What Does God Really Give Us?

Detail of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
Location: The Sistine Chapel 

When I ask someone what they perceive are five of the greatest gifts from God/Creator that they've ever received, many say, "my children," or "my soulmate," "my dream job," or "my beautiful home," or any number of things or people in their lives that they perceive as valuable and precious. Makes for some really beautiful conversation, but helps if you agree that whatever "terminology" you use for "the god of your understanding" doesn't have to be the same. These are certainly gifts and blessings, but let's also consider for a moment some of the gifts we arrive with when we come into life on this planet. 

When I think about Creator's gifts to us, I like to have fun imagining that God/Creator is sitting there, realizing that it feels lonely, and Creator has just made a lovely planet upon which the people it makes can experience life, and Creator is pondering some of the checks and balances it needs to build in so that the people will not be bored, and so that they will be supremely protected. After all, if they are essentially immortal, like Creator, they must have a vast repertoire to choose from to amuse themselves. Creator thinks to Itself, These gifts must not be containable or measurable, they must reflect the beautiful flow of life. 

So these gifts that I perceive that originate from Creator to each of us are: Immortality, Imagination, Intuition, Creativity, Freedom, Choice, Emotion, Intention, Rhythm, Breath, Guidance, Birth, Death, and Giving. Notice that with each of these Gifts, and the list is by no means all encompassing, humanity has attempted to control and/or own or usurp each one, but it is essentially impossible. We can choose to experience each one, no matter the circumstances of our lives. I learned the most about this when I watched some very moving YouTube videos of interviews with people who survived the holocaust, and how they used their gifts even while imprisoned, experiencing, and surrounded by horrors of the worst kind. When I ponder on these gifts I am amazed at the vastness of them, and how they can inspire us and fill us with Creator's love, no matter what is going on. 

Let's look at them one at a time. 

 Immortality 

When we learn how to use the feminine principal of listening/receiving, we discover that we can connect with a host of loving guides and teachers who do not currently reside on Earth in physical form. We discover that we can connect with our Source, which is even larger and more loving and healing than these higher vibrational resources. We discover that, like a drop in the ocean we are individuals, but like waves in the ocean, we can join with others, and like the ocean itself, we can just "be" a part of the whole. This is cool beans. 

 Imagination 

Can we collect imagination in our hands and put it in a jar and screw the lid on? Nope. It's absolutely uncontainable. We can't sell it, buy it, or entrap it, removing it from its inherent owner. Wow. This is a gift of huge proportions. Immeasurable. Vast. It comes straight from Heaven. 

Notice how we have been taught by humans who are selfish that imagination is bad, silly, not worth anything. Then look at some of our greatest heroes and master human beings, and you will realize that without their imaginations we would be living in a very different world. We have light and warmth and heat and beauty, and we also have a lot of bad and scary things too. We'll talk about those in a minute. But the power of the imagination is a truly Divine gift that we should never allow others to try to control or usurp. It belongs to each of us. It is interesting to note that the use of imagination upon our bodies can be of tremendous help in healing many diseases. I'm reminded of Henry Ford's well-known saying: "Whether you think you can or you think you can't - you're right."

Note that the opposite of imagination in today's world is worry. We've been taught to muddy up our beautiful imaginations with worry so that many of us feel pretty crippled. Let it loose. You don't have to ask anyone's permission. Just play with it. The bad and scary things that people have created with their imaginations are by-passable. Just choose to bypass them. Turn off the news and instead, seek what information you want to on your own, at your own pace, and in your own time rather than being spoon-fed every single day, even more than once per day. I like to be informed, but if I cannot do anything about what is happening, I keep that as a small part of the way I spend my time. And I usually like to mute the commercials if there's something I really want to see on regular television. Does anyone watch that anymore? 

We can choose wisely what we allow into our minds and hearts.We can be aware of the control we have over most of what is coming into our sphere of awareness. We can use our powers to control our environment to a large extent. It's so easy! We can recognize the B. S. for what it is and choose accordingly. Are we really so bored that we need garbage to entertain ourselves with? Do we really want to spend time with others who only know to circle and circle around the drain? Choosing wisely helps us to empower ourselves, often in far greater ways than we'd ever dared to dream of. 

