The older I am becoming, the more I am relishing life itself. I am aware of how much we busy ourselves and struggle in the world of form. It isn’t easy to live in time and space when we think that it is all that there is. However, I believe, there is so much more.

We are experiencing a workshop/salon we have put together at Center for Spiritual Living Kaua`i on immortality and death. We discuss what we truly believe and how affects how we live our lives? It’s been powerful, enlightening and we are realizing how important it is to have these kind of conversations. It is not just about grieving, although that is part of it. It is about digging in and talking about the inevitability that we are all destined to walk the path to the next experience after this.

Yes, I believe there is a next experience, but I also know that next experience is determined by how I live here and now. I don’t believe all of a sudden, I will be enlightened. I believe I will take my consciousness with me because that is all that I am. What comes next? That I do not know. However, what I do know is that I am safe and always taken care of. After all, that has been my experience thus far. There is a Presence within me that guides and directs me. I deeply sense and feel this.

We’ve experienced several deaths of those close to us at our Center. We wonder where they are because we’ve lost physical contact. I know that I feel them. I hear their voices. When I reach out to my own father, I feel like he is there with me. He’s helped me on several occasions. I believe when we open up more to eternity, it opens up more to us. It’s that spiritual idea that when we turn to God, God turns to us like in the story of the Prodigal Son.

When I speak of God, I am not talking about a judgmental man in the heavens. I am talking about the very essence of us. The Divine Love that is breathing and living through us. It is very comforting to know that this Divine Power, which I truly sense and feel, is here no matter what.

As I am writing this, I can feel that my loved ones who have passed are right here. I hear this from others, too. The other day a much older person I know said she has been having lots of conversations with her son who passed many years ago. It comforts her.

There is a mystery about immortality and death that is very delicious, indeed. I use both words “immortality” and “death” because they are both states of our belief system. We can’t have one without the other. Ernest Holmes the Founder of Science of Mind wrote, “Our contention is not that dead men live again, but that a living man never dies.”

What if that were so? What if we were immortal right now, and this experience was just that – an experience in time and space with a physical body? What if when we die to this body, we merely keep going, making decisions about our next experience? I do believe we are always at choice.

I believe that the more we are not afraid to ask these questions and live in the mystery, the better we will live life here and now. Life is not about death. It is about living. The Science of Mind philosophy teaches me how to live the best life here and now, which is preparing me to take my turn at death’s door. We will all take our turn, and I believe the more we can live life fully, the more gracious that turn will be.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andreillo-Feren, Author, Teacher, Artist and Co-Spiritual Director of CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence. Find my books on Amazon