Happy Healthy YOU
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Kelly Spencer - Happy Healthy YOU
(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)
Upon waking up in our loft bedroom, the grey sky could be seen from the skylight window in our roof. The very top branches of the giant tree across the road were peeking in the window. The tree limbs were swaying and waving so gently and just barely in sight. Even though the sky was darker and cloudy, a glowing red ball could be seen. (Well it looked like a ball to me as I hadn’t put my glasses on yet.)
My husband said, “it’s a cardinal.”
I could barely see it even after donning my specs, so I grabbed my camera with a zoom lens. It was as if the cardinal was luminous or the sun was just reaching through the darkish sky to beam upon the top of this tree directly on this bird, so that we would see him. He was beautiful.
A smile filled every cell of my body. I immediately thought of my father on the other side.
In author Lyn Ragan’s book Signs From the Afterlife, she shares the question most often asked by those who have lost a loved one. “What signs do we look for?” Her reply is “there are no rules” when it comes to signs from those crossed over. “If you can think it, so can they.”
My sweet friend and Medium, Kerrilynn Shellhorn who can see, hear, smell and feel those that have passed, says that the spirits are around us all the time, whether we are aware or not and whether we ask them to be around us or not.
She shares those that we are connected to, in the spirit world like to give us signs. As a medium, Shellhorn offers insight by connecting family to loved ones but that they are not here to give us all the answers. “They show us signs to give slivers of connection and support but are not here to live our lives. They give us breathing room to grow.”
Kerrilynn shares “they” give us gestures to validate us and to let us know that we are not alone. “Love continues and forgiveness can happen in all realms.”
“Their power is omnipotent.” They have a time and space irrelevance and “can be in 10 places at once”. We can ask them to offer signals of their presence or invite them to connect with us in a loving and healing way.
“Finding a dime in a Walmart parking lot is lucky, finding a dime under your pillow after you asked them to bring you a dime, is a connection.”
Kerrilynn teaches her clients to be mindful, to connect with their own breath and stay in the moment by connecting to holistic self: body, mind and spirit. She suggests asking “them” what you want specifically such as hearing a particular song on the radio. Get them to “pony up” so you know it is them.
You can also connect with them in dream state.
How do you know if it’s a dream versus a visitation or connection with spirit in a dream?
Kerrilynn states that a dream will leave you with vague recollections and a visitation or connection in dream state will be very vivid.
“If you think it’s a visitation in a dream, write it out. In three months, rewrite your memory of the perceived visitation in a dream state and compare notes. The memory of a visitation compared to a dream often remains very clear.”
Dreams can be a place to reconnect and share time with those crossed over. You can ask those in spirit to meet you in your dreams at your favorite place to visit, such as a park bench by a creek.
Although some religions frown upon connecting to spirit for reasons I am unclear on and hope to investigate more, it feels to me, a natural connection. And while I do understand that not all spirits are rainbow bright, if we are not conjuring or summoning but rather just connect to those that are around us naturally, I feel grateful for the little signs from those I love that are not in the physical realm any longer.
I remember as a child being at church and the minister sharing that we are eternal beings and that when we leave our body and this world our spirit lives forever. I have felt my father’s presence around me since his passing and often ask him for advice or just tell him that I love him, especially when I see lady bugs or cardinals. To me, this feels good.
At my father’s funeral a lady buy landed on the mantle where his urn and handsome picture stood. When we went to the cemetery ceremony a lady bug landed on my mom’s shoulder. Upon returning to the funeral home to take the flowers up to the luncheon, the van we were putting flowers into had dozens of lady bugs suddenly land on it. At my parent’s home that week, a lady bug walked across the cupboard where my dad’s favorite bottle of scotch stood.
Over the last couple of years, lady bugs have shown up continually and frequently. They land on my yoga mat or lap top at moments when I am thinking of my father, they visit me weekly on my bedside table lamp... even in the winter. In fact, on the recent day the cardinal peeked in our window from branches in the sky across the road, that cold eve a lady bug landed on me before I went to bed.
Whether you believe in signs from the other side or not, I was given the opportunity to be reminded about my eternal love for a father who was my hero.
The messengers in spirit give subtle nudges but always have a purpose, states Ragan. Whether it’s to remind us, comfort us or give us a sign, there is a purpose.
I have read that signs and symbols are often small so that the spirit world can manipulate them such as coins or small animals or insects. In the first chapter of her book, Ragan shares about the “Wonders of Nature" and their remarkable symbolism of transformation, healing and wisdom. She discusses butterflies and dragonflies, hummingbirds, ladybugs, red cardinals, hawks, black crows and more.
So what signs do you look for? The best way to notice them is to simply become aware that they exist. It doesn’t hurt to observe the small wonders that are happening all around us every day.
My mother often sees doves as a sign from those crossed over, my cousin Mark sees butterflies, and my friend Dawn finds dimes.
Whatever your sign or signal, we can feel comfort knowing those we love that are no longer here in physical realm are still nearby offering repentance, forgiveness, healing and love with signs from the other side.
(If you would like to see an article on a specific topic, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca)