Believe in Heaven

Heaven. Yep, I'm a believer! Not just because I was raised Catholic and it was embedded in my thoughts long before I could even conceptualize it's meaning, but also because if I didn't believe, I probably wouldn't accept death as well as I do.

A number of people in my life have headed off to the big party in Heaven while I am here awaiting my invitation. Patiently, waiting my invitation, that is:) It started with my grandparents, then some older students from my grade school, a neighbor kid, friends, my mother, more friends, my friends' parents...oh the list goes on. My colleagues joke that I should just be a grief counselor as I seem to spend a lot of time at funerals and wakes. I think it was my mother's death that helped me put it in perspective. She wanted more than anything to be with her parents and brother and eventually got her way.

I developed my own train of thinking about death and felt it was confirmed in Mitch Albom's book, "The Five People you meet in Heaven," along with the books, "Heaven is for Real" and "90 minutes in Heaven." I came up with the "Trifecta" of life. I figured everything else religious seems to be in threes, so this only makes sense to me!

We begin in stage one: The Womb. We are comfortable, warm, fed and don't want to leave the environment.The people outside of the womb await our arrival eagerly, while we reluctantly come out kicking and screaming. The second stage, Earth, can last minutes to decades. Again, we may be comfortable, warm, fed and don't want to leave Earth for, again, the unknown. However, our family and friends in Heaven eagerly await our arrival. Finally, our third stage, Heaven, allows us to spend eternity in peace.  It seems like the party of a lifetime to me! This "Trifecta" comforts me.  I look forward to seeing my mother, other relatives and friends, but am just as eager to spend my life with those still on Earth.

I hope that children can see life and Heaven in a similar way so to be at ease with the process.