 Intuition 

Can we capture intuition in our hands and put it into a jar and screw on the lid? Nope. Can we buy it or sell it, removing it from its original owner? Nope. It belongs to each of us. We have mechanisms within our bodies with which we can receive guidance, in various different forms. We just need to learn how to use them. Intuition belongs to each of us and is one of our inherent Celestial gifts. It is that still, small, loving, gentle voice within that tells us "Yes, do more of that," or "No, that's not such a good idea." 

And when we go against our intuition, how many times do we find that we could have avoided some hassles if we had just listened? If we wish to learn gently, without experiencing trauma and headaches and hassles, it helps us to learn to work with our intuition. It's easy. It's free, though we can find those who will help us learn if we prefer to purchase the time of some Earthling who has already discovered the blessings of this Celestial gift. Heck, it's fun. And sometimes it can be life-saving. 

While we're on the subject of intuition, it's a good time to talk about "the Clairs." These are the senses that we can use related to intuition, and they include clairvoyance (clear seeing), clairaudience (clear hearing), clairsentience (clear feeling), claircognizance (clear knowing), and there are a couple more, such as clairaliance (clear smelling), and clairgustance (clear tasting). All of us may find ourselves experiencing any of the Clairs at one time or another, whether intentionally, as in meditation, or at any time when we feel relaxed and our systems are open to receiving guidance or visitation from the otherworlds. 

For example, when I sit down with my special journal to write with my daughter who lives in the Celestial world, the two Clairs I find myself using the most are clairaudience (I hear the thoughts she downloads to me), and claircognizance (what I perceive is coming from a knowing from deep inside of myself). Quite often I can feel her touching my hair, which tingles in an unusual way, (clairsentience), and many times I can smell her fragrance (clairaliance).

There are many ways in which we can practice with our "clair" skills, and most of us will find that one or two of them come more naturally than others. I didn't have to "teach" myself to use these skills when writing with my daughter, they just happened quite naturally. I would hazard a guess it's because of all the years spent drawing and painting, as that process is very close to the processes using the clairs, since they involve receiving, or what we could call inspiration. 

 Creativity 

Right, we can't pick up creativity in our hands and put it in a jar and screw the lid on. You're catching on. Creativity is vast and immeasurable. It belongs to each of us as individuals. We first need to learn to define it such that we are not limiting it to "I can draw," or "I can't draw." Creativity makes its appearance in a million activities we participate in, you name it—knitting, sewing, cooking, writing, performing, singing, dancing, building, and on and on without limit. Wow, what a gift! 

Do we allow ourselves time in our lives to use this Celestial gift? Some of us are bound to jobs in which we are told what to do, or our jobs are very repetitive so that we can hardly find ways in which to use our creativity during work hours. But we can often find ways to build it in such that we make these jobs "ours," and we can use it after hours all we want. It's fun! 

 Freedom 

You know, unless we are chained to a wall, or have special physical needs which may be somewhat limiting, this gift belongs to each of us and all we have to do is give ourselves permission to use it. Once we're of a certain age, and sometimes way before that, and sometimes way late into our golden years, we realize that we do have right inside of us the right to make our own decisions. That is freedom. 

No human being has the right to make us believe that we cannot or should not choose what we wish to do, how we wish to be, who we wish to be, what we wish to experience. We are, most of us, essentially free, but many of us do not give ourselves permission to exercise this right. We stay stuck in situations that don't make our hearts sing because we are afraid, we don't believe in our capabilities, or we are too young yet to be able to step out. 

When I think about freedom it means exploring things I want to explore, going places I want to go, doing things I want to do, without feeling like I'm "under anyone's thumb." I've been there and seen the end of that "under the thumb" movie. Rewrote my story. So glad. If we feel that our heart is not singing, we can give ourselves permission to step out and rewrite our story. We can do it one step at a time if it feels scary, we're worth it. 

 Choice 

Yep, this is a BIG one. Freedom and Choice are sister gifts. How we choose to apply choice in our lives can affect our own sense of freedom and also that of others. Choice is also a big one in that it applies to so very many things. We can choose how we feel. We can choose what we do. How we spend our time. Who we cultivate as a friend, who we stay away from. We can choose to live or die. Choice is a huge power. Let us use it wisely. Let us choose things that make our hearts sing. Let us choose love. 

