[Maphpseurse]

I enjoyed reading your story, Susan! If it can help you «validate» your experience, I'd also like to say that I had a very similar experience to yours.
I have no clue whether mine was a very lucid dream or some form of spontaneous projection... Or something else. Like you though, I have held the desire to see my guides for some time. One night, I was so elated that I could not sleep. To pass time, I started sending thoughts to whoever could be listening and went on chatting like this for a while. I then thought, «Since I can't sleep, now would be a great time to show yourselves!» I was kind of joking and didn't really think it would actually happen, but like you, that night, I saw a man standing in the corner of the bedroom, near a window. He had a gentle smile and smiling eyes as well, though just like the man you encoutered, he had some composure and was not showing «excitement». There was a lot of warmth emanating from him though, and so, I don't think the composure is something to be taken «wrong» or to feel disappointed about. He appeared in his thirties as well. Unlike the man you saw though, he was very simply dressed and only wore a white robe. But like you, he came to give me something symbolic : a key...
I didn't dare to ask his name and I am still not sure of who he was, but I do believe he was one of my guides. I'd be likely to believe that you also met one of yours, though you are more suited than I to figure out what your own experience really was to you