18 April 2021

I’ve always found it fascinating to hear people with no religious affiliation or belief, when describing a recently deceased loved one as “happy now to be reunited with grandma”, or Aunty Ethel, or their other previously deceased loved ones. I always assume they mean in an afterlife sort of realm, not that they were burying all their relatives in the same grave site. Maybe they were, and I’m just reading too much into it.

There are those with a religious belief who are united in their belief of a life after death, in heaven as it were, and this seems to have filtered off to those who while not following the beliefs of the religion, seem to accept the comfort of a ‘gone on to a better place’ sentiment.

My question today is – “where do you go?”. I’m not addressing the people who quite firmly have the belief that ‘once you’re done, you’re done. You will live on in the hearts of your loved one, but your game has ended. You only get one life, and it’s finished’.

I’m talking about those people who either have the religious faith that there is a heaven and those who, while they don’t buy into that stuff, still accept comfort from the fact that their loved ones are reunited somehow, somewhere, with those who’ve gone before.

Early cultures believed that dead people became stars in the sky, and remained looking over their loved ones forever. Maybe that’s why sportspeople instinctively look upwards when acknowledging their deceased loved ones when scoring a goal, or doing something amazing in the sporting world.

Is there a (heavenly) realm where all our souls head to after we’ve died? Where does this realm exist? In amongst the stars somewhere? Somewhere beyond the stars maybe?

Or does it exist all around us? Are our souls all reincarnated in an animal or other living being? Like the ultimate universal recycling program?

I read a while back about ‘thin places’, the divide between the physical, earthly life, and the spiritual realm. Cathie Lambert in a post on deepwaterdwelling.com.au, says “Mostly we go about our daily business in a very earthed way, unaware of what lies beyond. There are moments, however, when the mysterious otherness comes very close and we are often left in awe and wonder….. Some feel there are particular places where the veil is very thin, sacred spaces where we are able to be more open and aware to what lies beyond. Thin places, they are called, places that have been known throughout the centuries to be particularly sacred or spiritual”.

I like the concept that the souls, the essence of our loved ones, exist all around us. That the mortal plane of human life, and the plane of the souls of the deceased, are both present in the here and now.

Has all this had too many religious overtones for you? Let’s convert it to love – we can all easily relate to that.

I’m suggesting that the love that surrounds a person during their life, doesn’t disappear after their death. It exists as a veil that surrounds us all. There are places and times of significance to individuals where this veil is more obvious – thin, maybe.

Where do you feel close to your deceased loved ones? Indigenous people in Australia and throughout the world have definite sites of significance relating to their ancestors.

I feel a connection to my own deceased father through a particular bird, but there are places I’ve visited also, where all I can do is sit still and absorb the feeling that settles over me.

Is it just the amazement of the beauty of our world, or a sense of the veil of love that surrounds all our lives?