The nice thing is that when we choose unwisely, we soon feel the consequences, so that guidance is built right in. And we can choose to listen and adjust our activities, thoughts, and behavior, or we can dig our heels in and choose just as we always have. If we continue to choose just as we always have, we will experience pretty similar results. When we choose differently, we experience different results. It can be loads of fun. Or a real ball and chain. Either way, this gift is truly vast and powerful. 

Emotion 

Yes, I think of emotion as a Celestial gift. Research shows that we retain the ability to feel emotion after we die. It also shows that we tend to experience much more positive emotions when we graduate to the world of Unity, where duality does not exist, and here on Earth this is one of our greatest guides on what to continue and what to release. My daughter calls it "following the happies." 

If something is causing distress, unease, fear, this gift of emotion guides us to remove ourselves from that if at all possible, or work to transmute it. If something is causing us to feel inspired, fulfilled, happy, full of joy, this Celestial gift of emotion is telling us to do more of that. I'm not talking about substance abuse, because we know that when we're in that loop, it owns us, we don't own our experience of it, and that causes distress along with false happies. Still, it is our choice of whether we will pursue more of it or release it. No worries. After all, we are immortal.... 

Intention 

Intention is a sister gift to choice. It is also related to our participation in listening and our participation in acting. When we feel an urging in our soul to do something we can have all the intention in the world and if we don't act upon it, guess what? Nothing is going to happen. On the other hand we can go about doing all kinds of things all the time, but if we have no intention behind our actions, our results are not going to be predictable, and they're most likely not going to be what we wanted or expected. 

When we learn how to consciously set our intentions and then act upon them we create a formula for bringing our dreams into reality. Intention is a very powerful gift. It's worthy of note that when our intention is negative, it will most likely come around to kick us in the butt, so it's a good idea to keep our intentions positive and for the good of the whole. 

Rhythm 

Rhythm is what we use to bypass the logical mind. Rhythm puts us into the flow. Rhythm is often associated with music and dance, but we also have rhythm in the cycles of the seasons, the flow of ocean to shore, our breath, our movement when walking or horseback riding, and so very much around us. We can feel rhythm in performing a sport such as archery, gymnastics, running, or any number of activities. Rhythm is movement. Rhythm is one of the powerful qualities of the universe that can create life when we join our bodies as male and female. It also relieves stress when we move our bodies; they like it! 

Rhythm is very healing when used with love as its foundation. Here on Earth, we can have rhythm that is soft enough to soothe a babe to sleep or hard enough to kill. Rhythm is a powerful Celestial gift. 

Breath 

Breath and rhythm are sister gifts. When we breathe the air in, we are bringing the flow of the universe into our bodies, and when we exhale we can use our imaginations to clear out anything negative within our systems, or we can use that out breath to send love out into the world. With breath, we can control many of our physical systems; we can learn to soothe our fears with long, slow, deep breaths, or we can push through demanding activity such as climbing our favorite mountain by breathing fast and hard. We can sing through the control of the breath. And we can whisper. We can communicate with others through the control of our breath and how we push it up our throats and around our tongues. With this rhythm of the breath, and using it as language, we can make people cry, and we can make them laugh. 

Note that breath is one of the most easily controllable gifts when others wish to overwhelm us or put our physical systems into distress. Let's choose to be friends and work with our words and sister gifts to keep the peace.

Guidance 

Guidance is a Celestial gift. We are never alone. We can listen. We can choose who to listen to, what to listen to. Wow. There's some power there. We can listen to our inner guidance, or we can seek outer guidance, from other people, nature, books, and any number of resources, some of which are just excellent, and very loving. 

Though we are experiencing what it is to be an individual here on Earth, we are essentially coming from the Whole, and it is inherent in our nature to belong. So we feel a sense of belonging in joining with others. It is one of the reasons we seek guidance—so we have a sense of community and we feel we are bypassing that feeling of separation, of being alone, which is just an illusion. It helps us to seek guidance from the very highest and most loving resources, whether here on Earth or from the otherworlds. 

 Sleep 

Are we left to live out our Earth adventures all by ourselves, alone, and without love, guidance, and rejuvenation since we feel such a sense of separation? Nope. We have a built-in mechanism that brings us back to our Home whenever we put our bodies to rest and go to sleep. We are not gone when we sleep, we are traveling between worlds. 

