Does Spirit Live On?

[Ann]

Another post on another board made me think of something I'd like to share and ask what others here think.

My father died when I was 6, I have only a handful of memories of him, and have learned most of what I know through stories that others have told me about who he was and how he lived. It turns out, apparently, that I am very much like him in many ways. They say I have his sense of humour, his love of water and lakes, his sense of adventure and his love of life even though his was cut short in his early 40's.

I was always a good audience when my grandmother spoke of her life and how she grew up and it helped me understand the person she was. My great aunt, who never married, gave me many of her "treasures" over the years because she thought I would appreciate them most and understand the history behind each one.

My family history, good and bad, has always fascinated me and I wonder sometimes if the spirit of those who lived before me still are part of who I am today.

When I walk the beach, I feel very spiritually connected and can speak to my mother and my father in my thoughts and "feel" as if they are there with me. That may sound strange, and I don't think of them as ghosts or anything like that, it's just a sense of "presence" that I feel.

My question is, do you think that our spirit lives on in some way? Do you ever "feel" the history of a place that you visit, or sense that in some way our past, present and future are all connected in a spiritual way? Do you feel or "sense" the goodness or evil of a particular place that you have never been before. I'm told that those who have visited the concentration camps of World War 2 can "sense" or feel the pain and devestation of those places.

What do you think?

Hugs
Ann

[FaeryQueen]

Ann,
I love your post. What a wonderful question to ponder. I have a family full of alcoholics....one generation after another. This disease killed so many loved ones. I really feel at this point in time...as I type these words that my ancestors and I are healing generations of pain in this particular body....that my recovery and transformation goes out in all directions of time and space. I have many moments of "no time" where I know I am so intimately connected with all of life that I cry and laugh and then feel I could drop to earth in gratitude.
Thanks for your post.
Tanya

Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence.
Eckhart Tolle

[abtchonamission]

Ann,

My mom died when I was 11. I never really had an opportunity to know her. When they held the wake and funeral, my grandmother thought I was too young, that I wouldn't be able to handle being there. It rained HARD those two days, lots of wind, lightening...since then, I've always felt that my mother was in everything around me - the sunshine, the wind, the rain, the snow...all of it. She's everywhere all the time. I'm never without her. I 'feel' her, my grandmother, my father, around me all the time. Maybe it's got some merit to it, maybe it's just something I need to believe.

I think that it's possible that the spirit lives on in some way. I want to believe that those I love who have gone on already are still with me in some way. I don't mean ghosts - but some part of them, the part that we call 'spirit' lives on because we are there to keep it alive. We are there to feel what has been 'left behind', so to speak, to remember what was, and to keep it alive someway.

Maybe I'm wrong. But it's what I believe, and maybe, it's what I need to believe.

[Ann]

I'm glad I am not alone in this. I have done some geneology mostly for fun and to find information to pass down to the next generation. Along the way, I have found some great stories, and connections that I didn't know were even there. And through it all, I feel a "connection" with each person that is part of who I am today.

My ancesters came from Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and I feel a sense of being tied to them in some way. I'd love to go back there someday and walk where they walked and see where they lived. I feel a sense of personal history with them, and wonder what part my life might play generations from now.

Perhaps it's a sense of continuity that never ends, and that's what I meant about the past, present and future all being connected through our spirit.

It makes sense to me, yet is hard to put words to.

Hugs
Ann

[abtchonamission]

Originally Posted by Ann

It makes sense to me, yet is hard to put words to.

I feel the same way. I know that I feel something is there, but to explain it to someone else, it just doesn't sound like what I want to express.

[Kahlia]

Originally Posted by FaeryQueen

Ann,
I love your post. What a wonderful question to ponder. I have a family full of alcoholics....one generation after another. This disease killed so many loved ones. I really feel at this point in time...as I type these words that my ancestors and I are healing generations of pain in this particular body....that my recovery and transformation goes out in all directions of time and space. I have many moments of "no time" where I know I am so intimately connected with all of life that I cry and laugh and then feel I could drop to earth in gratitude.
Thanks for your post.
Tanya

Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence.
Eckhart Tolle

I also come from a very long line of alcoholics and addcits....I do KNOW that spirits exist....
3 years ago, I got bi-lateral (double) strep pneumonia. Both of my lungs completely shut down and I had to be put on a ventilator to help me breathe....life support. I was on there 28 days. While on the vent, my father was standing in the distance..I called to him, he would NOT look at me, come to me or talk to me. After I got off life support, the first day, I called my Mother from a cell phone in the ICU....while we were on the phone, my father passed away. It tells me that he was with me at a most difficult time BUT he was getting ready to go to Heavan and it was not time for me to go...after I got home from the hospital, I was lying on my couch, napping and he walked through the kitchen with a huge smile on his face. I did not get to go to his funeral as I was still hositalized. I have never worried about him....I KNOW his spirit is always with me....great subject......Kahlia

[tobstah]

i too, love your post.

and I too, have asked myself that question many times but I guess the answer scares me.

My mother brought me up believing in this kind of thing. She taught me that god is everywhere and spirits are all around us.
Sometimes when I go somewhere new, I feel an essence, some kind of connection. I make myself believe it's all in my head, that I feel that because i was told that this kind of stuff exists. and I guess that in the end it does. I believe the energy and spirit we hold within our material bodies are too strong to die, they will live on, in one form or another. Whether it be reincarnation, or a spirit, a guiding light, a tree... this can only be answered when we die. But I think that if we are open to it, we can feel the spirit of those who have passed away. The spirit of places that once were something totally different.

anyway i hope all that made sense!

[mackat]

good topic!!

i've had both my father and my first son die.

i have had powerful dream experiences around them....most vivid was my two grandfathers 'welcoming' my young son into some bright place....

I have had a couple near death experiences- not to the point of breath and heart non functioning but one bad bike accident and one whitewater neardrowning. Both times, after all the initial chaos and struggle , i felt an overwhelming connectedness to everything....

thanks again for the post

hugs
mackat

[Ann]

I've always had a strange connection with my son in dreams. I've dreamed of places I've never been but that he had been, and been able to describe them right down to fine detail. It was a bit scary for me and for him, but accurate nevertheless. I could never make them happen, nor could I make them go away if I didn't like them, they just come when they come. Sometimes they were what I believe are called "prophetic" dreams (dreams of something yet to happen) and sometimes they were dreams of what was happening at the same time as the dream.

I don't share that much, because it's pretty weird and I have absolutely no explanation for them.

But somehow, I think that we have a spiritual connection also, that is beyond my understanding but that connects us in unique way. I have heard before of this kind of thing with people who have passed on, but in our case we are both alive, although not together at this time.

You repsonses help me feel more comfortable with all this. It's an area that I haven't explored much, nor would I really even know how to. But knowing that I'm not alone allows me to be at peace with it all.

Hugs
Ann

[historyteach]

"We can see him in our minds.
We can feel him in our hearts.

Whenever we laugh
And tell stories of him
to each other, and our children
and our grand-children,
He will be with us.

He will always be a part of us
And his spirit will live on
Through each of us."
(Author unknown.)

My father died very unexpectedly three years ago tomorrow.
I miss him so much....
And at the very same time, have never felt so connected to him.
He is with me daily.
Yes, I do think our spirits live on.
And I'm so very grateful for that fact...
Thank you, Ann....for this thread...
Shalom!

[Ann]

I think his spirit is with you also, Teach. I often feel as if my mother is with me and still connected in some way.

It doesn't matter to me why this is, I'm just grateful that it is.

May his memory and spirit be with you tomorrow.

Hugs
Ann

[indigo]

My mama was always ill her mama had died at age 41 and I was born with the same heart problems, I was always afraid of her dying yet 8 months before she died my partner and I said our mama is dying and nobody else said a thing . Well my mama who always said her heart would kill her was wrong she died a prolonged cancerous death quietly and with grace. She was unconcious for most of the time the last few days and on the morning she died she opened her eyes and said to my papa "I love you" then she left. I was morbid and beret and the second night after her death I had a very real "dream" (this is not unusual for me) and she said in no uncertain terms and in her own way, for me to stop dwelling on her last months and to know she was fine...afterthat I too was fine. You may think this is silly or imagination....she strokes my hair before sleep like she used towhen I was tiny and sometimes during the day she strokes my face and her I say "oh mama's here" no-one thinks it strange. As time has passed since she did it is less frequent yet when I need it most and although less frequent it is more potent. I was 41 when my mother died and my grandfather who died before my grandmother died at 41 years too, although he took his own life.

indigo