Gazing in the Mirror

March 31 - Spirit Rising out of the Body

If you would indeed behold
the spirit of death, open your
heart wide unto the body of
life. For life and death are
one, even as the river and the
sea are one.
~ Kahlil Gibran

Wake up! Your word is all
powerful. Your consciousness
is one with Omnipotence.
Your thought is infinite.
Your destiny is eternal
and your home is everlasting
heaven.
~ Ernest Holmes

It is Eastertime and themes of birth and death in the body and in nature are everywhere present. The Spirit is embedded into a physical form – that for humans is this familiar body shape of ours and eventually the Spirit passes out of the body and is freed into whatever infinite nothingness/everythingness/the Unborn realm/non-physical reality is that overlaid dimensional aspect of physical space beyond form. I experienced this rather clearly when my Father-in-Law left behind earthly life one glorious Sunday in Autumn. I felt in my awareness his Spirit soaring and everywhere present simultaneously and he was one in my thought with a Red Cardinal perched in a bush as the preparations of his body to be moved from the log cabin he shared with my Mother-in-Law were occurring.

It was as joyful as the Eastertime hymn that is playing over and over in my mind this morning. "Jesus Christ is Risen Today !! Hallelujah !! Our Triumphant Holy Day !! Hallelujah !!" Why does this Easter morning memory embedded in me in the Episcopal church of my childhood still resonate in mind ? It is the overcoming of death and we die a million little deaths throughout our lives and rise once more in a different form. We die to childhood and become young adults, we die to youth and age, we die to civilian life and become soldiers, we die to a marriage or a career and something else comes along and takes us further on our journey through life but with a different interim destination going forward than we might have been headed towards before.

My Father-in-Law's individualized awareness as a person of space and in time seemed to me to hold energetically together for a little while. I could sense him remaining in the cabin for about a week, as though he knew not where to go next, as though he remained attached to what had been there for him before. He was consciously aware that he would leave us for about 2 weeks before his actual death. He vacillated between being ready to go, tired of the burdens of his declining body, and wanting to stay and not leave the presence of his family because he feared he would "miss" us. I tried to help him with that attachment by reminding him of all the family members of his childhood that had already gone before him. I told him they were just waiting to throw him a big reunion party when he arrived on the other side – his parents and grandparents, his sister and 5 of his 6 brothers – his twin brother was the last of that line to die.

At some point after my Father-in-Law's passing thoughts of his grandfather (after whom my oldest son is named) became very intense when I was at the cabin. My 6 yr old son was mentioning this ancestor by name even though we had only visited his grave in another state once. This ancestor was a rare topic of discussion in our home. Mentally, I sent a message to my Father-in-Law's soul (we had become close when speaking out loud to him became almost impossible while he yet lived but speaking with him in my mind seemed possible) – "Your grandfather is here for you". Sometime later I discovered that this ancestor seems to have been only "passing through" our temporary dimensional portal following my Father in Law's physical transition. I coincidentally learned about a little boy who was born to a family geographically nearby. They had been expecting a girl child and although this ancestor's name (my oldest son's name) is not common that is the very name they decided to give their "surprise" – a male child born to them instead.

I will readily admit that I do believe in a cycle of lives. This concept seems very much like the cycle of seasons in nature to me. Whether my understanding is at all accurate of course remains to be proven, or not. Many people believe that Jesus Christ actually rose up from death, came out of a grave, visited his disciples and then left physical incarnation permanently. From my own experience I can even understand the development of that story. I am not inclined throw away the gift of Life I've been given and this conscious awareness embedded in a physical human form. For all I am truly able to know now – this may indeed be all there is. Eternity is always a now state. The concept of eternity is not something to waste this wonderful life pining after.

Personally, I am grateful to know I'll not to be trapped in a tomb of my declining flesh forever. The body grows for a time and reaches a peak and then begins to decline. That is the natural way of all physical things. The holy days or seasonal remembrances are truly attached to meanings such as these for me. Spring is renewal and the return of life and growth. Summer is the peak of fecundity and lushness. Autumn brings a gorgeous decline with it and a harvest of the life's work. Winter brings a period of rest. So I do hope that I remain consciously aware to appreciate whatever is while my physical body goes through its own complete cycle of Life. When looking out through my physical eyes and mind, my awareness is ageless, timeless and genderless. Of course, my awareness is also aware of the individual "story" of this egoic self. I have known all of the joys and the burdens that come with the manifestation of a human body. I am grateful that my awareness has become constantly rooted in the eternal NOW. It is the closest experience I can have to changeless eternity at the moment.

~ perspective

The trees teach me their secrets
whether in their forest communities
or in solitary magnificence by their
non-resistance to the seasons and
to the larger cycle of their life.
The physical sensations of life bring
me joy – the sight of wind rustling
the plants around me, the feeling of
my feet firmly on the ground and
bird song in my ears or the sound
of water flowing, the smells of trees
in bloom and the taste of tree sap
turned into syrup – I relish it all
for it is temporary and fleeting.
I seek to remain open to the
experience of Life – all that it is –
the struggles, the suffering, the
sickness, the happiness, the abundance,
the hard times, attacks endured,
challenges met, obstacles overcome –
may I be alert and aware of my own
willingness to participate in this grand
adventure of playing in time with form.
Each and every one of us is Life drawn
from eternal Life, uniquely expressed,
one of a kind – in all ways.
I trust Life for I am here within It
and I know that cannot be any kind of
mistake, for being here is part of
the way of things and I lightly hold
this reality and possibility precious
but without rigid attachment.

#cycles #death #eternity #family #form #life #nothingness #now #release #seasons