We can do many things while we sleep. We can go and visit our beloveds that are currently alive on this planet. We can go and help others who may be crossing over into the otherworlds. We can gather with our higher teachers, guides, and angels for learning and healing, and we can visit with our beloveds who have crossed over into the otherworlds. Isn't it curious that every creature who lives and breathes, also sleeps? 

We are not, at this point, very consciously aware of what sleep really is. And we don't know how to use it. And that's the inherent power in it. It's our connection Home, built in so that even if we don't consciously learn how to connect to our Divine resources it happens every night whether we know it or not. We are never alone. We are most beloved. Sleep is good, very very good. 

It's helpful to make sure that our sleeptime is not invaded by too much media, and to give ourselves a chance to really enjoy it. There is a host of beautiful music we can listen to as we go to sleep, and there are thousands of excellent meditations we can listen to as we go to sleep. We don't have to alarm ourselves with the news. Try turning it off way before bedtime, and stepping into the beautiful worlds of love. I've noticed a huge difference in how I feel in the morning when I wake up since I started listening to sleep meditations when I go to bed. 

Dreaming 

Sister gift to sleep is dreaming. And our dreams are very powerful. Dreams are like a "language" that our teachers and guides and higher sources use to communicate with us. Some of our dreams can warn us of upcoming danger. Some can teach us and guide us about choices that would be good for us to make. Some can help us process the events of our days. Some can guide us on our larger life purpose (recurring dreams are often messages about our life purposes). Very few dreams are completely without value. Nightmares are often quite the opposite of what they seem upon waking. We can even have contact with our beloveds who have crossed over in our dreams. 

A great deal of research is starting to take place on various kinds of dreams. It only takes a few minutes to write down the highlights of our dreams and we can look them up later, when we have time. My favorite resource for dream analysis is very simple - Betty Bethard's The Dream Book: Symbols for Self Understanding. If we keep a dream notebook by our bed, and follow up on the simple analysis, we will begin to see patterns and learn to understand this language that we have access to. It's fascinating to watch how our dreams change with our growth and activities as the years progress. 

In the Native American culture, which is steeped in very strong spiritual connections, grandparents could often "dream" of the child to come and they would make clothing for these children who weren't even born yet, and after the child grew, as an adult, they would be given the clothing and it would fit perfectly, because of the dreams of their loving grandparents. I find that just fascinating!

Birth 

OMG we have birth and what a lovely, special event that is! A baby is one of the most vulnerable, beautiful, innocent beings we ever encounter, and for most of us, our hearts go right out to them in protection and love. They are so close to Heaven there is nearly not a one of us who doesn't have their heart captured by the beauty and perfection of a baby fresh from Heaven. And I don't mean physical perfection either, you know me better than that by now. They are one and all, absolutely perfect. 

When I see a baby, my first thought is that they have come here for an adventure, and an adventure they will get. How brave they are. My heart goes out to them and I decide that if I have any relationship with them as they grow I will try to share with them all the love that I know, and all the beauty, and the fun, and the wonder and magnificence that life can be. 

How lovely are our babies, whether they are in human form or four-legged, winged, swimmers, or tiny creatures that live out in nature. It is always amazing to me to see the relationship between mothers and their babies, in all forms upon this planet. 

Death 

Well thank goodness we have death. We know that if we didn't have this magnificent balance in Creator's plan, we would have no children, no babies, endless ownership and control, and no rhythm in the cycles of power upon this beautiful planet. There is something inherently right and good about death. It scares us silly because we witness the decline of the body like a flower withering, and we are so in love with the spirit of that body that we have trouble acclimating to its metamorphosis. 

But morph it does, and I'm glad of that. We've learned that there is no separation after that metamorphosis. We are all connected at all times. We just need to learn how to access that connection. 

So when we look at all these inherent Celestial gifts from our Creator that are vast and uncontainable, we realize that we can carry them around with us and use them in most circumstances, as big spirit people have throughout the centuries, even in the most horrendous conditions, such as war, and the concentration camps. 

I write about them here to remind us all that we don't come to this planet unloved. These gifts are how much we are loved. All we need to do is learn to be aware of them and use them. 

