True value is not on what you own, but on who you are. Dying people know this. Their belongings are of no consequence whatsoever at the end. What other people think of them, or what they have achieved in belongings, does not even enter their thinking at such a time. In the end...

While time is required, the mere passage of hours is not enough to resolve a grief. It is also important to make time our ally, working with it rather than against it as it carries us toward new cycles of life. How can we cooperate with time, the great healer, and let it perform its task?

Sometimes there are circumstances that we aren’t meant to change or heal. Sometimes it is time for a soul to move on in its journey. Life is like that. We have, throughout our lives, windows of opportunity through which we can transition right on out of our earthly lives. Dying is part of living, and it is...

For me, ever since my sister's death in 1987, not only have I grown closer to her, I've also come to see that every decision, risk, adventure, accomplishment, deed, job, presentation, award, relationship, and experience — basically everything in my life — has been impacted and inspired by my relationship with my sister and her heavenly guidance.

There’s something to giving the end-of-life process its due, as opposed to our historical attitude of pretending to ignore death or treating it as though it were a distant taboo — at least, when it comes to having a family discussion about the matter. Here’s the issue...

Parents are often at a loss at how to explain the death of a loved one to a child. Some of the common explanations may create more harm than not...

Before my near-death experience, I thought there was no afterlife and, consequently, no continuation of consciousness. In my view, death was total, complete, and utterly final. Much to my surprise and joy, after my near-death experience the notion of...

My mother died three years ago, and her death and dying process has changed my life. I’ve never been afraid of death itself. Rather, I’ve been afraid of the process it takes to get there. My mother’s dying process played out my worst nightmare. She...

Jenny was eager to talk to me about her five-year-old nephew, who she was beginning to believe was the reincarnation of her grandfather. She hadn't known that it was possible for a child to be the reincarnation of a family member. Now Dylan's strange behaviors were beginning to make sense to her.

Could any of us watching Peter Pan struggling with his shadow -- to find his shadow, to keep his shadow and, ultimately, to "bind" his shadow to him -- have known that the shadow carries powerful psychological implications? We might have noticed that Peter seemed different once his shadow was firmly attached. He was still delightful and charming but slightly subdued and not quite so self-centered and irresponsible. A bit more... dare we say, grown up? As Peter Pan could tell us, the shadow is...

We have not done well with dying. We have denied its reality and considered it an end to life that should be avoided at all costs. We tell our children that Grandma died and went to a beautiful place called Heaven, and then we quit saying her name. Instead of seeing death as the next stage of life and exploring the possibilities of such a belief, we choose to let fear keep us ignorant.

"Looks like this tree could use some water." I looked over at my neighbor, standing 30 feet away, beside the cypress tree my former boyfriend, Denver, had planted the previous spring. His words echoed and rolled slowly across the lawn that divided us. My hands tingled, and I clasped them together to keep them from shaking...

"Is she going to make it?" I asked, throwing my arms around my grandfather's stooped shoulders, enfolding him in a tight embrace. My grandmother was dying of cancer. What does one ask in such a dismal situation? Oma and I had often talked about spiritual ideas. She firmly believed we all have souls...

A testimonial of undying love and the presence of life after death... Curiously, my study of metaphysics did not really begin in earnest until the day of my Grandmother's death, when I became convinced that life did, in fact, continue after "death".

At the time, I was totally unprepared for the dramatic and extraordinary events that would unfold over the next 21 days. I would see and learn of a few more of the mysteries of the universe. I would get a glimpse of the phenomenal wonders and magic of life, physical death, life after death, and the transition that takes place during this period.

One day, I asked my dad if he would be there when God called me home, and he promised he would. He told me he would be watching over me. One evening, many years later, Mom called and said that Dad had just died. It was the first time I had lost anyone close to me. I was devastated! I don't believe anyone is ever prepared for...

After living sixty or sixty-five years people tend to move around a lot. Many buy and use house trailers and motor homes, enduring cramped conditions to seek new horizons. Still others devise various forms of travel to see the world or the country 'while still young enough to enjoy it.' Many, if not most, hike, walk, swim, jog, cycle, climb, swing golf clubs or tennis racquets or fly rods. The shared desire seems to be to achieve a state of almost perpetual motion. Action symbolizes life. Death is such a very long stillness. There seems to be a grim universal blind hope that it will be harder for the death dart to hit a moving target.

"The times they are a changing", so wrote Bob Dylan in the early '60s. The title had its meaning to the young people of the period, but it has always had a universal meaning. The times have always changed and will continue to do so.

by Margaret Coberly. One important and obvious realization that can come to light when thinking about death is that death is inevitable. Through the process of further reflection, a greater awareness of death occurs and eventually a calm presence in the face of death can be developed.

Modern society spends considerable effort on disinfecting the experience of dying. This inclination to hide and exclude death from everyday social activity is supported by the transfer of the place of death from home to the hospital.

I didn't ever remember hearing about Universal Laws, yet, strangely I understood what they were saying even as it came out of their mouths. These were the guides for the universe created especially for us and I had to know more. I knew this was the truth as I had never experienced it.