More to life

I'm reading a book by Theresa Caputo entitled, There's More to Life Than This. It's overwhelmingly good-so much so, that I have had to take my time reading it to be able to take it all in.

I'm trying to finish it this week so I can lend it to Lisa R. , but I will probably re-read it when she's done and take more notes. Here are some ideas I wanted to record towards the end of the book.

(Side note: what she said about suicide makes me think of how there are many reasons for suicide, just like there are many reasons for a divorce. I just wanted to record that thought so I can expound on it later. I know what happened to you wasn't suicidal and I'm not contemplating it or anything-just comparing situations).

From Chapter entitled, Negative Energy-Do Not Enter
Though some suicide victims can get stuck, this isn't because they're not allowed into Heaven. I'll tell you right now that most of the souls who committed suicide that I channel are at peace, but some do refuse to cross over because they're needlessly worried. Suicide is not part of the journey God set out for you to have; nobody is destined to prematurely end his or her time here to learn a lesson. But I do believe our guides assess suicide on a case-by-case basis-for example, taking your life because you're in physical pain, mentally ill, or dealing with an addiction can hardly be considered "taking the easy way out." But this is what souls can fear, because they're raised with religious beliefs that condemn them and this tragedy. (My own note: this is what I'm viewing as parallel with views on divorce).

From Chapter entitled, Three Not-So-Little Words: Health, Grief, and Healing
To that end, it doesn't make much sense to blame God as "taking a life to soon." It's not like He arbitrarily swats out an otherwise healthy and happy existence, as if He's wielding one of those insect zappers that look like tennis rackets. Remember, your death is an agreed-upon choice between your soul, your guides, and God. It doesn't matter if the person who dies was good, pious as a role model; in most cases, Spirit tells me that death happens when that particular soul, not the human, chooses to leave-even if the soul fights to stay when it's time to cross over. I'm told that this is also the case with children who get sick or die young. Their souls have agreed to take on illnesses for the sake of their growth or for the loved ones connected to them.

As a medium, I've seen clients turn their lives around when they swallow three powerful points. First, that your departed loved ones are still interacting with you in this world, but in another form. Spirit's said to my clients, "I'm not sad, because I haven't lost anything. I'm still with you in a different way"-and that's very comforting. Second, that the soul made a decision to leave this life early for soul growth. And third, that you can learn to recognize when your loved ones are reaching out, so you can reach back.

Often accompanying this emotional fear (that our loved ones who have left us are miserable) is a worry that the person physically suffered during their final moments on earth-because to us, death can look and sound really terrible. But Spirit promises that what you witness and hear during those final breaths is simply the body shutting down. From the initial moment that a life begins to end, be it the first pang of a heart attack or gunshot from a murder, the soul exits the body and no further suffering occurs. The soul leaves this world with dignity and grace.

This comes up with a lot of car accidents.

Souls also remain unaffected in the bodies of those...in a coma or vegetative state. Spirit's said that comas and vegetative states, on the other hand, can occur when it is not the soul's destined time to leave this world, so these souls will simply live out the rest of their time in this way, if they don't recover. But here, the soul is also fine.

And while we're on the subject of bodily concerns, I want to cover one more. Clients ask me what happens to a soul if a body isn't recovered from a tragedy or is unable to be laid to rest for some reason. So in these cases, their soul is still at peace, because our bodies are just a shell. In fact, graveyards are for us, not your loved ones. It's where you go to remember them, but you can also do that from a mountaintop or your living room-they're around because of you. Same thing if Spirit shows up at their own funeral, which they often do. But they come because you are there. And if you have a reading, they might even validate their attendance by describing what their casket looked like, who showed up, if you fixed their hair (my note-this made me cry because I remember that last thing I did before they closed your casket was run my fingers through your hair), and what they wore when they were laid to rest...