Mom seemed to relax, for it was clear now that everyone understood what was happening, and there was no turning back. She was so grateful her daughters were there for her beloved husband.

Instantly I saw the discomfort in mom's eyes. Part of her was a tad embarrassed to be in this situation and having her family help her. Nobody likes being in the situation where you need help sitting up, being fed, and can't hold a cup to drink on your own. We did our very best to make her feel comfortable. Given another situation, we knew she would treat us just as lovingly. Now it was mom's turn.

I turned my head at the sound of a large raven in the yard.

"Myriah, is that one of your friends?" Dad asked, smiling. "He's been around the yard here all day, and so we thought it was one of your helpers here for mom."

I smiled. How wonderful to have a father that understood such things and accepted his daughter's "friends." And how grateful I was to see the sign of Wind Walker's spirit presence in the form of the raven, and know that his love and healing were here, too. He was a Gentle Spirit Presence of Love that sometimes worked with me, and had been with me since I was a child.

"Probably," I mused.

Mom asked for one of her blouses to be set up at the end of the bed. "She wants to see the color," Lee said. "She kept urging us to put it out in the open." The blouse was gold and almost luminous and now hung on a rack near the bed so mom could see it whenever she opened her eyes. We all wondered at the significance of this.

I watched my father and sister. The strain on Lee's face was evident. I opened my heart and began to broadcast love and joy into the room, allowing spirit to assist in channeling loving energy into the room. I did this simply because I Love, and because I can, and because there was nothing else I could do at the moment. Mom was drifting into that in-between state again.

She couldn't get out what she wanted to express; couldn't quite match the words her mind was filled with to the movements her lips were making. It was odd. Her mind was beginning to work in new ways.

The blouse. Yes. That one I see in the closet. It's gold. I want it. I want to be able to see it all the time. But I am having trouble speaking. Can't they hear me? I thought we were just mind-talking a while ago. What is happening here? I feel like I'm slipping; yet I'm here. Everything feels oozy and slick and warm, yet I can see that I am sitting upon a bed, and it's my bed. I just want that gold blouse over there.

"I want the blouse...to see the blouse. Hang it over there." Her words come out coarse and choppy, somewhat harsh, but she couldn't help it. At least she had got the words out.

She had just been talking to them a while ago. She'd thought she'd been napping, but instead had found herself quite eloquently laughing and joking with John and Lee. They were coming with her! They saw what she saw...saw where she was going! Oh, she was so glad!

No...that wasn't quite right. They didn't see where she was going, but part of them did, and she realized now she'd been talking to part of them. Like part of them was already there. It was weird. She sometimes couldn't tell the difference between here and there. And Myriah had rainbows shooting out from her chest. There was a luminosity she could see around her on both sides. She wondered if Myriah was aware of it. She would have to ask her when she went back.

She stepped out through the bedroom window. A large raven was on the ground.

"Heya."

She startled. It spoke to her!

It held out its wing. She touched it, and then she was in another place, another room. And here was a small table, and two chairs. A large fat book was on the table. The cover was intricate and golden, and looked like a puzzled tapestry. She was drawn to it. Placing her hand upon it she felt a wave of Love wash through her. It was the book of her own life! Then another's hand was placed upon hers.

"Have a seat," He said, smiling at her. Her heart opened at once as she recognized the Christ Presence. They held each other's eyes for several silent moments, filling each other with great Love. In a magic's moment they each remembered that they had always been with the other.

A small table and two chairs sat surrounded by a beautiful golden wall. The color gold was familiar. Wasn't she just looking at something else golden? Her mind could not hold onto the thought. And then she sat down, and they began reading the book together.

Her life had never been about what anyone else thought. Not one bit. It had all been about what she wanted in life. How she created her life; worked through experiences; the emotions that rose and fell with others and how that transpired and worked out.

"Are there regrets?" He asked.

She looked at Him. It was impossible to be anything but clear Truth in His Presence. She was filled with absolute Love, and the absence of all judgment. His Presence was not here in judgment. His Presence was here so that she would know the Truth from a soul level, and understand completely and absolutely that she was moving on.

Each page was an experience. Each picture came to life so that she re-experienced it. However, she also experienced the feelings of the others in the pictures, too. She felt her brothers' remorse when he'd pushed her down on the sidewalk, and then his reaction turn to anger when she lashed out at him. Later, she experienced the removal of any judgment she had ever carried about her brother. She got a glimpse of what it was like to walk in his shoes, and she sent him Love.

