God: “I’m sure it doesn’t. But it should take your breath away with it’s meaningfulness. There will be nothing more meaningful said in this entire conversation.
“When you know that life is eternal you never again fear ‘death,’ because you see and understand the nature of it, the wonder of it, the glory of it, the perfection of it, and the impeccable gift that it is.”
G : “That would be a very good book. A small handbook. A little ‘instruction book’ for the dying and their loved ones. That would be an extraordinary contribution.
“In the meantime, we have this conversation to complete, so that you and others who are exploring these subjects more deeply may more deeply understand them.
“The question now is not whether, when you have finished this conversation, you will understand what you have always wanted to understand, but whether you will believe what you will have come to know.”
G : “Because humanity has always had the most difficult time believing the most wonderful truths, and the truths about ‘death’ are the most wonderful truths of all.”
G : “You see? There you are already, questioning them. Oh, ye of little faith…do you not see that when you are questioning them, you are questioning your Self?
“If you love the truths that you find in your soul, do not abandon them because someone outside of your soul does not agree with them or ridicules or questions them. You are not saying that your truth is THE truth, You are saying that it is YOUR truth.
G : “This is sufficient. That is enough. In fact, that is more than enough. That is very powerful. Do you know how powerful it is to have gotten in touch with your own truth--about anything?
“Others will get in touch with their truth as a result of this conversation as well. Because, ‘in truth,’ this is not just your conversation, it is theirs also. Everyone who is reading these words has created this conversation. Do you know that? Do you know that, as you are reading these words, you are creating where they are going next?”
N : That is a mind-boggling concept. It is hard to get my head around, because the end of this book already exists. We could flip to the end right now and see what it says. So if all of us reading this are creating it as we go, how come the end already exists?
G : “The book on the shelf of the richly appointed library already existed, too, but it did not exist in your reality until you saw it there. EVERYTHING that you have created is already there. Everything. The fact that it is already there does not mean that you have not created it. It simply means that you are not aware that you have created it, because from where you are now in the Space/Time Continuum you cannot see that.”
N : I am so happy now. I feel as though I’m being given the information behind the cosmology of the universe. This is the mechanism of life and death. So I suppose now I can go ahead and die…
G : “You will choose to ‘die’ when your life on earth is complete. Your life on earth will be complete when you have experienced all that you came here to experience.”
N : I believe that. But how does the parent of a child who has been raped, mutilated, and murdered call the circumstances of such a death ‘perfect’? How do people who saw their loved ones perish on 9/11 accept such a death as ‘perfect’?
G : “I have already said that the elegance of life’s design is like that of a snowflake. It seems too perfect to be believed, too good to be true. Yet I tell you this: Comfort for the bereaved will be found in the sure knowledge of the certain perfection of God.
“All things happen in their perfect timing and in their perfect way. It is not always possible to see this, to perceive this, from the extremely narrow perspective of human experience. That is a limitation of the physical world. It is a limitation that can, however, be overcome.
“Many ‘prophets’ and ‘sages’ have overcome this limitation of perception by choosing a different perspective, by looking at life a new way. Alas, their messages are often ignored.
"Their insights are frequently belittled. Often, they themselves are condemned. And so the blind continue to lead the blind, because you will not listen to those who can see.
N : You see, we have this all ‘separated out’ here on earth. We’ve got it that life on earth is the trial and the tribulation enabling us to get INTO the Kingdom of God. And it’s our idea that death is the way we get in.
G : “There is no way to get into the Kingdom of God. It is not a place you get into or out of. It is a place where you always ARE. It is the only place that you can ever be.”
G : “That is because you do not remember who you are, and you do not treat others as who they are. If you did, you would experience heaven on earth. You would be Home with God everywhere. And always.”
G : “Conversations such as this are one way. Do not keep this conversation to yourself. Make sure it gets into as many hands as possible. Share it with the world.
N : You mentioned this earlier, when we talked about people feeling victimized. You suggested that we change our perspective and see everything as perfect even when, in human terms, it is obviously not.
G : “Perhaps especially when it’s not. For such awareness will bring you peace in the midst of turmoil, rest in the space of weariness, forgiveness in the moment when resentment and anger might appear, and a greater love for life than you have ever experienced before.
“Search for the perfection in every moment. Search for it. Diligently. Faithfully. Know that it is there, and that you will find it if you will but look deeply.
“Now, do you remember when I said, quite early in this conversation, that we would have another opportunity to explore this idea of ‘perfection,’ and that I was going to ask YOU to give ME an example of that? Well, I am going to ask you now to tell the story of Billy, from your workshop.”
