The Preciousness of Life, Part 3

I find myself in this odd position of having my focus on how to live life more fully, with more joy, love, and peace as I learn and teach how to live Heaven on Earth, and then being touched deeply by the deaths of family and acquaintances.

In parts 1 and 2 on this theme, I wrote about my aunt and uncle who died within a couple years of each other, each at the age of 89. I was touched by the passing of each and learned more about their gifts after they died than when alive. Certainly with each I was inspired to live my life more fully.

More recently a second cousin passed away. Again, I learned more about her after her death than I knew while she was living. I felt called to her memorial service in Georgia despite not having had contact with her directly during our adult lives. I knew her as a child when our families would gather in North Carolina for summer vacations. I received occasional updates over the years through other family members. The call to go to her memorial service was more for those who are still living than because of any relationship I had with her. Getting to reconnect with her mother, sister, and brother felt important. Through that reconnection, I felt each of us got a better sense of the importance of family even when physically distant for most of our lives. We touched into the love that is at the core of this family. We felt it as kids on our summer vacations, and we tapped into it as adults grieving the loss of a loved one.

This week I learned of the death of an acquaintance. I wish I could have called him a friend, but I never got to know him that well. Even so, I can remember in first meeting him that he radiated love that could be felt across the room. He was a shaman, and I did not know that when I first saw him in the conference classroom. I had no idea who he was, but felt his energy and made sure that I introduced myself to him. I wanted to let him know how his loving energy could be felt all the way over to where I was sitting. Our eyes connected in soulful knowingness when as I told him of his impact. He smiled such a beautiful smile of appreciation and I felt transported to another space and time through his eyes. His name is Rafael Bejarano. He was one of the twelve Mexican tourists killed by Egyptian security forces, mistaking them for terrorists.

Again, I am learning more about him after his death than while he was living. His death has really impacted me. I found myself needing to cry because the emotions were just welling up inside and needed to be expressed. I could feel his loving energy. I could remember the loving look in his eyes. Here was a man who lived peace and was gunned down in senseless violence.

His death also caused me to think more deeply of all the others who are dying on this planet in senseless acts of violence. There is so much fear, hatred, rage, and insanity lashing out to kill or maim whoever gets in the way. This is where I want to bring my love and light. Enough already! Have we not learned our lessons yet as a human race? Must we keep killing in the mistaken belief that if we kill our enemies our problems will be solved?

Life is precious. All life is precious. The time we have in this lifetime, in this human body chosen for us, perhaps chosen by us, is precious and holy. Why is it so hard for us as humanity to understand this?

I don’t know the answer. I am not trying to blame anyone for the way it is. I believe that each of us is doing the best we know. The Egyptian soldiers who killed Rafael and the other innocent people did not mean to do what they did. They are probably feeling horrible guilt and shame. They were trying to prevent others bent on horrid violence from hurting innocents. They got caught up in the current of fear and this is the result.

I only know to appreciate the life I have been given and to bring as much love and light into it so I can radiate it out into the world in the way that Rafael did. In his remembrance I pledge to remember and to embody as much light and love as I can. That is what I mean by living heaven on earth. Each of us can do our part by connecting to the love that is the basis of all creation and letting go of the mistaken ideas that lead to violence and other forms of separation from our Source.

Life is precious. Let us live it as the holy gift it is.

The Preciousness of Life, Part 2

In February 2012 I posted a blog that focused on the death of my Uncle Alvin. The blog is entitled “The Preciousness of Life”. Alvin was my Dad’s only brother. He was a few months shy of his 90th birthday.

This week I attended the funeral of his former wife, my Aunt Betty, the mother of their three children. She was 6 days away from turning 90. Both had lived full lives and yet both seemed to have died before their time. How is that?

Although the two parents of my cousins had gone their separate ways many years ago, both continued to live life fully. At each memorial service many spoke about how they shared their unique gifts with family, friends, and community.

Betty was a member of the Red Hat Society and several members of the group came dressed up in their bright purple and reds, making a statement about being yourself no matter what age. Betty was very much herself up to the end. There were photos of her wearing purple tinted sun glasses in the shape of hearts while sitting in a wheel chair. Her son, John, spoke about how she would lift herself out of the chair and declare she was going to get better!

Betty was unique in so many ways. She was my first teacher of astrology, when there were few who knew much about it. She was proud of herself as a Taurus. She loved to help people and took care of many ill and elderly. Her greatest love, besides her kids and grandchildren, were flowers. She would weed other people’s gardens as if they were her own, just to see the flowers grow more beautifully.

As I reflected on both of their lives, I could not help but think of the title of the earlier blog and reflect on how precious are the lives we live in these human bodies. When someone lives 89 years and they still seemed to have died too young, you know they were truly living until the end. They were living and giving to those around them.

My work is centered around the idea of living Heaven on Earth. What that means to me is to live here and now, on this planet, with all the love and light we can embody – not waiting until death to experience it. It means living with joy, laughter, forgiveness, and gratitude. When we do that, we bless those around us. We lift our vibration and the vibration of others.