She witnessed events all over again. But now, she could see Spirit's presence at certain times in her life. She saw that the Presence of the Christ had walked with her often, and she had not known. She learned what an ancient and wise soul she really was, but that she had cloaked herself from this knowledge, and with good reason. It was all such a game, she thought, as she smiled. How perfectly everything fits together. She judged events not from her previous human viewpoint, but from the wisdom of her soul.

She saw that we are all One. And she saw the Oneness, and it was grand, and glorious. Pure Love. Yet many chose not to be as ONE all the time, but to reflect their individuality of the Oneness. That way there was more to be spread out, more to share the knowledge, more to pass it on. It all fit so perfectly together.

She saw she would have other work to do now. Being ONE was involved. It required weaving connections with other soul family members across the continent. She saw that she and her daughter Myriah would work with ONE, and that they would work often together. She saw the connection with Myriah and her beloved Twin Flame. She saw herself in her daughter, and smiled to realize that she WAS her daughter. Each a unique aspect of the same soul, like thin translucent peelings off the same onion. They were ONE.

And then she was back. In the bedroom. Man, this shifting was getting too easy. She looked about, saw Myriah, Lee, and John sitting with her. Saw them smiling, staring at her like she was God's greatest cartoon. She laughed, and somehow managed to tell everyone the joke. Now THAT was funny, because John was a cartoonist. But she was becoming so detached from her body that the smile didn't connect with her face. In fact, it was hard to reconnect with the body, and getting harder and harder. She wondered why she hadn't let go yet, but looking at John she understood.

She lingered for him. She had to make sure it was okay for him. Somehow she knew it would not be long until they were together again, but he didn't. She concentrated on her hand, willed her spirit into it until she moved it and placed her fingers over his. She smiled with her eyes and hoped it was enough. It was all she could offer at this moment. Her spirit was almost too vast and expanded now to be able to connect with the body. Like trying to contain the Earth in a bottle when she'd just been shown that the Universe is really her home.

The next day brought not much more change, other than mom seemed to need to sleep a lot. Sometimes dad sat by the bedside, reading passages of 'Conversations with God' out loud. They had read it out loud to each other every day for the last year. Their spirituality was too open and uncontainable for a church, but their devotion and faith in God were deep and strong. Always had been. Always would be.

We all took turns sitting and being with mom. I welcomed the silence, for I had no words to share. I would hold her hand and remember that she had told me she always knew who was with her by the touch of their hand. That comforted me a lot.

Later, I found my father crying softly in the hallway, and wrapped my arms around him and hugged him.

"I'm so afraid I'm holding her back!" he sobbed.

"Oh, hush. Shhhhhh," I soothed. "You can't hold her back. She will go when she is ready, and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent that. Don't worry about that."

"Really?" he sobbed.

"Of course. It's up to her. Not us."

How do you speak to your beloved when you long for them, yet know that a single word can startle them into consciousness and maybe keep them from moving on? How do you contain a grief that is too vast to explain, and then silently watch your love slip away into the unknown that you KNOW is real, yet knowing that you will suffer without her presence? Suffer in this illusion without her. It was not her passing he feared, but missing her tangible presence.

I found Lee doing the dishes, keeping busy. Lee was good at that. Good at taking care of the physical details and emanating purest Love throughout her busy work. She was an ever-present glowing source of Love. I was good at soothing the emotional needs. Together, we made a good team. I picked up a towel and started drying.

"I tuned into her tonight," I said, dad now standing in the doorway, listening. I usually kept my visions to myself with my family, but no longer. Now was not the time to keep secrets. "I saw her building a golden wall, or tearing it down. I wasn't sure which. But it was beautiful, luminescent. I think that's why she wanted to see the blouse! She wanted to see the colors."

They each smiled to themselves. This was such a gift to be able to help mom pass, and to witness the non-sense of death.

Later, when I tuned into the vision again, I saw mom sitting with the Christ Presence and looking at what appeared to be a book of her life. It was unusual, because mom wasn't one to speak openly of Christ much, so seeing them together was startling. Beyond them was a vast expanse of colored landscape, just waiting to be created.

"She hears us, you know." I looked at Lee and dad. "Once, while I was sitting with her, I just relaxed and kind of meditated and held the idea of Love. I kept thinking of just blanketing her with Love, when suddenly the voice of my Higher Self spoke up and mentally told her, 'Rest in peace'."

"Now, I know that I meant it from the fullness of my heart, but when mom heard those words she startled, woke up, and looked at me." They all laughed. "Can you imagine, I told her to rest in peace! Geesh." It had been proof to me of the telepathic bridge between us.

Lee took care of the physical details with mom's body, bathing and changing her. We began to refer to her body as the "doll," remembering an event from our childhood with gentle laughter. Our sister, Kathy, had been but 4 years old and playing in the back yard. A neighbor who wanted to meet mom came up to the fence and asked what her mother's name was.