"Happy birthday. You are beloved. And these I gift to you..." Creator said....

We are well equipped to handle way more than we've been taught so far. Learning consciously to use these gifts ourselves is immensely empowering to us as individuals, and even better when we join together, in love and light, for the benefit of all. 

It is worth mentioning here that there are human beings on this planet who we might define as "evil," and these are the ones who cause harm and destruction, restriction and suppression of one or more of our Celestial gifts. They may do this on a relatively small, personal level, and some of them have done, and are doing this on much larger scales. 

What my daughter taught me about this is that these are the people who are so densely integrated into the Masculine energy (physical action/output) that they've completely forgotten how to listen and receive higher guidance using the Feminine energy (receiving input). They've forgotten that they are a part of the Whole, the One, and they've fallen completely under the veil of separation. They live their lives based on fear and control instead of love. When this happens, it's like a part of their operational system is shut down, and so they function with only half of themselves, causing havoc and chaos wherever they go. 

The thing that gives me the most comfort in thinking about these kinds of individuals is that they cannot ever hurt us permanently, and in fact, if they cause us suffering, we still have our Celestial gifts, and when we use them to get through difficult circumstances, we can survive and recover from far more than we might think. 

My daughter explains to me that when we apply love to any difficult situation we encounter, it brings about healing. If we suffer death at the hands of these types of beings, they have only given us the greatest gift. They've helped us on our way Home. 

And our experience of Home will be quite different from theirs, in that they will be the judges of themselves once they cross over, and when they step back into the wholeness of their beauty and magnificence, upon their life review, they find themselves experiencing all of the emotions that they caused in others in minute detail, because there is no disappearance of the Self and what it has caused or created. This knowledge helps them to set up future lives in which their purpose is to help others, heal others, and experience the loving side of their inherent natures as spiritual beings so that they can restore balance and heal on very deep levels. 

Many of our religions describe this state that harmful individuals experience as "hell," but it is not an "outside place," it is an internal state that each individual creates by and for itself. This is the magic of the ONE. 

Giving 

One of the most beautiful and pleasure inducing gifts we are born with is the inherent ability to give. The most precious gift we can give is the gift of ourselves, our time, our attention, our love. Love is the one thing that most human beings yearn for over and above all else. 

Unfortunately, in today's world, many of us have forgotten what love really is, and we seek to complete ourselves through partnership with other human beings where the connection isn't really love, but infatuation or a "tradeoff," or the mistaken sense that they have what we need to become whole. It's not until we are whole in ourselves, when we learn to love ourselves, that we can really experience what it is to feel true love, because it is a giving thing, not a taking thing, and we cannot give it until we are it. 

We don't have to be perfect to experience love, but it helps if we're on the pathway to growing into our potential according to the urging of our souls so that when we encounter another we are meeting them on an honest level, a level in which our vibration is as high as we can make it through the love that we experience in the moments we create. Then when we come together there is a melding and joining that feels fulfilling, and it has the power to affect many others in positive ways, who are within our sphere of influence.

Namaste
~Jen

Yanking Them Down From Heaven By Their Ankles

Arms wide open xo

So part of the work that I do now, which I consider community service, is check in with several different "grief groups" on Facebook to see if I can be of help to anyone in distress. I feel strongly that when we learn something, and become sort of good at it (not perfect, we all have our "bad" days), it is our responsibility to turn back and reach a hand out to others who may be struggling with that very thing.

So as I was perusing the posts the other night, which is hard, sometimes I don't even know what to say, but I take a deep breath and try to help where I perceive I might be able to, I came upon a whole conversation thread from parents who have buried their children, and these parents are besieged by nightmares, they can't sleep, they are filled with anguish thinking of their children in the ground, out in the weather, cold, and lonely.

And in that thread other parents were expressing how their minds constantly go back into the trauma of the decline of their beautiful beloveds' bodies, either from sickness, or accident, or they can't get the cremation out of their minds, and it is soooooo traumatic for them. These are the people who go to work and paste on a smile, and when they go home in the evenings they find themselves in a world that they no longer want to belong to. I understand this after the passing of my beautiful daughter when she was 26. 

