A sign of Life

Several years ago, I was asked to officiate the funeral of a young man (a Marine) killed in Afghanistan. The day before the ceremony, his family and I waited silently, in a private area of the airport, until a few minutes before the plane carrying his body home was about to land and then a very kind veteran, in charge of these occasions, asked us if we would like to go outside. Helen Keller once said that death is nothing more than passing from one room to another, and while I thought that I believed this, I was experiencing many emotions, and one of them was doubt.

About 5 minutes before his plane landed, I looked up in the sky, and noticed a large bird flying toward us. It looked like an eagle, but I knew that it couldn’t be since we were in the middle of a busy airport and seeing an eagle is a pretty rare occurrence, even in the most rural areas, around here.

As it got closer, I thought, “My God, it is an eagle” …it came closer and closer and landed right in the middle of the runway in front of us. And then it started doing the strangest thing; it began jumping up and down, almost like it was dancing, saying, “Notice me! notice me!”

We did notice. The symbol for the United States Marine Corps is an Eagle standing on top of the world with its wings spread. It felt like a sign from Philip saying, “I’m ok! I’m ok!”…his parents felt this too. I was flooded with goosebumps and the words, “thank you, thank you, thank you” flowed through me. After a couple of minutes, it flew back in the direction that it came from.  We watched it get smaller and smaller in the sky, as the plane bringing Philip’s body home, came in to land…they must have passed each other in the air.

It seems that a lot of people are making their transitions at this time; leaving this very brief life experience, and going on to the next. As much as we would like to hold onto all of those that we love, this isn’t the way of this life. The mystery, and the part that we cannot get our minds around, is that Life does not end with the death of the physical body. In our grief, it can be hard to feel the presence of our loved one…and sometimes the birds of the air, and the animals, come to our aid and remind us that there really is no death.

“I’ve told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation“. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

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a “lucky” day, a daring adventure

a close-up picture of my locket

It is Friday the 13th today. Growing up, there was so much hype around the “bad things” that might happen on this day. I never believed them, but now I am so much more aware of how expectations create events and circumstances (both good and bad) and mass-expectation is even more powerful, so I make it my intention to expect very good things to happen on this day. Several years ago, I found a gold locket on-line that I loved the look of.  This side of the locket was not shown (maybe the seller feared that no one would want it if it said Friday the 13th) so it was quite a surprise when I read the inscription, “13th Birthday, Friday May 13, 1910″ and inside was a photograph of a very sweet-faced girl.

When my son Matt went out on the Bering Sea last winter, I put a four-leaf clover inside along with a little note. I am not superstitious, but love “reminders” that there is a huge benevolent force at work in this Universe and that we are all connected, (and I love wearing something meaningful near my heart).

What if we expected this to be an auspicious day; a lucky day (even though I don’t believe in luck) and looked forward to it with a spirit of play and fun and adventure? Over the years, I’ve collected affirmation cards, quotes and sentences that felt meaningful to me at the time.  If you would like me to choose one for you,  just say so in a comment (of any length) and I will reply to you with the sentence that I pick (without looking of course!).

Maybe it will end up being a good meditation for you over the weekend, or will provide some guidance to a question that you have been pondering (the Spirit of God does move in mysterious ways!).

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing“. Helen Keller

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Life is a daring adventure (and winner of earrings!)

 

"Most Creative Driver of the class of 2000"

 

When my son Matt was in high school, we shared my car.  My parents let me use one of the family cars as much as I wanted, when I got my license (at 16 ), and I remembered the fantastic feeling of freedom driving out of our driveway, picking up 3 or 4 friends, and heading off, at some un-godly speed, on an “adventure”. If my parents had only known what we were up to, they would have fainted.

When Matt started driving, on more than one occasion, the car would be returned with clods of mud …on the roof! I asked him how in the world mud could get on the roof and he always acted like he was surprised too; “I don’t know mom! I am really careful with the car!” he would say, looking at me with those big, brown innocent eyes. When his yearbook came out, there was a special page for Most Creative this and that …he won, “Most Creative Driver”.
Matt was, and still is, an adventurous spirit…. not the easiest sort of kid to raise if you are prone to worry. The older I get, the more I realize the damage of worry. It causes tension in relationships, and does not prevent one bad thing from happening. If I could have changed one thing about my past, it would have been that I was more present, less projecting of negative thought (worry) into the future, I would have just sat down with my sons and appreciated them more…I didn’t know how fast time would go…they are 29 and 33 now. How did that happen?!

Both of my sons are still adventurous men….I hope that I had a little to do with that.

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing!” Helen Keller

 

P.S. Ingrid from the Netherlands won the earrings!

 

 

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