Inevitable Changes

The only constant is change. Without change we would atrophy and die. Yet most of us resist changes, even though we know they are for our highest and best good. Even when we know that everything is in Divine order. 

We read in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. 

In 1965, a popular song by the Byrds, "Turn, Turn, Turn" was written based on this scripture. Interestingly, it was much easier for me to embrace then than it is now. Then I was just starting University, just setting out, with my whole life ahead of me. I hadn't any idea of the myriad changes that would be the story of my life. Although I had experienced the deaths of a beloved uncle and an aunt, death was distant to me. Like most young people of that time I thought I was immune from suffering and death.

Recently several dear friends have made their transitions. I know that they live on and in much better circumstances, freed from the bondage and pain of their bodies. Still I am sad to see them go. Thankfully my spiritual practice and my certainty about the continuity of life have helped me deal with these deaths. Life doesn't start with our arrival on the planet, nor does it end when we breathe our last breath. Rather we were and always will be one with the indivisible Source. I don't really know what happens after death. But I am certain that somehow, somewhere, we continue. Life goes on not only for our loved ones but also for us. 

Helen Keller wrote:

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

Learn to accept the changes in your life. There is another door opening. 

Are Your Choices Magical or Mundane?

Clear the mists around your Avalon.

I remember reading "The Mists of Avalon" over winter break. My roomates were home with their families and I had the apartment to myself. While the snow fell outside I was warm and toasty eating bread smeared with butter and honey just like in my book on the mystical and magical court of King Arthur.

The mists shrouding the Isle Avalon grew and thickened as the beliefs in the old ways were abandoned. The magic was becoming lost and forgotten as the isle slipped deeper and deeper into the fog.

How we long for the magic and "supernatural" in our daily lives. We love to exchange our stories of dreams and experiences with psychics, healers, and shamans, to recount the butterfly that flew by just when we were thinking of a loved one we have lost. We long to have that undeniable, authentic experience to prove to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Spirit exists and is alive and well in our daily lives. We can't get enough reassurance that those we have lost continue on and are somehow still connected to us in consciousness. We long for magic.

I do. We all do.

I want my dreams to be vivid, even lucid.
I want my experiences to be intense and authentic.
I want to feel close to those I have lost.
I want to feel that my ancestors are here with me.
I want to know that I live in a supportive living conscious universe that accepts and loves me unconditionally.

But what I learned this week is that Spirit is a two way street.

You have to sing out and with all your heart.
You must dig deep and be true in the most seemingly mundane of ways.
You have to get your ego out of the way.

You are called to be present.
You are called to fully participate in life.
You are called to recognize the magic and potentcy of all that is around you.

My daily life is more filled with tupperware dishes than abalone shells, but it's just as profound.
I probably won't find my animal totem from a Facebook quiz but I will find Spirit if I choose to recognize and participate in Life itself.

I choose to take time to listen.
I choose quiet mindfullness over mindless internal chatter.
I choose to reprioritize my day and spend time connecting and being grateful for the gifts of Mother Earth.
I choose to put down the digital devices and be in the moment.
I choose to clear the fog.

I meet people who are such bright lights that just being around them makes me exuberantly happy.
I find myself wanting to be more prepared, more present, more thankful, more true.

I know that every moment is precious.
Every moment is a Divine gift.
That not everything can be explained with words.
Not every answer can be found in Google.

Some things you just have to sit with and revel in their very existence.
To know that magic abounds.
To clear the mists around your Avalon.

Be quiet.
Be true.
Send your prayers.
Sing your songs.
Listen with your heart.
Be grateful.
Hold your vision.

And know.

The Gift of Death

I speak to dead people... 

...and so can you if you don't yet. 

Gramps with my dad (right), me (left), and my two boys
(top left)

This morning I spoke to my grandfather, Gramps, who passed away in the early morning hours. 

Only hours after he passed, you'd think his soul would be busy in "soul orientation" figuring out where he goes and what he does as a soul. 

I have to admit, though, before this amazing experience I'm about to share with you, I did have thoughts of grief and sadness about his death. 

He passed? So soon? He just drove cross-country from Pennsylvania to LA six months ago to visit my dad!   He was just diagnosed with cancer a short time after that....how'd he die so quickly? 

I was filled with sadness. 

Sadness that I hadn't lived in the same town, or state for that matter, as gramps in over 20 years and I had only seen him a couple of times in those 20 years. 

Sadness that I wasn't there for my family who took care of him during his last few days. 

Grief that I didn't express my love for him when I saw him a few weeks ago when he was still

This was the sun shining on the
beach the day Gramps passed.

"Gramps" in my book...laughing with us as we ate lunch, raving over Gram's homemade relish, and giggling as Gram had to yell in Gramp's ear 13 times because he couldn't hear a word she said...

...then wondering if he really did hear her, but chose not to. 

 As I sat quietly in my living room with a cup of tea, the house quiet now that my boys were in school, I cried, and then remembered the spiritual tools I have to turn to in order to come to peace with Gramp's passing. 

I said a prayer for my family who I know are in their own grieving process. 

