If we know that we live forever, even those with the utmost spiritual faith, then why is it so hard to accept when someone close to us dies? Is that the reason why we often choose to not have faith in the Divine who asks us to live and to breathe love, peace, forgiveness and faith? Is it hard to swallow scripture, messages and words of encouragement when pain grips relentlessly from within? Yes it is. It is very hard.
It is a courageous and brave way to allow our self to trust that Spirit connects us in all ways and that we live eternally and completely before, during, and after death. It is faith, an intangible personal experience that defies the mind and rationality. While the mind searches for proof and credibility, faith from the heart only asks to be transformed through its openness.
An open heart occurs in many ways. Seeing a new baby, falling in love, enjoying the beauty of the earth, sky, ocean and air. Experiencing art, listening to music, playing with pets, being with friends and family. What many of us do not realize is that pain opens our hearts in magnanimous ways. The thing about pain is that we do not like it and often our first reaction is to clench, restrict, close up and hold within. Pain comes and for some of us, it gets us without warning and we do all we can do to keep moving, doing and being. When we start to straighten up, we often pull the heart closed because we fear that we will feel more pain that something else will happen.
Over a course of one life, we experience much pain and much Joy. If our goal can be to bravely move through with an open heart, allowing recovery, patience and peace for ourselves, then we become soft, emotional, beautiful beings filled with color, relationships, love and Joy. Each person that has touched our lives can live with us in our open heart, allowing us to expand beyond any expectation that we may have ever had for our Self.
We can allow our loved ones who have died into our hearts, not with heaviness, but with Joy. We can see pictures, hear stories, allow this love into our hearts so that we can be changed for the better by the depth of who they are. Spirit is eternal and considering that they are with us here in this world, we can know that we honor them with words, thoughts and heart.
This is dedicated in memory of James Knight whose funeral I was honored to perform and who is the inspiration of the above words.