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After my near death experience, I read a lot of books, went to seminars, and watched documentaries on anything that remotely resembled what I had experienced. I had a thirst for knowledge of spiritual things. In the end it took me over three years to integrate my near death experience into daily living. I had to learn how to live in the physical without becoming of the physical, not an easy task.
During this search for knowledge I attended a pre-seminar presentation on EST (Erhard Seminars Training.) My boss wanted me to see if the seminar might help his employees to work together better as a team.
I arrived barely in time and found an aisle seat close to the front just in time for the opening of the presentation. The presenter started by talking about the different communities represented in the room. Some of the ones he mentioned were the Medical community, the Business community, the Professional community, and others. I was a representative of the Medical community. Then he asked if anyone had been missed, would they hold up their hand. The person sitting next to me held up their hand, and when asked, stated they were a member of the Gay community. He acknowledged this person and several others before continuing. He then asked each person to turn to the one sitting next to them and introduce themselves, stating why they had come to the meeting.
When I turned, I saw a young girl wearing a black leather vest. The vest had two small chains holding it together over a red, sleeveless blouse. She also wore a red head band, and sported a tattoo on her arm of a naked woman. She could have been a biker, as I remembered, but turned out to be something totally different.
She quickly told me her name was Jill, and that she was a member of the Gay community. Her voice was soft and clear, with a command of words, showing me she was a well-educated young woman. She had attended the meeting to find some peace within herself. After I exchanged my particulars, the meeting was forgotten, and slowly faded away into the background as she answered a few of my questions.
She had known she was gay from as far back as she could remember. Attempts to ignore the emotions proved futile, however much she tried. She felt alone, isolated from others, with different feelings, emotions, and perception. I provided her with a non-judging person to talk to, and she poured out her heart, along with all the hurts of her young life.
She was 16 when her parents discovered she was gay and asked her to pack-up and leave. They wanted no part of a gay child. I can’t even imagine how that would feel, losing the emotional and financial support of your parents, just when you needed them the most. A friend took her in so she could finish school. Being an honor student her whole life, she knew the importance of learning. The conversation, in whispered words, was so revealing she was literally in tears as she recalled those hard years of her life.
She had worked part-time to help support herself during those years, and finally went to a culinary school and earned a culinary degree. She was currently working as a woman chef in an up-scale restaurant.
The Gay community was the only place she felt safe, as if she belonged to something. All she wanted was for others to accept her for what she was, the same thing most people want. I told her about near death experiences, and the love and acceptance God gives to all His children. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you have done, you are loved for being you, nothing else is more important than God’s love for His children.
The meeting ended too soon, and people were getting up to leave. As we stood up Jill gave me a big hug, and thanked me. She was a young, frightened, little girl living in a world she couldn’t understand. Much like everyone else I have met, including myself. I can not tell you a thing about the meeting beyond the opening statements, but I felt refreshed, full of peace, and joy, and I know Jill felt the same way. It was an incredible evening.
Later, when I became a volunteer at a Hospice, listening to others became very important. I spent many an hour listening quietly to people talk about their lives, fortunes and misfortunes. It is a wonderful way to learn about life. Listen, non-judgmentally to others, and in the process you also will learn and be blessed.
There is no higher calling than to help others in their time of need. Be kind to everyone you meet, show compassion, and heal with your words. Keep the joy, and music of love in your heart, always.
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“Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.” — John Denver
© 2009, Lekatt. All rights reserved.
My Mentor
by D. L. Jones
from the City of Souls
There is someone with me from time to time. I think all us have someone with them although most don’t realize it. They help through the hardest parts of our lives. They help us to reconcile to real life. There will be some point in everyone’s life when they realize they will die. It usually is triggered by the death of a loved one either friend or family. Oh we miss them too, because they were a part of our life, but at one point we realize “I will die”. Our friends with us help us through these times. It could even be as small as not understanding how a friend could treat us so poorly. I was listening to an interview with a dream expert, once, and I remember him saying to think of a dream like your subconscious is consoling your unconscious. I think it is someone consoling us I think it is our friend, and I also believe everyone has one. I call my friend, “My Mentor.”