N : ‘Helen’ was one of ninety-seven participants at one of my ReCreating Yourself retreats, held during the week between Christmas and New Year’s every year for the past ten years. On the final night of the retreat before our New Year’s Eve resolution ritual. Helen raised her hand and asked for the microphone.
Helen: ‘I’ve heard a lot this week about how God is our best friend, how God is wonderful and loving, and how we should have a conversation with God every day,’ she began. “Well, if I had a conversation with God, I would tell Him that I am damned angry with Him.’
N : ‘Well, just what are you so angry with God about?’
N: "งั้น คุณโกรธพระเจ้าเรื่องอะไรครับ❓"
Helen took a deep breath, : ‘Almost twenty-one years ago we adopted a baby boy. We had tried to conceive for five years, without success. It looked like we would never be parents. My biological clock was running out. So we adopted Billy.
Three weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant. I had the child, another boy, and raised them both as my own, although we did tell our first son when he grew a little older that he as adopted. We wanted to be truthful with him. We told him we loved him exactly the same as his brother, and we knew that our actions showed him that.
‘Billy was eight. He must have innocently shared this information with some of the children at school, because one day he came home from school very angry. He had been teased on the playground about not having any mommy. You know how kids can be.
They can sometimes be very cruel. They were saying things like, ‘Billy’s so ugly that even his mom didn’t want him.’ Anyway, he came home so hurt and just furious, wanting to know why his mommy would give him away--and demanding to know who she was and to see her right away.
‘I felt terrible, of course. First, for the anguish and hurt that I could see Billy was going through, and second for myself. I was filled with sadness because, of course, I felt that I was Billy’s mommy. I stood there remembering the nights of changing diapers and nursing him through sickness and all the things that mommies do, and my heart broke that Bill didn’t see me as ‘Mom’ anymore, didn’t think of me that way.
But I understood--I have to understand--and I promised him that when he was older, if he still felt he wanted to, he would meet his mom. I would do whatever I could to find her and arrange it.
‘This seemed okay with Billy, but he never did get over his anger. He just had this anger all through the rest of his childhood and into this teen years, which were very difficult for us. We all got through it, but it wasn’t easy on any of us in the family, and certainly not on me.
‘When Billy had grown older, we talked again about seeing his mother, and we made an agreement that when he turned eighteen I would begin searching for her if he still wanted me to. Throughout the rest of his teen years he reminded me of that promise.
H : ‘Now I want you to tell me,’ she snapped, ‘how any kind of loving God could have let that happen, just when Billy was about to meet his mother, just when his father and I were about to reconcile the strain that his yearning had placed on our relationship I want you to tell me, why would God do that?’
N : The room plummeted into stunned silence. I was stopped cold. I stared at Helen for a moment, then closed my eyes and went within. I heard my thoughts. ‘Okay, God, this is it. I don’t know what to say here. You’ve got to help me out.’
‘Billy died on that day because that was the day on which he was promised he would meet his mother--and he did. On that day his mother was not on this earth.’
‘There is no such thing as an accident, and nothing happens by coincidence. You were given a biological son, even though you had not been able to conceive and it looked as if you might never be able to do so, because there was a plan--a larger plan--in place.
You were given this special gift of your biological son in exchange for your willingness to take Billy in, give him a home, love him and raise him as your own, and care for him until he was ready to meet his mother and she was ready to meet him.
‘The day of Billy’s death was the happiest day of his life. His gratefulness to you for bringing him to that moment is eternal. It surrounds your heart even now, and creates with you an everlasting bond.
‘There is perfection in Life’s design. In every human circumstance and experience. In every condition. Our opportunity is to notice this. That is also our release. Our salvation. The end to our suffering and our pain.’
Helen’s face changed immediately. Filled with anger just moments before, now it was aglow. Her whole body seemed drained of every tension. She looked relaxed for the first time in a very long while. Tears ran down her cheeks even as she smiled with a radiance that filled the room.
I’ve told this story because I want to know what Helen and all the other participants in that retreat now know. There is a ’magic formula’ that has been given to us by the heavens. It is a formula with which all sadness, all anger, all negativity surrounding any human experience is dissolved. It is a formula that allows us to re-create ourselves anew. It is a formula easy to remember, and stated in three words.
On New Years Eve. Helen handed me a note that she’d written when she’d returned to her room after a walk under the clear crisp Colorado sky the night before. Like Robert Frost and Lisel Mueller, she had also turned to poetry to speak the beauty of her knowing.