So I posted. I just wrote straight from the heart as true and honest as I could, and the response has been overwhelming. It made me cry the next day, to read so many replies that said, "Thank you, I so needed to hear this today." And "I knew this but I so needed the reminder." I want very much for people not to get stuck in the trauma of death, because I feel very strongly that that is not what life is meant for. It is meant for ALL of us to discover our joys, to feel and express our passions, and to KNOW that at these deep levels, all is well.

So this is what I wrote:

Y'all are breaking my heart with the flashbacks and thoughts of your beloveds in the cold ground. My daughter died when she was 26, after being ill for a year and a half with untreated Lyme disease. Neuro disorders and liver failure finally ended it. It took me two years, but l sincerely want to share that I have found that she is well and happy in her new world and we do still have an amazing connection. 

Two of my beloved friends gave me a journal, in a basket filled with really thoughtful things, and I didn't know what to do with it for several months after my daughter's passing. One day I was missing her too much and it hurt a lot so I wrote her a letter in that journal. I wrote like that a few times over a period of a few weeks, and then one night the thought came into my head - what if she wrote back? 

So I just sat quietly and listened. And I started writing what came into my head and heart. I didn't question it or stop to think about it while I "heard" what I was writing. And after I finished I read it over and realized it was a very loving letter from her. We've been writing every few weeks/months for over four years. She died in 2015, but she is still very much alive and well in spiritual form. 

For those stuck in thinking your beloved child is cold in the ground, they are not. That is just the "earth tool" that they shed when they went back Home from where we all come from. For those who are stuck in the trauma of the decline of that "tool," know that your beloved, the true essence of your beloved, is very much alive and well, and trying so hard to connect with you to let you know they're fine, and they love you and they're not suffering or in any kind of pain. They're surrounded with love in this gorgeous world of Unity from which we come to have adventures on Earth. 

Unfortunately, we aren't taught much about the cycles of life, but so much research, true research has been done in the past 50-60 years, not only about near death experiences, but also about past life experiences and all of our tribal cultures and two-thirds of the world's cultures know that we cycle through many lives, together. We are eternal beings, made of the essence of the Whole, our Creator, God, whatever you want to call it, and knowing this, knowing that whenever our beloveds die, they haven't missed a single darned thing and they have already experienced all the milestones we care to count (graduation, marriage, children, etc.) and they will experience these things again, with us, as we choose where there's love, to have Earth experiences together again and again; we must set our hearts to rest and honor their leaving and know that nothing at all has gone undone, nothing at all is missed in their experience. It is perfect and their lives are whole and complete and we can honor that and celebrate the beauties as well as the challenges they experienced as we would wish others to celebrate ours. 

We do not need to ever let go of them, because what we experienced together is, was, and always will be, but we need to step into our spiritual selves to come to understanding and honor about their leaving. Live. With all of yourselves. They did, they still are, they will do that here again, they will do that here with us again. All is well. In love and light I had to write this. I cried for 450 days, so I know your pain. But then I was given this gift, and I believe we all can reconnect with our beloveds. We need to stop yanking them down from their Heaven by their ankles through our misplaced focus on what we perceive as pain. It is not our right and it is not in alignment with what is good and natural. The last thing they want us to experience as a result of their "death" is pain.

And then I said:

What my daughter taught me (in her Celestial letters) about the trauma was that her transition was but a split second, like going through a doorway into another room, and all the rest of her experience, even in sickness and decline, was her life, and after that split second, it is now again her life but on a higher level, she is her whole self, and she does not want me constantly going into the trauma of reliving what pain I perceived around her death. 

She was not alone, she had people caring for her here on Earth and spirits and guides and those who passed from our family line before she did, loving her during and after her transition. None of our "Earth rules" apply. It is all love in the realm where she is now. And I can understand that because when I think about it logically, I know that if there's no death in the world where she is now, spirit is eternal, there can be no threat at all, and if there's no ownership, there's nothing to fight over, so it's eternally peaceful, even though there are a zillion things she is exploring, learning, experiencing, discovering, so she says it is exciting. It is truly a gorgeous place to be.

And then I wrote: 

So for me I have learned to honor her death, but I have learned to honor and celebrate her life even more, and I say "Good job, my beloved Jess, good job." She has graduated, as we all will. And it is good. As some of you know, we get a cupcake on the day of her Celestial Birthday - the day she died, and we light a candle and we wish her many happy journeys until we get to journey together again. I think she likes this. We feel her near, she sends her love and peace to me and it envelopes me so that I feel full of love and so much peace.

