In full blown life mode today. Honoring the whirl of the world. Births, deaths, celebrations, chaos, pain and pleasure. Between them we dance. Creative ideas swirling about; brain too cluttered at the moment to make sense of them. Taking time to work through thoughts and feelings rather than react to them. Being with. In full blown healing mode at the moment. Letting the energy clear and cleanse away blocks that have hardened. Emotional Roto Rooter. Time with dear friends last night was healing. Treasuring heart connections. Never do I take them for granted.

This was the mind chatter, pitter patter happening on stage this morning. I woke up to discover that someone I know lost the love of her life yesterday. I can only imagine her pain, since it took so long for them to meet and they danced together ever so briefly. Tears fell for her and for all those saying goodbye to Beloveds in whatever form.

I attended services at Pebble Hill Church where my long time friend Cindy Greb was speaking about the subjects of death, dying and the afterlife. She is a minister, writer, artist, photographer, speaker and intrepid traveler who operates on faith that all will work out, no matter the appearance of circumstances. She grew up in Bucks County, PA which is a suburb of Philadelphia and moved out West for grad school and most recently to Crestone, Colorado where she took care of elders who died. She had also been a hospice chaplain which had her confronting death on a daily basis. Even that couldn’t have prepared her for the deaths of her parents and 19 year old niece in a brief period of time. The emotional trapeze swings quite differently when it is someone close to you. She shared about the experience of being with both her mother and father as she helped to midwife them to the birth into their deaths.

She found comfort in knowing via friends who have the ability to speak with those who have passed, that they are where they need to be, they are at peace and that it was their time to move forward. Cindy told a story about a distinct message from her father who had died three weeks prior to her attending a retreat. She had brought a set of wind chimes with her since they were meant to call in loved ones and hung them in the tent in which she slept. She had drifted off after an emotional day in which she had received information from another retreat attendee who called himself a psychopomp whose job it is to guide souls to the Other Side if they are Earth-bound. He told her that her dad had was still around because he was worried about her.

Cindy fell asleep and was awakened by the sound of two footsteps. She had been told years earlier that they were an indication of the presence of a spirit returning to visit. What followed was confirmation for her that her father was indeed there and well and ready to take his leave.  A wind kicked up and the chimes rang for a full hour which she knew because she looked at her cell phone for confirmation. She sensed that he was flying away with them as well.

It reminded me of the story of my husband who died in 1998 and a clear and certain message from him. A few years after his passing, around my birthday, I had asked for a greeting from him. Two days later, my  teenage son and I were in our side yard, standing with a neighbor who is a landscaper. I had asked for a bid on removing some dead evergreen trees. As he perused one of them, he looked puzzled and reached up to a top branch where he pulled out an L.L. Bean sports watch that I had given to Michael for a birthday present years earlier. I asked Adam if he had put it there. He shook his, looking as bewildered as I was. The tree was more than 6 feet tall, which was my husband’s height. He had not mowed the lawn anywhere near the tree for years, since becoming chronically ill with Hepatitis C. That had been my job and I would have noticed the watch had it been there before. A few things that I noticed: it wasn’t rusted or waterlogged and the watch had stopped with the time displayed was he same one on the clock in his hospital room when life support was discontinued.

Cindy also suggested that loved ones of other friends or family members come through someone else with messages since the bereaved person may not be emotionally available to the one who wants to hear the feedback. I have had experiences in which the deceased brother of a friend had come to me in dreams and asked me to let my friend know. This most recent time, a mailbox, a bunch of bananas and marbles appeared. I asked what THAT was about and the brother’s voice came through clear as a bell and said, “Tell him that he need not go bananas or lose his marbles over the things happening in his life.” It resonated with my friend as he expressed the sense that this would have been typical of his brother whose death was unexpected.

As I recognize the certainty of death and the fragility of life, I am myself, wandering between the worlds. For now, my feet are rooted on this side of the veil.