Then, in a silent, grounded moment, I remembered that, although, Gramps in his physical body, was in Morgantown, Pennsylvania before he passed, he is now an infinite soul capable of  being anywhere, at anytime, with anyone. 

He could be with me, and Gram, and my aunt Polly, and my dad and all the rest of us who are grieving all at the same time. 

So, I decided to reach out to his soul. 

I simply said, Gramps, I love you.  I know you are experiencing the peace of being free. Your soul is available to do more work than you were able to do here on Earth and I have no doubts you are laughing with joy.  That said, I want to know you're with me in Spirit...I ask for a sign. 

Before I get to the juicy part, let me preface it by saying that, in my family, we each have a special symbol that represents a sign that we are getting a hug from the Universe.  

Mine is a rainbow, so when we see a rainbow in the sky, or on a t-shirt, or in a magazine, etc., we say, "Oh, look! I'm getting a hug!" 

 It's an awareness practice for my family to periodically be reminded that we are always loved.  It's a great little game and ALWAYS exciting when we see our different symbols in the forms we see them. 

Now, on to the good stuff... I went about my morning, and then had to leave the house a short time later for a meeting. I got into my car and, being a creature of habit, put on the Donovan Frankenreiter station on Pandora.  

It's one of my favorites. 

If you know anything about Pandora, when you listen to a station for any period of time, the songs repeat themselves and you hear many of the songs over time. 

But as I put the car in drive, the melody of a song came on that I did not recognize.  Mind you, this was the FIRST song I heard when I got into the car. 

I thought, Huh, that's a nice melody, but I don't recognize it.   

I looked at the screen on my car and guess what the name of the song was?!?!!? RAINBOW!

Holy, sh*t!  I thought, thanks, Gramps!   

But then the words started and I couldn't help but feel so peaceful because he not only chose a song named after my special symbol, but with a message that went much deeper:

Well, I woke up this morning, a rainbow filled the sky.

Yes, I woke up this morning, rainbow filled the sky.

That was God telling me, everything's gonna be alright.

Well, so long good friends, when will we meet again?

Said, so long good friends, when will we meet again?

Well, I don't know, I don't know, but I guess I'll see you then...

(here's a quick video of the artist, G Love singing it with Jack Johnson and Donovan Frankenreiter...)

There couldn't have been a better song to be blessed with.

I felt my grief lift, a big smile spread across my face and iTunes got my $1.29 because I purchased the song right away to remember this sacred moment forever.

Some will read this and think, "She's crazy....that's just a coincidence."

Is it?

We are allowed our own perceptions of what happens after death, but I believe that Gramps heard my request for a sign.

I believe his soul was giving me a hug with the rainbow, and telling me he was alright and he'd see me when it's my time to do my work as a soul.

What I realized as I drove was how awesome death can be when we choose to see it that way.

You see, physically living 3,000 miles away from Gramps made it hard for me to see him and speak to him.

But in death, he's closer to me than I could ever imagine.  He's right here with me as I write this post, he was there with me laughing as I realized his sign and yelled, "Thank you, Gramps!!!"

And, he'll be with me in times I need guidance or comfort and ask for his assistance.

It's my belief that souls are just as pivotal to our human existence as those who are alive and well.

They have abilities we don't have as humans and can deliver to us what we need that humans can't.  

Things like a sense of peace or love when we are in our darkest hours, or guidance on which way to turn if we are lost, or  simply someone to send us the perfect song at the perfect time.

When we ask for the assistance of those who have passed, and are open to how that assistance will come, we can "speak" to our loved ones long after their physical body dies.

I wanted to honor Gramps with my boys today.

So, after my experience, I knew what we'd do.

I picked my boys up from school, we painted six rocks, each with a color of the rainbow and wrote on

Our rainbow rocks marked with the
qualities of God that Gramps was in
his physical life and that he is
now as our soul angel.

them the qualities of God that Gramps embodied in his human life and now as our soulful angel:

Peace, Love, Joy, Beauty, Wisdom and Power.

It's a reminder of the infinite nature that is all of us in physical form and in our spirit form.

We took the rocks to the beach and mindfully and peacefully thought a happy thought and threw our rocks into the ocean.

I chose the ocean because it's the most infinite thing

Rainbow Rocks

I could think of in physical form....think of how many droplets make up our oceans, and that's about as close as I could get to infinite.

Knowing that Gramps is now infinite in his own power, we gave our honorary rocks to the infinite ocean in remembrance of Gramps.

If they are taken out to sea by the movement of the ocean, then they, too will live an infinite life like Gramps.

If they wash ashore for someone to find and receive a reminder of their own quality of God that they,

Each of us honored Gramps in our own way before
throwing our rocks. 

too, are imbued with, then Gramp's is still blessing someone with his presence in the rainbow rocks.

What started out as a sad day, turned into an amazing experience of what death is really all about.

It's about someone moving on to their next "assignment" from a soul level.  If today is any indication of Gramp's abilities as a soul on his first day of "work," then I think we are all blessed by his passing because he is teaching us what he can from where he is.

Gramps, you are SO loved, you will be missed, and I ask that you bless all your family with the blessing you gave to me today.  

You will always be a rainbow of joy in my mind.

Namaste.