I have the belief that when we \u201cdie,\u201d we experience a
\nrapid burst of unimaginable joyful, infinite expansion.
\nFree of all the lenses of our physical identities, the
\nlimited perspective we can grasp with our physical
\nbodies, it must be like an explosion of the senses\u2014-but
\nin an ultimately peaceful way.<\/p>\n
I felt that burst just after my father “died.”<\/p>\n
I also believe in eternal life, which is why I put
\nquotation marks around the word \u201cdied.\u201d I believe we
\nall lived before our current adventure of having a
\nbody, and that we\u2019ll continue living when our
\nexperience with this body is complete.<\/p>\n
It makes me feel better to believe there’s
\n no scarcity of life.<\/p>\n
I believe that while we\u2019re here in our bodies during
\nthis lifetime, part of each of us is simultaneously
\nfully alive in the world beyond the physical. And, our
\ncontinued life after this lifetime isn\u2019t just up there
\nin the ethers, but is intensely involved here in the
\nphysical realm.<\/p>\n
I like thinking that all those dearly
\n departed ones haven\u2019t departed at all.
\n They are right here with us, closer
\n than ever, and experiencing the
\n physical world through our eyes, ears,
\n skin, nose, and tastebuds.<\/p>\n
But when I look back over these past two years that
\nhave included the sudden and unexpected completion of
\nthe lifetime of my sweetheart, and that of 11 other
\ndear friends and beloved family members\u2014including nine
\nin the past three months, I\u2019d have to admit that the
\nemotion that best sums up my actual feelings is\u2026
\nconfusion and disorientation.<\/p>\n
The little kid in me keeps wanting to know,
\n “WHERE DID THEY GO???<\/p>\n
I am, after all, pretty attached to being in my body in
\nthis lovely, sensual physical world, and I liked it
\nbetter when those people were all here to touch and
\ntalk to and sing and laugh with.<\/p>\n
But, like it or not, the best sense I can make of it is
\nto view all this \u201cdeath\u201d as but an invitation to live
\nmore fully and largely. If I am a conduit through which
\nthose dear to me can continue to experience the
\nrichness of physical life, then I might as well enjoy
\nit exponentially more. <\/p>\n
And, if they are the opening through which I can
\nremember to experience the full majesty of the
\nnonphysical world, then I might as well ride my
\nfeelings of love to the heights and breadth of the
\nworld they inhabit. <\/p>\n
I like to think we all help each other
\n in this way: we all really live in both
\n worlds, and are all enriched by the
\n perspective of those primarily focused
\n in the \u201copposite\u201d world. We can
\n celebrate all the life there is on both
\n sides of the veil.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one more part that I arrived at last week, in
\nthe throes of grief over the most recent passage.<\/p>\n
That part is what I had thought of as my selfish desire
\nto keep people close to me even when they were
\nsuffering. My world is rich because of the people in
\nit, I thought. I didn\u2019t want to feel the poverty of a
\nworld empty of them in their familiar forms–suffering
\nor not.<\/p>\n
But what I was doing was using other people as my
\nvehicle for connecting with my own joy. In clinging to
\nthem, I was in a sense imprisoning all of us. If \u201cyou\u201d
\nhave to stay in a particular form in order for me to be
\nhappy, then I deprive you of freedom, and myself of
\nhappiness. <\/p>\n
So, I decided to allow the people I love
\n to be free to come and go in whatever
\n form they choose.<\/p>\n
Something lifted, and I feel happy and free. I\u2019m not
\nfrozen in dread of when the next one will go. When a
\nwave of grief comes, I can remember that the pain is
\nbecause I’ve been invited to expand into a new knowing
\nof the dear one, and I’m not willing to let go of my
\nlimited old view of the person. <\/p>\n
I can remember that I feel this way because I love and
\nam loved by that person. And I can turn and share that
\nlove with you.<\/p>\n
Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have the belief that when we \u201cdie,\u201d we experience a rapid burst of unimaginable joyful, infinite expansion. Free of all the lenses of our physical identities, the limited perspective we can grasp with our physical bodies, it must be like an explosion of the senses\u2014-but in an ultimately peaceful way. I felt that burst… Continue reading People in the Happier Place…And the Rest of Us (My Crash Course on Death)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-healing","category-love-and-relationships","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":935,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}