I've written before about feeling like life/God is telling me something....those odd coincidences that just feel more purposeful than random.
I'm in the midst of one of those.
Looking back, I see its progression.
My neighbor told me about a book she wanted to finish reading called God In a Box by Marion Pember. After reading a bit about it, I decided it sounded interesting so I got a copy and read it. It was a bit mind-blowing for me, especially its discussion of what heaven may or may not be. I've never been really comfortable telling my kids that heaven is in the sky because that feels too concrete for something as nebulous as death. Plus, I want my kids to determine what they believe and having some choices, some possibilities within a framework, feels right to me.
Soon after I read the book, G commented as we drove by a cemetery, "There's thousands of people who've died, right Mom?" I decided to tell him about the book and its suggestion that maybe death, what we think of as an ending, could be movement into another dimension that our brains can't perceive. He seemed to like this idea, the idea that those we've loved and lost are closer to us than "out there" in heaven, wherever that is.
A week or so after the book and my talk with G, a former colleagues' boyfriend died of cancer. She has been on my mind for many months since she reported his diagnosis.
This past Thursday, we euthanized Shanks with the help of a most compassionate vet, and that same afternoon I received an email from one of my magazine editors asking me if I'd like to write an article about preparing for a loved one's death when you know it is coming.
My inner anxious instinct wants to go off the rails on this one, wondering "Am I going to die soon? Is THAT what life is trying to tell me? Maybe D or one of the kids is going to die soon?"
I'm trying really, really hard not.to.go.there.
I'm trying to see this as purposeful, too many connective strings for me to ignore. That this is not a warning, but that I've somehow, in some way, on the right path at the right time.
I'm in the midst of one of those.
Looking back, I see its progression.
My neighbor told me about a book she wanted to finish reading called God In a Box by Marion Pember. After reading a bit about it, I decided it sounded interesting so I got a copy and read it. It was a bit mind-blowing for me, especially its discussion of what heaven may or may not be. I've never been really comfortable telling my kids that heaven is in the sky because that feels too concrete for something as nebulous as death. Plus, I want my kids to determine what they believe and having some choices, some possibilities within a framework, feels right to me.
Soon after I read the book, G commented as we drove by a cemetery, "There's thousands of people who've died, right Mom?" I decided to tell him about the book and its suggestion that maybe death, what we think of as an ending, could be movement into another dimension that our brains can't perceive. He seemed to like this idea, the idea that those we've loved and lost are closer to us than "out there" in heaven, wherever that is.
A week or so after the book and my talk with G, a former colleagues' boyfriend died of cancer. She has been on my mind for many months since she reported his diagnosis.
This past Thursday, we euthanized Shanks with the help of a most compassionate vet, and that same afternoon I received an email from one of my magazine editors asking me if I'd like to write an article about preparing for a loved one's death when you know it is coming.
My inner anxious instinct wants to go off the rails on this one, wondering "Am I going to die soon? Is THAT what life is trying to tell me? Maybe D or one of the kids is going to die soon?"
I'm trying really, really hard not.to.go.there.
I'm trying to see this as purposeful, too many connective strings for me to ignore. That this is not a warning, but that I've somehow, in some way, on the right path at the right time.
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