"Mommy," Kathy said.

"No. I mean, what does your daddy call her, honey?"

"Oh. Baby doll!"

So now, taking care of the "doll" became a loving act in light of this remembrance.

The third night, mom became more coherent and her and dad talked at length about her passing.

"Are you coming with me?" she asked.

"No," dad said. "But it won't seem like any time at all until I'm with you again." They spoke of many things between them, the things one says to a beloved before they pass into a realm where you may not be able to communicate with them.

The fourth day, I returned to my home in the mountains, hoping to be able to come back during the weekends. There was no telling how long this process would take. Mom could stay at this stage indefinitely. We arranged for Lee to get nursing help, and got a hospital bed and placed it in the living room to make caring for mom easier.

That night I dreamed with mom. She stood before me wearing a beautiful burgundy gown and somehow glowing light. I had never seen her look so beautiful! She was absolutely radiant. Many tall pines were behind her, and one was decorated with golden lights. Her face was filled with purest Love and she was wearing the most radiant smile I had ever seen.

"Show me how to be One," she said, giggling. I then felt Wind Walker by my side, and WE merged as One before her, becoming beautiful rainbow-lighted Love while she watched and smiled.

The next morning, I was driving to work around 7:30am. I suddenly felt as if she were trying to merge into my own body. Being a psychic and a universal channel, this was a familiar act, albeit somewhat surprising coming from my own mother. But what really surprised me was that I felt her illness. She was dying of emphysema and in trying to pass on into the Light she was trying to take that illness with her. "No!" I shouted out loud, as I squirmed my body in the car and resisted feeling her. "You can't take it with you! You cannot take the illness with you!" I shouted. "Send it to the Light!"

I felt her understanding of my message as her spirit retreated, and as I drove on down the road I was sickened by the smell of her illness permeating the car. I prayed for her, and sent all my thoughts into ideas of Love and Light that completely surrounded her, to use as she saw fit.

Several hours later, a phone call from my sister revealed that mom had passed at around 10:00am that morning. Lee said she acted as if her spirit had been gone most of the night. However, this morning, minutes before the body shut down completely, a translucent beauty had overcome her. Her skin had taken on a momentary glow and shine. Moments later, she freed herself from the illness that had tethered her spirit body to the Earth. I cried tears of gratitude that she was free. It had only been five days since she had declared her intent to pass on.

My mother often said she was a woman of many talents, and master of none. Her ability to pass on simply by focusing on that intent showed me that she was, indeed, a Master.

Those five days she shared with the three of us were precious. They were a gift for which I shall be eternally grateful, for they validated the non-sense of death. Her passing marked our own personal journeys of first, denial, and then acceptance, and, finally, sheer joy as we witnessed her release. She simply had stated her intent that she was ready to pass on that Thanksgiving Day, and with her family's acceptance she had then set about doing just that.

Family members attending the funeral may have been shocked that we were so joyous, so radiant ourselves having just lost our mother and wife. But we were! How could we be sad for her! We had no doubts of her continuance. We were so grateful that she had been able to move onward so effortlessly, so graciously, and so painlessly. We all learned much from her passing.

A close friend of mine named Little Hawk dreamed about her the morning of the service. She appeared to him, beautifully radiant and so happy. In his dream, he told her that she should come and see me, and so they came and woke me up, and he said he saw us speaking together, although I do not remember that. This friend is one who also speaks and walks with Spirit, just as I do. We recognize a close bond, and that we are part of the same soul family. So I thought it beautiful that she would reveal herself to him this way, for they had only met each other once on the Earth plane.

The service was a celebration. Everything we had prepared was as uplifting, joyous, and loving as it could possibly be. This was not an expression of sorrow, but a celebration. Friends came over to the house afterwards for a big feast, and there was much more laughter than sorrow in that house.

I was very grateful to have had such a benevolent experience with my mother's passing. It prepared me in a way, I guess, for my husband's passing was very different. Actually, he was already on the other side, helping mom. We just didn't know it yet.

Myriah is a Universal Channel, Shaman, Writer, Artist and Hands-On Healing Practitioner. Her work with the Ancient Ones and the Beloved Mother Earth teaches of Oneness, Universal Love, and multi-dimensionality. Her work with her parents and husband through the veils teaches of after-death communication and the non-sense of death.

Myriah is available for private readings, healing sessions, and counseling. If you'd like information on soul readings, after-death communication, working with your guides, or developing Your Highest Potential NOW with Your Higher Self, email IAMMYRIAH@PlanetLightworker.com. Look for Myriah's soon to be published book about communication with her family titled 'The Oneness of And'.