mary opened the box, the sound came out, and Mary was deeply soothed. But it didn't work on her friend.
Frustrated, Mary realized that the sound was different for each person and she didn't have time to devise the idea for custom sound resonance and tuning. She had wasted a full day, and she only had one more idea. No one knew where angels got their ideas from.
She worked through the night developing a prototype for another invention she'd dreamed up: Empathy Glasses. The glasses were designed to let wearers feel others' emotions. When morning came, she set out for the caverns of purgatory, where people quarreled often.
She found two men fighting in a dimly lit room. They stopped abruptly to kneel down before her. People in purgatory were used to these visits from angels, as it was a common testing ground for new inventions. Angels were not allowed to do testing on living beings.
She asked if one of them would try her new invention out. "Me!" said one. "No me! I will" said the other. They were always sucking up to angels, as if they were the ones to rid them of their sins allowing them to finally go up to heaven.
One of the men grabbed them first.
"Resume your argument and then put them on," she said.
Their eyes met, both sets darting away before locking again in shared uncertainty.
They picked up where they left off as the one putting on the glasses.
He saw as clear as day the other man's anger which only outraged him even more.
"How dare you!? Anger towards me? What have I done to you!?" he yelled as he removed the glasses.
"Wait what?" Mary started, "Can't you see that what he feels is fear underneath that?"
She grabbed the glasses and huffed off. Of course she thought, the surface emotions we project outwardly are two strong for the glasses to penetrate.
She didn't have another idea, and she didn't have time to come up with one. She was beginning to panic.
Word got out that Mary's time was almost up, and the other angels, although they believed in the rightness of all things, worried for her.
As she pondered her next move, a winged angel passed her, remarking solemnly, "Mary, when has a physical object, a "product" as the earth walkers call it, ever brought about genuine change?"
Mary sulked away.
Hours dwindled away, leaving Mary desolate and defeated. With only three hours to go, she descended to Earth, seeking solace on a park bench, invisible to human eyes. She resigned herself to her impending fate.
A burly, intimidating man caught her eye, strolling in the park. Mary considered avoiding him, fearing she might be returned to human form in her next life near such a character. But as he approached, she noticed something unexpected. Two women passed by him with cheerful waves and smiles, and in his arms, he cradled a tiny baby.
An epiphany struck Mary. She couldn't plant one's thoughts into another mind, that would be magic. But she could pull at the strings of the imagination. With newfound hope, she raced back to the heavenly workshop, bypassing fellow angels, straight to her workspace.
"I've got it!" she exclaimed, her energy renewed. Working as quickly as she could, she fine-tuned her idea, and with half an hour to spare, she was ready.
Panting and rushing into his office, she presented her final idea to her supervisor, Archangel Ahmed. With his nod of approval, they descended to earth together where they located a quarreling couple in a market. Silently, she implanted a vivid image in the woman's mind: her husband whom she was arguing with but as a vulnerable young child. The woman looked dazes for a moment as she imagined what her husband must have looked like as a kid and was touched by the innocence she perceived. The transformation was instant. The woman's face softened, her anger melting away into understanding and compassion. "You know what? You're right," she admitted. The man was taken aback.
As they hugged, Mary looked at the archangel and felt her wings coming in immediately.
"Very clever Mary," he said to her.
With that simple act, Mary had made her mark. Humans would now have the ability to see the innocence and purity of those around them.