SHARINGS

I am doing something different this time with my column on near-death experiences and related topics. What follows are two stories, all of them true.



THE FIRST STORY -

This comes from Ken Prather of the "Reaching for Joy" ministries. Ken is a near-death experiencer. More about him and the ministries he offers is in the Marketplace Section of my website at http://www.pmhatwater.com.


I just have this to share with all of you, because today I visited the Other Side with one of my Hospice patients, and we brought back some Light for his family.


I was called by Hospice early this morning to see if I would come out to the Hospice Home and counsel with a gentleman who was getting ready to cross over any day. He was extremely scared of crossing. He had no beliefs or faith, but most of all he had no Spirituality. I guess that's when the Chaplin decided it was time to call in the last line of defense - so that's when I came into the picture. After I had been there for about thirty minutes or so, the gentleman looked at me and said, "Is there really an afterlife?" It was then I felt the same energy as I did when I was on the Other Side, during the time I was on life support. At that time, I was allowed to go in and out of my physical being at will, or you might say that I could, or that I was in two places at one time. One had time, one didn't! So I looked at this gentleman and said, "Take my hand, close your eyes, and we shall take a journey together."


We experienced the Light to begin with and all the love that it has to offer, and then we found ourselves in a beautiful garden filled with Angelic Light Beings everywhere, sort of like a welcome committee you might say. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers, and then the trees that could talk. We had two beings walk up to us, and this gentleman said to one of the beings, "Isn't your name Louise?" The Light Being said, "Yes, it is. I'm the sister you never knew."


Then just like that I opened my eyes and looked at the gentleman in bed who was still sound asleep. RIGHT! Someone walked into his room and it was his sister. I introduced myself, and the gentleman opened his eyes. His sister said, "Sorry to wake you up." The man replied, "You didn't wake me up. I was on the Other Side with this kind gentleman." The lady just looked at me and smiled, and it was then he said to his sister, "By the way, Louise said to tell you hello." His sister almost fainted and had to sit down. Louise was the name that their mother had given to a stillborn child four years before this man was ever born, and he had no clue that she ever had existed. Nobody had ever told him!


I got ready to leave the room. The sister was still numb. For the first time in weeks, this man smiled. As I walked out the door, he said to me, "Thank you for the sneak preview. I'm not afraid anymore."


Welcome to my world. Priceless!


Note: I can certainly attest to the ministry of Ken Prather. He is severely handicapped by the mugging and beating that killed him. You would never know that, though, for he leads children on tours of the local zoo, brings animals into school classrooms, leads many recovery activities for medical patients - yet what he does for hospice patients is among his best work and the most miraculous. Ken is also a shaman who is one with nature and the natural world. We are blessed to have him among us, reminding us all of the Oneness which links us together in the web of life.


THE SECOND STORY -

My husband Terry awoke suddenly on Monday morning, November 6th, and flung his arm towards the phone that sits on the nightstand near his side of our bed. In doing this, he toppled a neat pile of papers, billfold, and comb to the floor. After he picked everything up and restacked it, he looked at the clock - it was about 5:08 am. His father died at 5:13 am; the call came shortly thereafter. We both know that his sudden reach for the phone before it rang was his soul's way of preparing him for the call. His father was saying goodbye the only way he could. Although he had been in declining health, he seemed to be doing fine and was well and happy. The heart attack was unexpected and caught everyone by surprise. Quick. No pain. What many call a "good death." We buried him the following Monday at a military cemetery. It was what he wanted.


Just before this happened, I was in Raleigh, NC, meandering through a bookstore after giving several talks in the city. I was told by the bookstore owner that there had been a sudden rash of suicides by young boys and teenagers in the area. A woman nearby smiled, then began to say that her son took his life only months before and she had found the body. He preferred the drug high to living in this world sober. I held her for a long time and let her tears empty the pain in her soul.


These two events remind me how intertwined life and death are, and especially during the Holiday season. With the explosion of colored lights, merry music, and oh, so many parties and concerts, we are also called upon to hesitate and look around. Tucked in amidst the joy are tragedies that silently hold to themselves. I believe it is our privilege, all of us, to embrace the many sides of life at each moment and name them holy. Whether your Holiday celebrations this year are happy or said, there are prayer teams at churches, 800-prayer lines aplenty, and the open arms of understanding and the willingness to listen that those of us who will can provide. Holidays are really a time of light, and in that Light that knows no shadow, we affirm the Presence of Source/The God of our Being - in our lives and in our deaths.


Blessings to all, PMH