One More Beautiful Ghost Story

Over the last two weeks on this Blog/Video Log, I've shared with you how I've been blessed by spirit reaching out to help and protect me during some of the more challenging moments in my life.  This week, I'd like to share with you one more story where a gentleman who had recently passed away was protecting his wife by reaching across the veil between life and death. 

This particular event took place when my husband, Frank and I were traveling in New Zealand in 2005.  We had always longed to go there knowing how truly beautiful it is in so many ways.  For our accommodations we preferred farm stays and home stays as this gave us the opportunity to make friends and have more personal interactions.  New Zealand's people are bright, intelligent, creative and kind.  The landscape is spectacular.  And for me, as a working psychic, I was amazed and delighted to discover that my clairvoyant function was extremely heightened every day that we were there.  I was able to avert danger, interact with nature and sense the presence of spirit at a much more profound level.  

The story, that I'd like to share with you now, took place after we had crossed from one "island" to the next.  At the ferry station we decided to take a taxi van with several other travelers to our separate destinations in the area.  I helped the driver load our luggage into his enclosed trailer.  Then off we went.  After dropping off most of the other tourists, but with still a few to go, we arrived at our destination, the home of a woman whom we had contacted a day or two before.  

Frank jumped out to go to her door and be sure that we had arrived at the correct address and I got into the trailer with the cabby to sort out our bags and began placing them on the curb.  Frank came and got a load of our cases and took them in.  Then an older gentleman, presumably the husband of our hostess arrived on the curb full of appreciative and welcoming softly murmured comments.  After a quick little exchange of smiles, I resumed my activity in the trailer and emerged a few moments later with the last of our bags.  From the curb, I saw the elder gentleman enter the front door of the home and I then followed after him. 

Once inside, I met our hostess, who was just showing Frank to our room, right near the entrance.  I went on into the room to freshen up while she invited Frank to come upstairs and see the kitchen.  After showing Frank around, she then went up to the third level to resume watching a very exciting tennis match on the telly, and invited us to join her, if we'd like, once we had settled in.  

After looking around, Frank returned downstairs and I asked how he liked meeting her husband.  Frank was nonplussed by this and said that her husband and her two teen-aged children had all died the previous year in an automobile accident.  Our hostess had shown him a photo of them.  She also said that she was looking for a little more income and that we were her first home stay guests.  It was right after that that she had excused herself to go upstairs to finish watching the game. 

Hearing this I followed Frank up to the kitchen area to see the picture and there, in a photo, with two beautiful youngsters and our hostess beside him, was the older gentleman who had greeted me with smiles of welcome out in front of their home.  Apparently the husband, unbeknownst to our hostess, had reached across the veil to greet us at the curb to see if wee would be suitable guests in their home.  Evidently we passed his approval and received his welcome.

I am touched to know that our loved ones can help us not only in life, but also in death.  They watch over us, whether we are aware of it or not, just making sure that all is well.

© Josephine Laing, 2015

All Is Well, Happiness, and Joy

Peace Pilgrim once said, "Who could know God and not be joyous?"  When we overcome the illusion of our separation from the divine we find ourselves in joyous contact with the Ultimate Reality from which we spring. This connection frees us from any misunderstanding we might have about ourselves and the nature of life. It allows us to experience joy.  

I first discovered a sense of the divine during my early teenage years when I was with my horse Duchess.  I reveled in the beauty of the natural world, admiring the energy of the trees, the soil, and the air surrounding us.  We can experience this feeling of reverence whenever we are in contact with nature.  

For me the divine is free from association with religion.  It is the ultimate source of the universe and of consciousness.  I like to think of the ultimate mystery as God and that God is the mystery of pure love.  It is the totality of everything.  The illusion of our separation from the divine is the cause of all of our suffering. This is what robs us of our joy. 

Though happiness and joy may seem pretty similar, they are actually quite distinct.  Happiness is an externally based form of pleasure.  We become happy when someone gives us a present or a compliment, or when we find ourselves in a lovely environment.  We take a ride at an amusement park and we laugh. 

On the other hand, joy percolates up from deep within ourselves.  Joy is linked to our sense of "All is Well."  No matter what, we know the rightness of everything.  We feel this way when we are doing what we truly want to do, when we follow our inspirations, when we open our hearts in love.

Everything is a part of the totality and when we know that we are learning and growing, a sense of well-being pervades our every experience.  Years ago a friend of mine shared with me a saying that really knocked my socks off when I first heard it.  "Gratitude is my only reaction."  I see now how very profound this idea is. 

One beautiful way to reconnect with our joy is to take a moment to stop and think, how many times have you brought to your awareness that great mystery, that deep love, that ultimate source of creation?  Have you seen it in the eyes of another?  Have you felt it in the breeze in your hair?  Did you feel it in the sun from the window as it warmed your hand? 

I invite you this week to see how many times a day we can reach for that joy.  Find that connection with something larger than ourselves and just surrender ourselves to it.  Allowing it to cause that deep joy of connectedness, percolating up from the very roots of our being.  

© Josephine Laing, 2014