GRATITUDE: OUR SPIRITUAL LINK
Daddy and Gummy
On December 10th, 2018 my dearest friend died. Jimmy Rogers Underwood took his last breath and moved to his rightful Spiritual seat. The hours leading to his death were not full of sorrow and regret, but of Spiritual rejoicing by him and his family. He called upon the name of “Jesus” as he sang the song “Walk with Me Lord” with family members surrounding his bed. To witness someone being fully present during their process of transitioning was such a gift.
My last moments of embracing and sharing the love with him gave both of us peace.
At one point in his process of letting go he became silent in my arms as I whispered, “Daddy, your Soul is whole. You have lived a great life and you can be at peace.” What an honor to have loved someone so deeply that in their last hours of living we both found comfort in knowing that the love between us was “Intact.” There are no moments of regret only times of deeply missing the friendship we shared.
Once the dust of his passing settled, I found myself needing to sit and be still with the emotions that were stirring up inside of me. I have learned how to be present with my feelings and take responsibility for my emotions in a way that allows me to name what it is I am feeling and why.
One morning about a week after his passing I awoke and began my daily meditation as usual. Thanking God for my health, my family, my community, and for the presence of his love in me and in my life. I felt a longing for my Daddy. I thought “I need to be able to feel him close to me. But, how do I achieve this? Within an instant of that thought, the word “Gratitude” entered my mind and heart. I called his name “Jimmy Rogers” and I said, “Thank you for being such a wonderful Daddy.” This was immediately followed by an overwhelming sense of peace and comfort. I knew then that being Grateful is a portal to our Spiritual connection to God, ourselves, and others.
Stillness and listening are personal skills of being that must be cultivated through practice. This can be a very difficult journey when we are accustomed to constant outside stimulation. But it can be achieved through the process of living in the moment. You see that when we reach for stillness on a moment by moment bases it is obtainable. The only thing standing between the individual and the peace that the practice of stillness offers is the mind.
Try it. Find a comfortable spot in your surroundings that make you feel peaceful from within. Just notice the beauty of your environment. Make note of the colors, the temperature of the air, the smells that linger in the air. Think gratitude for being able to breathe on your own. Notice your breath. No judgment… just notice. Bring your attention to witness your breath. Witness how it cycles without any effort on your part. Moments such as these are full of gratitude. The gift of life. The gift of good health. The gift of clean air. Gratitude for the simple things in life. Through the practice of living in the moment and being still we become more mindful of the little things in life that offer us a sense of fulfillment that money cannot buy.
In your stillness think about something that you feel troubled about. Is it your family? Is it work? Is it the need for a new direction in your life? We each have a responsibility to seek our own solutions to the things that trouble our minds. But we cannot hear that guiding voice inside of us if we are not able to be still and listen. The answers to all the things that trouble each of us are within our grasp. Cultivating stillness gives us the tool that we need to be able to listen to that guiding voice. I do not care what you call it… God, Intuition, Mother Earth, Nature, the Universe. The point is that we all have access to that guiding voice. But we cannot hear if we are unable to be in stillness to hear the answer.
My listening moment gave me comfort in knowing that the Spirit of my Dad was right there waiting for me. I would not have been able to feel the comfort of his love in that instant if my heart and mind did not possess the tool of stillness.
Enhance your living with a practice of stillness. Deepen your Spiritual awareness by linking your heart to gratitude. Begin with a daily practice of writing your gratitude… no matter how small. It is through our ritual of doing that we can change the parts of ourselves that need growth. Incorporate a ritual of stillness and listening into your daily living so you too will not miss that moment of peace when you need it most.
Enjoy this short Documentary video of my interview with my Dad during what would be his last Christmas… 2017.
Thanks to Katrina Simpson of Austin, Texas for her creative insight in this project. Also, thanks to Soldiers of the Cross Ministries in Alabaster, Alabama for their support of this project. Thanks also to SXSW Showcase: Community Works for selecting this Documentary to be viewed during the SXSW Film Festival 2019.
