What Dreams May Come

A friend posted on Facebook today about a conversation she had with one of her customers about death and what comes next. This is a topic that my friends and I have gone rounds over.

There are so many religions out there, who are we to say that one is right or wrong. Having said that, and I do believe it whole-heartedly, I refer to myself as a Episcopalian Pagan. I lean more towards Wicca and Druidism, but grew up going to the local Episcopal church. I had a crisis of faith after my priest committed suicide. His death all but tore my church apart, and I have struggled with organized religion since then. I took a couple of religion classes at college and learned that I am more spiritual than religious. I still occasionally go to church with the family, but I don't fear that I will burn in Hell (not that the Episcopalians ever preached that) because I sleep in on Sundays now.

I am a firm believer in reincarnation and karma. How else can you explain ghosts/spirits and deja vu? I have made several HUGE mistakes in this lifetime that will doom me to coming back as a slug/dung beetle or something equally as gross in my next life. Maybe I will get it closer to perfection the next time.

I cannot commit 100% to Heaven or Hell, but do believe in the path to enlightenment that will hopefully reunite us with ...(fill in the blank here), who knows, I like the idea of stardust. I have no desire to believe that there is a place where my loved ones might not be with me in the "afterlife" (If I've lived a great life and ascend to Heaven, but my best friend turned up in Hell, that's not the idea of a perfect place for me. I'm also talking about my animals, for they are my children, and I have been told by many that there aren't animals in Heaven. Bah.) While death is inevitable those loved ones are always with us in our hearts, we live, love and grow because they were in our lives. And just maybe they will be there again. This to me is why we have instant connections to certain people, because in someway that person is/has always supposed to have been there. Kindred Spirits as Anne Shirley said.

Now I sound like a crazy person that is just rambling and I will stop.