What you are about to read is something I wrote on June 10, 2007, 3 days before my father passed away.  With all that is happening in the world today, and on this meaningful day in the Jewish calendar, I wanted to share this very meaningful and personal post.  So many of our days recently have been ordinary days interrupted with moments of tremendous sadness.  On this, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, and at a time when the events in the world are often incomprehensible,   I present you with what I hope provides you with some faith and inspiration.

What I write today I do not write for myself, but I write for those who struggle with emotional pain, anxiety, and doubt. It is for those who out of love or need or responsibility, take upon themselves what feels like the weight of the world.

I am not sure that this falls into the category of religion, but there certainly is a place for it there. This weight that these people feel, the pain, the hurt, is far more easily removed than they realize.  Sometimes all they need to do is to allow God to lift it.

Let’s start with one very important concept and from there it will become so much simpler. When we know our loved ones are going to pass on, or have passed on, we need to make a distinction between how it hurts us to no longer have them in our lives, from the existence and life that they have had and are about to encounter. Let’s work under the assumption that if it hurts to see them go, that we have memories that will make us smile and laugh and shed tears of joy for what they brought to our lives. In that we can celebrate their life and glorify their memory.

And in their passing let’s realize that the human soul is only less powerful than God and is in essence a part of God’s manifestation on earth. And with that knowledge and understanding we must remember and understand that not only will there be no pain and suffering for our loved ones who leave us, but more than likely there will be a bliss, a joy, and an eternal beauty that we find so difficult to grasp on to on this earth. Ironically it us, those who are left behind, who need to be uplifted in spirit. And the one most poignant way to do so, is to allow the souls of our loved ones to do that which they either have begun, or truly desire to do. To guide us, prepare us, and teach us. As long as we realize that it is their souls attempting to instruct our souls, then, and only then will we bring that true connection and symmetry between our life on earth and the life our souls live now and later.

Be strong everyone and be sure to keep moving forward. But at one point if you truly want to achieve an even greater joy with those you have loved and lost, let go, trust, and allow yourself to be guided to a higher level together with them.