Just food for thought for anyone who might be struggling. The only way to step beyond those terrible, anguishing images of our children or other beloveds being cremated, buried in the ground, or going through physical decline is to understand that this was not their LIFE. And they want us to know that every second of experience, learning, growth, courage, love, and all the emotions and adventures they went through before their exit, is what is most important. They lived and they continue to live. But now they are not limited by the physical. 

So step into your own journeys and know that they are with you, loving you, and you must not abdicate your life in the erroneous perception that their death is where the focus should be. Re-member them and live fully, with all your heart and soul, because we are all beloved and all is well.

The companion book to Coming Alive After Death, Recovery from Grief, published in 2021, is called Letters From Celestial Jess, Afterlife Messages from My Daughter and it is a compilation of all of our letters over the past four years, in which she shares her Heaven, which is just stunningly beautiful, her wisdom, which is huge, and so very much encouragement and love, not just for me but for us all. It is scheduled to publish early 2022 xo

And I would like to add that many of us who've experienced the death of a beloved turn to books to try to understand what has happened, and out of all the books I've read, Bob Olson's Answers About the Afterlife is the very best, along with Journey of Souls by Michael Newton. One of the best books about healing here in the physical world is Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani. They write about things we can test for ourselves. And there is so much love awaiting those who are brave enough to do so.

Wishing you many happy journeys, here.

Namaste

Memorial to Hawk

Beautiful hawk sitting on our little tree outside.

The other day I had the most exciting experience. I was walking through the kitchen in the late afternoon, and what did I see out the window, but a glorious hawk sitting right at the top of our little weeping snow mountain cherry tree. It was so close I could almost touch it. So I ran for my camera and took a couple of pictures before he flew away. WOW, so exciting. I just love hawks.

Then, two days later, I was walking around the yard in the nice squishy mud with the pups, enjoying the patches of melting snow and the unusually warm temps, after that wicked, freezing cold snap. And as I walked under the towering blue spruce tree I saw, amidst the pachysandra, that hawk. Quite dead.

"Oh no." I said. The pups were very respectful and stayed a few feet away. 

I went into the garage and put on a pair of Rob's leather gardening gloves (because mine had icky spider sacks in-between the fingers) and grabbed a large piece of black plastic. Trudged back to where the hawk had fallen and picked him up. Then sat on the porch for about 40 minutes looking at him. God he was just gorgeous.

The sun was shining the way it does in the late afternoon if it's out, slanting rays across the backyard, and I had the hawk laying in front of me on the ottoman on the back porch. I spread his wing out and the sun shone through his feathers lighting them up the way it did when he was flying in the sky. I examined the enchanting markings on his chest and under his wings, some were heart-shaped, and some diamond-shaped, dark, rich brown against soft, snowy white.

I looked at his strong claws, about 3/4 of an inch long and curved, and his pretty yellow feet. And I felt just crushed that he had died. There was not a mark on him. No wounds. His body was soft, and his head flopped back so I had to cradle it when I picked him up.

I waited as the sun set for my husband to come home. He was just as upset as I was when he saw the beautiful bird.

I called a Native American friend we have here to see if he knew someone Native who would want the bird for sacred ceremony, but due to some medical issues he said he couldn't come and get the bird at this time. The closest person he knew, who could take it (legally), lived three hours away, so we weren't able to share the sacred bird with the People.

We went to where we used to have our garden out back and dug a hole three feet deep. Then collected four boughs from the yew bush and a dried hydrangea flower. I went into my studio and got some sage and loose tobacco, which I keep on hand for ceremony. And we laid the beautiful bird on the soft bed of branches and placed the dried hydrangea flower in with him. I sprinkled the sage and tobacco over him, and lifted one handful of earth to sprinkle in as well. Then Rob covered him with a blanket of soil. Back to the Earth. 

Thank you beautiful hawk for coming to me. Thank you for letting me look at you. 

I cried and cried. Wow I wasn't expecting all that pain of death to wash over me yet again. Rob gave me a long, tight hug.

Then I pictured Jess up in her Heaven with the hawk on her shoulder. 

And it was all right.

Peace.