I first met him when I was twelve years old. While I was setting up an irrigation system I touched one of the aluminum pipes to an overhead electric line. I found myself, bodiless in a dark place. I knew I had died, I knew it a second after the pipe started to vibrate. I just couldn’t let go of the pipe fast enough. So there I was floating bodiless in a dark place. That was when I heard someone call out to me, and, then, there was light. What he said to me when he called out was simple. It was just three words, the words were, “You’re back already?” In those three words were the feelings of a long association, of a friendship, of camaraderie, but what also was there was information about where I have been and why.
I wanted to find the one who had called out to me, and so I moved into the light. Incredible as it sounds. I wanted to go find the person that had called out to me, and I did. No arms, no legs, I moved because I wanted to. I found him on the other side. We talked, no talked is the wrong word because it was different, besides we had no mouth, no face, and no lungs. We communicated for a while. It was a different level of communication. It was different in that when a statement was made, or a question was asked all of the lesser information that was the background for the statement was there along with the statement. Miscommunication would be impossible because we communicated in complete thoughts.
All to soon I was called back and my eyes were closed. I could not see or hear, but I could feel. I could feel someone there with me. Someone very powerful was there with me. I could feel their power. I don’t know how, but it was so prevalent that it almost felt as a physical force. Whoever was there with me exuded power, love, and compassion. All through what came next the sight of this presence remained hidden from me, later I did hear the voice later when it was addressed to me. Others came, and these others I could see, hear, and speak to them. Each of these others reviewed my life, such little as it was since I was only twelve years old.
We, the others and I, lived or relived through every moment of my life. There were milestones in my life, important milestones we all have as we grow and mature. These, they pointed out to me and reported to The Presence. It seemed strange that our personal thoughts and feelings were just as important as what we say and do, if not more so. I had not considered this because in life we never know how someone, truly, feels, or thinks. We can only deduce that from the things they say and do, but here nothing is hidden, and all is considered.
When the others were finished The Presence, finally, spoke to me. He said, “It is not, yet, time for you to pass on. You must go back and live your life. There are three reasons you must go back. You are meant to do something that you have, yet, to do. You are meant to influence someone you have not, yet, met, and you have not, yet, learned enough to accomplish the other two.” With those words spoken the others faded out.
For forty-two years nothing unusual occurred. I led a completely normal life. I never told a single person what I experienced that day.
Oh, when my Dad found me later just sitting on a bench thinking I told him about being shocked. He rushed to the doctor who examined the burns on my feet. He told Dad that I was extremely lucky because all the cases of electrocution he had ever read about when the current came in through a person’s feet, because they were grounded, and the current came in through the hands it always meets in the abdomen, and blows out there. That did not create a pretty picture in my mind. Anyway, there was nothing to do. The burns would heal without help, but he did pull my left toenail because it was ingrown. I suppose he felt he should do something for me since I was there.
I did hear or feel that voice, again. It was exactly forty-two years later again in the summer. I was in a meeting and just like no time had passed he spoke to me just as it did, then. This time he said, “Now is the time to tell your story. Tell your story, Now!” It was that Presence, exactly as I remembered it. That was all he said, he said that and he was gone. But, from that moment on until I finished writing my story I felt a push, a pressure, and a compassion for the story to be told.
© 2009, Lekatt. All rights reserved.
Spiritual growth is literally growing up emotionally. It is getting out of your own way in life. Learning to do those things that are helpful to yourself and others while not doing those things that are harmful to yourself and others. Forming habits of being responsible, truthful, and focused, with integrity in all deeds and actions. Loving, kind, and compassionate to all others as well as yourself. It is a path, a long journey for some and not so long for others. Only you can do it, no one can do it for you. You don’t have to wait to understand the benefits of spiritual growth, they will become apparent quickly, and grow as you grow. Learn to love yourself and all others.
© 2009, Lekatt. All rights reserved.
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