Today and for all the days to come I am sending prayers of love and support and angels with eternal love and compassion on their wings.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for the survivors of this most devastating disaster.  Our hearts and our thoughts of love are with you.

From your brothers and sisters around the world -

Village-Earth

She also said something that I had heard a while back but life helped me put the thought and lessons that go with it on the back burner.  She said, “How you spend your days is how you spend your life”.  I told her about how my parents spent so much of their time just sitting and watching T.V. and not connecting to anyone around them.  I told her about how my father died and that no one came to his memorial service.  I mean NO ONE.  Then she said, “How you live is how you will die”.  He was a loner.  He isolated himself and my mother from the world.  After my father died, his remains were missing for a few days.  The family that lived in their town in Nevada didn’t even care enough to at least go look for his remains.  He had treated everyone in the family so badly for our entire lives that no one cared whether he lived or died.  No one cared about anything regarding him.  I do not want to die that way.

I started looking at how I spend my days.  Do I want to be spending them the same way in another year?  Or in 10 years?  What can I do today to ensure that I will be able to make positive steps in the direction of how I want to spend my days, my life and how I want to live and die?  I know that I have little control over how I will actually expire, but I want to know that when I finally make my exit that I am surrounded by people that I have deeply loved and lived my days and life with.  I want to know that I have really LIVED.  I want to know that I have really LOVED.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion – couch potatoes get moving!  Take your dog for a walk; talk to a total stranger while standing in line at the grocery store; join a book club; take a yoga class for a month; sit in your yard on the grass and breathe while you let the sunshine bless your face; do a walking meditation (more about that later); start connecting with actual human beings.  A few weeks ago I was on the local mass transit system to go in to the city and as I sat and looked around at the people sharing the train I noticed that AT LEAST 75% of the people were either talking on their phones, texting on their phones (or playing games), reading from their e-readers, or on their computers.  The train was dead silent.  No one was connecting or interacting.  Just a few years ago before smart phones became popular, people actually talked to each other on the train, planes, or in buses.  Now they are paying homage to their gadgets.  This needs to change.

By now you are probably aware that I really like to meditate.  One of the things that I love to do is to take an afternoon or evening and construct a vision map.  Some people call them vision boards.  One of my Feng Shui masters called them a vision seed map.  I know of one gal that even goes so far as to call them a vision quest, but that is a whole different thing in my book.  On my vision board I put pictures and statements of things and people that are important to my future.

I am looking at my current vision board right now and it is so uplifting to look at.  If I spend a little time contemplating what is on that board before I meditate, then I am letting my Higher Power and the universe know that I have goals and expectations and I trust that they will all come to fruition.

Maybe I should spend a little time talking about vision boards in the near future.  They are certainly powerful and well worth the time it takes to build one.

Everyone needs goals!

Namaste’

Brooke

This leads me to one of the oldest questions of humanity.  What happens to our conscience after we cease to exist on this plane?  If we are truly finished with existence when we draw our last breath, then what can explain the visits from those on the other side?  What are they trying to communicate to us?

In the case of my dad, he had Alzheimer’s.  What is happening to the conscience while experiencing Alzheimer’s or any other brain disorder or disease?  Lots of questions.  A friend of mine is currently writing a book about her experience with Alzheimer’s and her mother’s passing.  I read a book a few years ago by Neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor called “My Stroke of Insight”.  Great book!  She also has a video on YouTube. Here is a link to the video.  It is informative and concise.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUyyjU8fzEYU&sa=X&ei=R94YTJKoMYHYNdjuwesE&ved=0CCYQuAIwAw&usg=AFQjCNErMFTmsE0yP947IaoXGhlFF4eEzg

At the end of the book, she provides a list of things to do with people who have suffered a stroke.  One of the items on the list hit me like a ton of bricks.  It said simply, “I’m in here.  Come find me.”  Does the same apply to someone with Alzheimer’s/dementia?  Or even someone under anesthesia?  When someone is first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s they still experience a part of their day “on-line”.  How aware are they when they go “off-line”?  What happens to the conscience when it is preparing to go “off-line”?  How much suffering is happening with someone whose consciousness is slipping away and how does it feel?  It surely must be frightening.

Those are my thoughts and questions for this morning.  Be curious, be open to all possibilities and seek answers.

There are many varying views on death and dying – almost as many differing views as there are people on the planet.  Each of us may have been taught one school of thought by our parents, religious, or spiritual belief systems, but deep down inside, we could have suspected that other aspects need to be considered when death and dying are happening in our lives – either by us or by someone we know.

Growing up with my dad was torturous.  So I found it odd that when he died, I was the one who flew in to town take care of his remains when they had been misplaced for two days.  I was perplexed while sitting in the morticians (funeral director?) office discussing what to do with my fathers remains.

While I was in the morticians office the second time, I asked her if she was a spiritual person.  She replied “No, not really”.  I went on to tell her about some strange things that had happened to me in a short period of time after my fathers transition.

The first night after he was gone I had a strong feeling that my dad was in my bedroom with me.  I heard his voice.  With my eyes closed, I saw my father standing at the left corner of my bed by my feet.  He was tremulous and looked fearful.  His entire body was quivering.  He appeared to be afraid to look me in the eye.  Then he asked me, “Can you forgive me?”  Yes, I said.  Without hesitation.  I found it easy and simple to forgive this man who was a monster in life.  It is possible to forgive after death.  And forgiving is not about the person you are forgiving, it is about you.  You forgive so that you can heal and move forward with your life.  My dad taught me that in his death.

Two days later, I was in the parking lot of the hospital where my mother was.  Just prior to my dad’s crossing over my mother fell and fractured her right hip.  She had just had surgery.  I was pulling out of a parking space when I heard my dad’s voice again.  In my right ear I heard, “This is so cool!”.  This type of lingo was uncharacteristic for my father.  In life he was staunch, stiff, unwelcoming, cold, and cruel.  For him to use the word “cool” was as far-fetched as seeing him on a merry-go-round and laughing with joy.

The next visitation came two days later as I was standing at the kitchen sink doing the after-dinner dishes.  A voice whispered over my left shoulder and in my left ear, “Thank you”.  I looked up to see if his reflection was in the kitchen window.  It was not.  But I felt his breath.

Back to the mortician.  She looked me square in the eye and said that she has heard many, many stories similar to this over the years.  I feel that life-circumstances may or may not have any bearing on the visitations that we may receive.  I have to say that I found it odd that my father would come to visit me.  I also find it odd that I am still getting gentle nudges of awareness of his presence even today.  Why?  I don’t know.  I have some suspicions, though.