What Do We Know?

Before following a spiritual path -- or, at least, consciously -- I would watch the show from the early 90's called "911 Emergency." The show reenacted actual 911 emergency scenarios and it interviewed close friends and family. Sometimes, the "victim" survived and sometimes they didn't. The manner of death might vary from murder, accident or sudden shutdown of the body (heart attack, stroke, blood vessel bursting, etc.) What was interesting at the time was that often there was something that the surviving loved one mentioned very matter-of-factly towards the end of their interview: "They never ever told me they loved me, but that one night they did."

Later, in my spiritual path, I began to wake up and wondered -- do we know that we are about to die? Do we get ready to physically "check out"? What do we know? Do we -- on some level -- chose to die? Native american indians believe that we know when we are ready to move on. Are we just flesh and blood with a coincidental demise? Or, is there a part of us that is running the show -- that decides when it's time to "move on." And, how much responsibility do we have in this?

Firstly, what does it mean to move on? Some believe in reincarnation -- a sort of soul recycling. The body is only a vehicle -- borrowed for a lifetime. We chose families that we have "karma" with to learn our lessons, continue our growth, work on our issues. The people who come into our lives are others we have known in past lives. We are drawn together as yet another opportunity to work out our issues together.

Have you ever met someone that you either loved or hated immediately? If you believe in this, then can it be possible that you already know them from some past lives? Even if this theory of reincarnation were false, would it be to your own benefit to work on understanding why you feel so strongly about this new person? Can you correct this? Can you see that this might also be a mirror of aspects of yourself that you do not want to see? Can you correct this?

Do we reincarnate? Do we recycle so to speak? Are we a body containing an energy system? Are we energy vibrating a specific frequency and connecting to others on that frequency? Are we many levels of being -- some conscious, some unconscious, some serving us, some not. What are we? What moves on? Is it our soul, our higher self? Do we know when we shall pass?

I will be bold and say I think we do -- on some level.

This may be quite controversial -- but if you sit and listen -- with an open mind -- to the horrendous stories that are told on the news -- especially when someone has died quite suddenly -- once, again there is this matter-of-fact statement at the end of the story about how the deceased lost someone they cared about only recently. I have heard two stories of such in the last two days.

One story was an elderly man who was kind enough to open his door and give directions to a passerby in need. The stranger left but the elderly man forgot to re-lock his front door. The stranger came back and ramsacked the elderly man's home and bludgeoned him to death. How awful...and, the newscaster added that the elderly man's wife of a long-time marriage had only died a few months before. Did he want to die? Why didn't he re-lock his door? Did he have "karma" with his murderer? It sounds so cold and callous to say that someone did want to die on some level. We shall never really know the truth. Does it even matter? This was a horrendous deed.

Yesterday, a 14-year old boy died suddenly of a heart attack while playing basketball. He was in good shape, played basketball many times before...what happened? The end of that broadcast mentioned that the saddest part is that now the mother is all alone since her husband -- the father of the boy -- died only a few months before. So did this boy miss his father so much that his heart broke? Perhaps, his soul wanted to be with his father's soul. Was it a landmark day -- such as the father's birthday when this happened? Why did he die playing basketball? Perhaps, this precipitated his heart attack when it was working harder...or, was it to relieve his mother of the burden of his passing knowing that he passed doing what he loved the most -- playing basketball with his friends.

And what about warnings that doing such-and-such will make us sick but yet we continue our behavior until reality comes to pass. Have we not created this or is it all luck of the draw? Once again, what are we truly responsible for?

Why?

Why does it happen this way for people? Some people might die if they're in a miserable marriage because they feel there's no way out. What about those who are in fairy-tale situations? Are they moving on to teach the other? Are we in a great school, learning great lessons and then it's time to move on and learn new lessons? Is it all just a coincidence? Is life all about just being here in the moment, then you die and that's it ... or is there more?

Anyway, if there is some truth to this, then can we change our decisions and choices? Can we wake up and begin to be more conscious of our every action and how we affect others? Can our paths be molded and our lessons become less extreme? We have free choice and we should use it well as God intended.

Many people blame. In fact, most of us blame someone. If a woman can't meet a nice man -- she blames all men and vice versa with men blaming women. We blame our parents, we blame our teachers, we blame the government, we blame everyone but ourselves. We all need to take accountability and free our souls.

What is your truth?