Life is precious. When we remember that, we live more fully, give more freely, and make this a better world just by being in it. Then when we make our transition into a different form of living, those left behind can be enriched by the memories.

Namaste.

What is Heaven Anyway?

My mission, as I have shared in previous blog posts, is to bring Heaven on Earth and to help others do so as well.  I have been actively claiming that as my mission this past year.  But what do I mean by heaven and what does heaven mean to you?

When I was doing research recently, I came across a number of books with “heaven” in the title.  Many relate to experiences of those who came close to dying, but returned to life in their same body.  Others focus on the theology of heaven and who has access (or not) once we shuffle off this “mortal coil”.    Some relate to experiences of individuals who choose past life regressions to deal with current life issues.

Although there is no agreement among theologians and scientists, neither can escape the reality that evidence of very similar experiences is mounting in support of concept of life after life that is at least as good as any religious depiction – and one that is not as exclusive as religious authorities have espoused.  In fact, the experience of life after life in a human body seems quite inclusive and welcoming to even those who were not believers of any sort before having a near death experience (NDE).

One of the premier experts on NDEs, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, performed over 20,000 case studies of NDEs.  She never published them because she believed that believers would believe without the evidence, and non-believers won’t believe no matter what proof is offered to them.  I was amazed to find out that this psychiatrist who is now widely esteemed was hounded by criticizers through most of her career.  She almost gave up her studies because of her attackers.  Thankfully, she continued because she could see how her patients benefitted from her services.  Other medical professionals were afraid to take care of the dying and thought those who talked about NDEs were crazy or hallucinating. 

A more recent expert on NDEs is Dr. Eban Alexander, a neurosurgeon who had his own NDE which he described in his book, Proof of Heaven.  He thought the particular circumstances of his NDE would refute the alleged scientific explanation that they were only a creation of the neocortex.  Since his experience occurred while his neocortex was not functioning due to bacterial meningitis, he thought that his experience might convince the medical community to take the growing evidence more seriously.  He seems to be finding many of the blocks that Dr. Kubler-Ross encountered.  Critics are still doubting that NDE portrayals, which are so numerous and so similar, hold any truth.

In his second book, Map of Heaven, Dr. Alexander makes a case for why it is  important for each of us to understand that there is more to life than what we know in our physical bodies.  He says, “Without knowledge of the larger geography of where we came from and where we are going again when our physical bodies die, we are lost.”  My take on this is that understanding heaven is integral to our understanding life. If we separate and compartmentalize the two, we deprive ourselves of the esoteric aspects of life that are available to us. The qualities of peace, love, joy, and harmony grow as we recognize that heaven is part of our earthly experience. Keeping them separate is an artificial construction that is based in denial of truth we can know through our internal senses.

That is why I believe it is so important for each of us to actually live Heaven on Earth – to find ways to know peace, love, joy, and harmony in our daily lives, recognizing that these are the gifts of Spirit that await us after death and yet are accessible to us here and now.

Having said that, I recognize that living Heaven on Earth is not easy.  I find challenges all the time.  However, when I catch myself feeling angry, sad, or discouraged, I find a way to turn it around – not always in an instant, but what helps me is to know that there is so much more to life than this physical existence.  Pioneers like Drs. Kubler-Ross and Alexander have helped show us the truth.  It is up to us to use the evidence to life better – for ourselves and others.

Namaste and Happy New Year.  Hope 2015 brings a lot of Heaven your way.

The Plentitude that is Gratitude

One of the consistent tools I use to shift my energy so that I can feel more joy and peace in my life is to start telling myself what I am grateful for. I can be anxious about money or upset with myself for eating something that keeps me up at night, but if I start naming things that I know to be blessing my life, I start to feel better. I can always find something to begin with – even if it is that I am able to breathe. Once I find one thing to be grateful for, others pop into my mind. Before too long, I realize that the money worry or guilty consciousness no longer feels like the 500 pound gorilla sitting on my heart.

As I shift my attention to the many parts of my life to give thanks for, I can feel the tension ease a bit. I notice that my breath is less labored. I can feel more compassion for myself. By continuing to give thanks, I start to remember how truly blessed I am.

I remember during one workshop I attended, we started by first focusing on our breath and then taking turns around the circle of each one expressing gratitude for something. Once we made it around once, we wanted to go again because someone else’s gratefulness reminded us of another of ours. We also noticed that we all started feeling better. Our hearts were being cracked opened by the expressions of thanksgiving around and around the circle. In that openness, we could feel more love and joy.

The mere act of thanksgiving brought a sense of prosperity and abundance. We each had forgotten how many blessings we had in our life. It shifted the energy of the whole group. We left feeling the plentitude of life by merely expressing gratitude for what we had.

Join in me in this meditation below, as we tune into what we are grateful for and see how that opens our heart to the many gifts we have available to us right in this moment.