Live Like You Were Dyin' ✨ part 1
As you may have heard me share (or you may have read in A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste), on my 40th birthday, while dining with my hubby and friends at our favorite Indian restaurant, an unexpected bite of a special cookie 🍪 sent me sailing out of my body in what would later be called an NDE (near-death-experience).
Amid the cacophony of paramedics, ambulance’s flashing lights, and pandemonium on the earth plane, I ecstatically entered the pearly gates…or at least the waiting room to the pearly gates. Whatever it was, it was a field of light brighter than a thousand suns ☀️, and I felt more love than I’d ever received in my lifetime multiplied to the nth degree.
During my fifteen minutes in heaven (wasn’t that the name of a “make-out” game from high school 🥴? I digress), I was escorted behind the veil and discovered “death” isn't a period, but a comma, in an eternal story of glory ✨ for us all.
After I made it back to the land of the living (spoiler alert: I returned... but not the same), I brought back a souvenir--the awareness that:
1.) Life doesn’t end when we leave the body
2.) The afterlife is more glorious than anything we can imagine
3.) Thus, there is nothing to fear about death …and yet
4.) Every second on earth is fleeting and precious
As a kid growing up in Southern California, on October 31st, I’d dress up as a witch, princess, or superhero and trick-or-treat with neighborhood kids, competing for the most candy. The only thing hallowed about Halloween was its name.
But when I experienced the Dia de los Muertos ceremony, it lifted the veil to what I—and much of the world—had been missing: a sacred way to celebrate death.
Then, in 2020, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, my dearest sister/friend Gypsy passed away. Seeking solace for my grief, I clung to what I learned during my NDE and Dia de los Muertos like a lifeline. I searched online for a Dia de los Muertos Oracle deck to help me communicate with her, to no avail.
Then, I became struck ⚡️ with the inspiration to create what I was looking for. I emailed Emily K. Grieves de Reyes Contla, an exquisite artist and scholar of Mexican folklore in Teotihuacán, Mexico, to see if she’d create the artwork for this deck. I was thrilled when she said YES!
Now, three years later, our deck is out! Emily’s paintings reflect the rich, multilayered, multi textured, multidimensional symbolism of Dia de los Muertos.
I was especially delighted that Emily included Gypsy on the “Ofrenda” card--you can guess which one she is?
It was Gypsy's birthday a few days ago...and I'm dedicating this email (and this day...and this month) to celebrating her amazing life!
Whatever you or your loved ones may be moving through, I hope the Dia de los Muertos Oracle deck (or whatever your personal ritual is) inspires you:
• Amplify your ability to receive higher guidancefrom your departed beloveds
• Create an empowered, exalted relationship with death
• Alchemize your pain into life-giving wisdom
• Brighten your thoughts
• Console your heart
• Alchemize the tragic into magic, so you can ride the wild wave of grief into the realization of your dual citizenship in Heaven and Earth!
