Lessons From the Other Side

Doing a reading this morning made me decide to blog about the spiritual part of life. I figured it would be a nice counter to my last blog on the physical part of life and the importance of taking responsibility for knowing how your body works.

As I said previously, we have our body for our whole life and it behooves us to know it better than we know our houses, cars, or anything else that is transitory and easily replaced. However, at some point we will shed our physical body, leaving us with ourselves.

Religious or spiritual beliefs aside, the only thing you take with you upon death is, you. It’s said that wherever you go, there you are, and there is nothing more startling than. Here is what got me to thinking about it:

The More things Change, the More they Stay the Same

My client was a woman who wanted me to check in with her deceased mother. Her mother was an agnostic who believed that death was simply the end of the line, and that there was nothing beyond. She lived life like many of us do; facing what we have to but brushing under the rug much of what we think is going to be too hard or painful to deal with. Ignoring or putting off the difficult work of forgiveness, love, and self-actualization.

My client’s mother came through easily, sharing her message with us before we even had the chance to ask questions.

“My death was stunning.” she said, “It completely floored me. One moment I was there, in my bed and I was dying. I died, and I was still there. Nothing changed except that I was wasn’t dying anymore. I was still there and nothing had changed. What am I supposed to do with all of this now?” she demanded.

I guess there really are no free passes in life or in death. It’s like going on vacation. You may leave for a while, but when you come back, the laundry, cleaning and bad relationships are still there. We will all die, but even death can’t take us away from the work that we are avoiding. After all, no matter where you go, there you are.