I have spent the last few days with a dying friend and her family, and finally had to say goodbye, because my task, and the path that led me there, was finished.
To say it was hard to leave is an understatement. There seemed to be so much left to do. Yet I have a tendency to hang on and on to my "assignments", long after the signs suggest I move on. And so it is nice to report, with you as my witness, that I saw the signs, checked in with my Self, and left her and her family to the rest of their journey.
She was honored and heard and comforted. I learned a lot, and especially about some of our primary human distractions from our life-paths:
Anger and bitterness about events in the past is hugely distracting from our peace of mind. So is resentment.
Everything is flowing and changing...holding on to anything can be a distraction. My friend still held out the hope of a "miracle" cure. She held onto this hope until the last moment of our visit, after we had discussed the fact that she is dying and she can heal whatever needs to be healed, and still die. I gently pointed out that she is a miracle and has nothing to prove...and I got to observe in myself how many times I have been trying to prove myself--what a distraction! GO with the flow, people.
While there, she posed serious questions about honoring her contract on the planet: “Did I do so?” and whether it was time to release this particular body, riddled with a cancer-comeback from an original lung cancer remission: “ I desire to be a miracle. Can I cure this?”
These were tough questions to answer because her spirit was so vibrant, so huge, it seemed that her body should have followed suit with a vibrancy of its own. But here is how I answered her questions….
“My darling friend, you have honored your contract as a spiritual teacher with grace, humor and wisdom. You taught and blessed people all the time, from the waitresses at the cafés you loved to visit , blessing their hearts and graciously saying thank you for the smallest of service, ot the nurses and staff on the oncology ward, to the chorales you sang in, where the people would come to you for advice and loving presence.” And “No, this body has cancer in the brain , your major organs and your lungs, and will no longer support the enormous spirit you are. It’s time to release to a new experience, and your angelic presence.”
After our visit, her body rapidly degraded as she relaxed into the releasing of a lovely human, and into the birthing of an angel. At around 1:00 this morning I woke up to her beautiful voice singing, “Happy trails to you, until we meet again…” She was making her rounds…