We’re here on vacation. It’s relatively short. We came from the other side and we’ll be returning there before we know it. We see loved ones go there. We hear of some of our favourite actors and singers going there. But where is ‘there’?

Some people talk of a veil between this world and that one. Sometimes a child will say something about meeting Great Grandma before coming here, or remembering parts of another person’s life here that already took place. Sometimes, a dying person will open their eyes wide and speak of someone only they can see, as they slip through the veil to the other side. Other people will have near-death-experiences and ‘see’ their body from the viewpoint of their spirit, often hovering overhead.

The bottom line is that we are made of spirit. We are eternal. But we came to earth to live in a fragile body with a very limited memory of the other side. Yet, we all know it’s there. Countless generations and cultures have created religions and superstitions based on it. Ghost stories are told. Scary movies are produced. Deep down, we know there is more than just this physical life that runs out before we are ready.

So what if we, as eternal and perfected spirits, were a bit bored over there, and created earth so that we could come in human form to re-discover who we really are? What if things like love, compassion and caring help us to remember the other side, while anger, selfishness and hatred pull us farther from it? Can you not sense the eternal life in yourself, in others? What about in a flock of birds returning south for the winter, or flowers opening again in the spring? But all that lives is doomed to die, or is death just a return from vacation?

The autumn leaves go out in a blaze of crimson glory, but the thing that pushed each leaf off of the branch, is the new bud containing next year’s unopened leaf. There is no death, only re-birth. A beloved pet passes on. It’s spirit is no longer in the body, but is very much still alive. More so with humans, yet everything alive is made of ‘spirit-stuff’ – that miracle breath of life, that energy that is within all things living. It comes and goes to and from the other side. The veil is just a veil. Sometimes we ‘see’ through it, perhaps a loving woman who seems to be watching over her beloved kitchen, or many eyes that are seeking our protection as we venture over a dangerous area. We are not alone, and needn’t be fearful of this.

One day, our own vacation will come to an end, and we’ll be escorted down that tunnel, welcomed by loved ones, filled with intense joy and love as we regain our full spiritual nature. This life will have seemed short, and perhaps we’ll turn to someone nearby and say, ‘Let’s go do it all again!’ with a twinkle in our eye.

For more information, please visit www.thehigherpath.ca