“Tante, I am sorry that Uncle Lee died this morning. I hope you are able to sleep well tonight.”
His great aunt just looked at him. He continued:
“You know, I sometimes still see grandpa. If you want to sleep with Uncle Lee all you have to do is meditate on it.”
Two souls in bodies far apart. One’s perspective is that of shock, no less than 12 hours of day light had passed since the death of her husband. Not knowing what was real, still numb in the moment and not sure what tomorrow would bring.
The other perspective of an innocent 7 year old who had woke up early that morning to the news of his great uncle’s death and who couldn’t stop himself from crying because it was his first earthly understanding of how we view death.
Crying and asking “can’t we call 911″ but as evening approached his tears turned into something else and he began to remember what he knew prior to birth.
“Close your eyes Tante, and meditate on Uncle Lee, he will come to you”.
And I looked at the innocence of the one and the full life of the other, and wondered when do we loose the innocence, the remembering, the code our souls are born with and die with. Why can’t that world and our world be combined?
And then I saw my aunt retreat into herself as though she were running through a desert when the sun was at its strongest. She didn’t move, the movement was behind her eyes and in her fear, her confusion, her sorrow. It was a moment I had seen before, and a moment I had felt fortunately less often then others around me.
And in that moment all I could imagine was a song of angels waiting with their wings spread wide gently guiding my son’s great uncle to the other side.
Yet, I couldn’t help but believe, that while I was merely imagining, my son knew exactly what was going on.
I hope he will always be able to see, and never confuse it with his imagination. but who knows, maybe it’s just my imagination that even allows me to think any of it is possible.