Mindy Reflection #46

This is my favorite time of year. When I was a kid Halloween meant candy. It was so wonderful to fill up my bag as high as I could. My little brother reminded me that when he was sick on Halloween, I came home from trick or treating, and shared my candy with him. He still thinks it’s the nicest thing I’ve ever done for him. Candy was the currency of love in our family. I’m just glad my sugar rush didn’t stop me from being a good sister. Later in life, Halloween was about putting on a mask that I wanted you to see as opposed to the mask I wore all year round that I prayed you’d never notice. Eventually, as I grew older and my family and friends crossed to the other side, Halloween and Day of the Dead became a time to celebrate their lives and invite them to hang out for a while. I’ve been thinking lately about how we never celebrate death itself. I think death has a bad reputation. So, in the spirit of my ghoulish nature, I’m acknowledging that death is just like life. It has an aliveness we don’t understand. The dead haven’t stopped living; they’ve just moved to a different location. We think death is the end, but it is only the end of life as we know it. It is not the end of living. There is an expression “as above so below”. My parents are not in some waiting room hoping I’ll contact them so they will have something to do. They are busy learning and evolving. The dead, like us, are trying to reach their highest level of being. The only difference is they are spared the physical form, gravity, emotions, petty concerns, and all the other burdens of being human. How wonderful that the heavens and earth are forever connected. As they rise up the spirit ladder, we rise too. As we rise up, we light up the universe. Today I honor death and the beautiful spirits who work so hard to bring us towards the light.