Finding Hope in the Return of the Light

Photo by Leah Schroeder

This is a powerful, magical time.  The return of the light celebrated by the Solstice, the powerful full moon, and the celebrations of various faiths around the world create the vibration of joy, peace and love.

I have been witnessing so much light in the past few days and have participated in and created experiences with great joy.  I feel very blessed to have the life I have and to be surrounded by so much beauty.

I have been thinking of my mother a lot in the past few days.  She transitioned to Spirit a month and a half ago, so she has been in my thoughts a lot since then.  This may be somewhat of a tribute to her.

It is a beautiful and sacred experience to witness someone’s transition.  I am deeply grateful to have been there when it was my mother’s time to leave this physical plane.  When I moved away, I didn’t think I would make it back to be with her at the end.  Once my siblings and some of my nieces and nephews arrived and we asked for her to be taken off life support, we held her, stroked her hair and sang to her in the early hours of the morning, in the hospital ICU with other patients and hospital staff nearby.  In those last precious moments, our total focus was on her.  We could feel the energy building as her time grew near.  Angels, Jesus, ancestors and a huge gathering of souls arrive to welcome her home.  We could feel it.  And when she took her final breath, we felt her spirit leave her body, like a breeze whooshing by.

My mother was a beautiful human being.  She experienced the loss of 3 children in her lifetime, much of her family and my father, her husband of sixty-six years.    She had an unshakable faith, and that faith was tested many times throughout her lifetime.  She loved to learn and write.  She was passionate about learning and writing about her family history and her own life story.  She was creative and had many ways of expressing that, most significantly through all the quilts she made.  She was compassionate and kind.  Her life was a life of service to her family and to her church.  She served in many ways.

My mother has been a significant force in my life, particularly in the past few years.  Sometimes, that may have felt like a sense of obligation or co-dependence on both our parts, but it was really out of love and gratitude for each other.  When I moved away, leaving her was the hardest part.  It was an important shift for both of us and in some ways for our whole family.  Space has been created for healing.  I have witnessed that in many ways.

Even though I miss being able to pick up the phone to have a conversation with her, I feel her presence so strongly.  I feel both she and my dad are working together to assist me and all the rest of my family in ways we couldn’t even begin to comprehend.  My mom shared a dream she had a few weeks before she passed away.  She saw herself helping me teach the energy healing workshops I offer.  She has never really understood what I do, so this dream was strange for her.  I knew what it meant.

I feel the love of my parents in a way that was beyond their ability when they were here in their physical form, even though, particularly in their later years, they learned to say “I love you” to their children more frequently.  This awareness has really been a gift for me and has softened my grieving process and given me peace.  I do not feel sadness or the heaviness of grief.  Certainly there are moments when a song or message I come across reminds me of her and the tears flow, but mostly I feel joy.  I am so happy for her, both that she and my dad are together again and that they are home and doing some powerful work from where they are in Spirit.

We are all beautiful beings of light, here on this earth plane for this short period of time, contained in a vessel of a physical body.  When we leave that body, we are no longer contained and are able to shine brighter and bigger than we can even imagine.  We are able to support our loved ones in a much greater capacity that we were in our physical existence.

I know many people who have lost significant loved ones in the past year, and particularly in the last couple of months.  Honour your grief.  Give yourself whatever space you need to process whatever that means for you.  It is not my intention to diminish the pain of that loss for you.  Just know that even though your loved one is not here in their physical presence, they are with you and supporting you and showering you with love from where they are.

This time of year with the Winter Solstice we are reminded that when we are in our darkest days, the light will return.  With the light, comes new possibilities and a time for new growth to emerge.  May that give you hope and a sense of peace.

Holding you with love and light.  Blessings to you.

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Leah Schroeder is a Reiki Master, Integrated Energy Therapy® Master-Instructor, and ThetaHealing® Practitioner, www.lifeforcehealingservices.ca .  “I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. For most of my life this has been and currently is the place I call home. I spent 17 years working in Financial Services.  A strong sense that there is something more I am supposed to do in the world, a fascination with energy and a series of intuitive nudges have led me to begin practising Reiki,  ThetaHealing®, and IET®. I have a desire to learn, practice, and teach other healing modalities, empowering others to help shift the consciousness of humanity.  I am grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and stories with you.”