Every day a little rebirth

Every day as it passes becomes part of yesterday and by so doing it is a little death. And each morning we are reborn.This was my message for today from "The Book of Light" by Alexandra Solanado.

I've been thinking about my mother who passed from this world not three weeks ago. I recognize the truth of the statement and know for both she and I there is a rebirth with every passing day. Each of us continues on our journey.

Mothers are such special people in all our lives, whether our experience of them is good or not so good, whether we knew them or were nurtured by another. In our lives they are like the adverse wind that makes us stronger one way or another.

We have both mother and father in us forever. Created by the two we can never truly be separate of them. I breathe today because of them. They breathe in me today. Every tree or beam of light I see, I share with them if I choose to see it that way; being ONE.

"It is such a gift to still be in the body" said Thich Nhat Hanh this Saturday at the Pasadena Convention Center. "so enjoy the senses, give thanks for our eyes, be grateful for this mortal existence.
Let the mother in you breathe, let the father in you breathe, simply be here now with what is. This will lessen suffering and open us to joy."

I breathe in gratitude today for all that has been, all that is and all that has yet to be.
Namaste.

Talking about death won't kill you!

I have heard people say as a positive conclusion to a list of physical ailments or complaints "Oh well, it beats the alternative!" To which people respond with agreement, acknowledging that whatever we may be experiencing, we are still alive and that is always preferable to being dead! After all death is the ultimate fear, the unknowable and the great void, the end...that's all she wrote!  Shakespeare's Hamlet contemplated "to be and not to be" concluding that there may not be peace even in the permanent sleep of death. How can we know so lets not go there, what's the point?

I was browsing a book at my library the other day, intriguingly entitled "Talking about death won't kill you," just my kind of book by the way. I like to tackle ideas that others throw up their eyes at and have little time for. The author Virginia Morris, a woman after my own heart as we would say in Ireland, was putting forward the idea that talking about death has many overlooked benefits. It can help us appreciate life more fully for one thing, it can help friends and families appreciate the relationships we enjoy more deeply and also can help immensely when the inevitability of loss visits our lives.

My father broached the subject of his demise to me years ago when he was making his will. I kept the discussion brief, adding I didn't want to imagine that day. This is a very natural response and I know I am not alone in my feelings. But I wish I'd been able to say how much I loved him and how unthinkable it was to no longer have him in my life. I wish we could have held each other and acknowledged that love and continued our discussion to its conclusion in awareness of the reality of that eventuality.

So many of us run from emotion - from being real and authentic and we miss out. I really feal our lives would be richer if we could simply allow our selves to be real. Emotion and discomfort just like all things come to pass and not to stay...we will not be swallowed in the slough of despond forever..in fact if we go there we can come out more quickly instead of skirting along the edges indefinitely.  Its all about living fearlessly. All my life I have worked at releasing the fears that restrict my experience of life. I am still determined! So who wants to talk about death?

Let Death lose its Sting...

They say that death is our ultimate fear and all other fears can be traced back to the idea of death. The word itself makes us recoil. It means something is devoid of life, inanimate, inert, ended and without power of any kind. Our ego screams at the thought of its annihilation, the idea that we end or no longer exist. This is the human reaction to the death of the body.

In Religious Science we believe very differently; that life never ends, we are not our bodies, we are our consciousness and as such a unique part of Spirit which is infinite and ever expanding. Depak Chopra gives an example to illustrate this idea; your TV until it is turned on is inert but the signal information is always there no matter how long the TV has been off. So too with people when they die in the physical, their energy still exists, its just not channeled in a visible body. For this reason we are never separate from those who have left this plane of existence, though our energy/consciousness still expresses through our bodies it is also connected with the whole, as a wave in the ocean of being. Therefore we can still commune with our loved ones in consciousness and they with us. What a comfort when we truly deeply know this.


As an old friend of mine used to say I'd still rather have someone with skin on!!! Yes we miss those who have left us. I live 6,000 miles from my family but at any time I still gain great comfort in writing a letter to my mother which is an action that I take separate from her. This year as part of my artistic expression I began making collage portraits of my family members. It is one very satisfying way of spending time with the individuals I miss and love. I also get to acknowledge their unique traits and qualities and how they express those in life. My art pieces represent my experience of another individual, what I see in them and the connection we enjoy.
In the Workshop "Remembering with Joy" that I designed with my friend Mary Hylan this is the core idea; we focus on the beauty of a relationship and how we have been enriched by another, knowing that we can still draw joy from it, that we have gained from it and that every situation in life including loss is an opportunity to know our spiritual interconnectedness more deeply.
For details www.GratitudeandGrace.com

“Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.”

God Speed

“I sent my soul through the invisible,some letter of that afterlife to spell; and by and by my soul returned to me,and answered, "I myself am Heav'n and Hell"
Omar Khayyam

Loosing someone we love whether in an untimely way or after they have lived a long and fulfilling life raises questions for even those among us who have the strongest faith.
I used to visit with a lady I came to call my adopted granny for about 5 years before her death at the grand age of 95. I knew her husband also who died a year or so after I began visiting them. She felt his loss acutely but it did not dampen her zest for life despite being legally blind and her mobility slowed to a snails pace. She used to tell a story of trying to console a child who was grappling with the death of an aunt. She would tell her that that person was with her in spirit although she couldnt see her anymore and that all she had to do was think of her and she was present. The young girl seemed to understand but her response was, "That's all very well but I'd rather have someone with skin on!"


I think of that story when someone passes. I know that people sense the presence of the deceased person from time to time and definitely hold that loved one forever alive in their memory and hearts but its the loss of the physical presence that the mind has such a hard to coming to terms with.


A young man of about nineteen gave me pause for thought when he made a comment as we talked about death. He had meditated since he was very young and felt he went to that place of simply being energy or spirit when he sat to turn within. He felt as if he had already visited that place of disembodiment and pure consciousness, there was nothing to fear in the afterlife.

If death is the ultimate fear, fear of non existence, his experience is a good argument for the meditative state. Only once in my life have I had that truly freeing experience. I felt unencumbered by all my attachments to who I am on this physical plane and it was blissful.


If this is what our loved ones go on to, we can celebrate their release knowing we will join them one day or any day if we choose to incorporate deepening our meditation into our daily practice.

If I myself am heaven and hell, it's a powerful and comforting way to choose heaven as we commune with the universal energy where we are one with our beloved and they are one with us.

Can you relate to this? Have you had a similar experience? I would love to hear about it.

Emptiness is in fact form when we forget the self. There's nothing in the universe other than ourself. Nothing to compare, name, or identify. When it's the only thing there is, how can we talk about it?- Taizan Maezumi

For Clifford Giles beloved and loved by all who knew him.