Today, in response to one of my posts, a friend makes a casual comment about how she has prepared bodies for burial, seen the empty shell and while she would like to believe in heaven, she just doesn’t. According to her, grief is just the price we pay for love, but there is no reunion, no ultimate joy (my words). Birth, as we come in, and death, we we go out, are great mysteries. However, there is nothing beyond. This is it. I have other friends who share this belief.
These words cut me like a knife. Of course that was not her intent, but this something I need to think about. While my faith has been growing and changing over the years, in dramatic ways, I would describe it as stronger than ever. It’s more solid. It’s based on evidence, logic, reason, inspiration, science and on that knowing from within. So, why should one casual comment send me reeling? Why do I fear the foundation crumbling from under me? I can have a hundred things confirm my world view and just one thing in opposition makes me question the whole thing. Why that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I hear the words of just one person? I heard a statistic a couple of days ago about the percentage of people who believe in an afterlife and it was stunningly low, IMO. The very fundamental question of who/what we are, where we came from, where we are going is not answered for so many of us. We think we are organic robots, an accident of an uncaring universe. Our consciousness arose from the star dust that collected to form our brains, was birthed when the brain gathered enough cells to become self-aware and dies when the brain doesn’t have enough oxygen to keep functioning. That is the story much of the world believes and it makes me profoundly sad, even though I believe that is the way it’s supposed to be, for them.
We come to live behind this veil and, for some reason, we’re supposed to forget who we are and become totally immersed. It’s only in the cards for some of us to wake up to the reality beyond the Matrix right now. And it’s not an easy thing to do. However, some of us could not survive here without this awakening. I am among those people. I need this belief to navigate this place. What I find amazing is as I listen even to people who are mediums who have direct contact with the Other Side, who have not only seen evidence, they have produced it themselves, they often are just like me. They are constantly seeking reassurance. They constantly question whether what we believe is self-delusion, just stories we tell ourselves so that we can sleep at night. Is it all too good to be true? We’ve all heard if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Comments like that still knock me off my feet, even as strong as my faith has become, but it’s only for a little while. I’m getting back up faster and faster.
