As Jim Carrey points out, we have to live our lives making fear-filled choices or love-filled choices. Love-filled choices bring more happiness and contentment.
In More from the Masters the ascended masters explain how life is an intricate pattern of relationships, which we weave into and out of our lives with every choice we make. They also speak about how our choices are based in love or fear (love’s opposite), and how we can help ourselves overcome the fear to make more love-based choices. The book is filled with wisdom regarding the different types and levels of relationships that we create during our lifetimes, and how each of these relationships affect the experiences we have. It is a compilation of discussions and explanations that (hopefully) will help you gain a new perspective to and understanding for the complexities of human relationships and how to cope with them.
Death, like a butterfly, comes on wings of beauty. It is a ray of light that carries you to glory. But dying…dying is a vulture that devours the body. It swoops in like a raptor, ripping you from your life. — Tricia A. Sullivan
That’s a poetic way of saying that death is not ugly or harsh. Death is quiet and full of beauty. It is the dying that can be harsh.
Dying is different than death. Dying is the affliction that causes the physical body to shut down and die. Death is the transitioning of the soul from physical life to afterlife.
You might be dying of cancer, which is painful; yet, your death, when it occurs, can be filled with joy or loneliness—whichever you choose. You can die from any number of afflictions—illness, trauma, poison, murder, accident, old age, or even nature’s tantrums. But your death can be calm, tumultuous, lonely, joyous, frightening, sad, filled with regret or hope, or any way you choose. Both death and dying are chosen by you (at least, most of the time). There are some exceptions, and an imbalance of energies (aka, karma) is usually involved; but, overall, we each choose the manner in which we die and the way in which we experience death.
It seems like such a fine distinction—between dying and death—but it is a distinction that can affect the entire experience. For instance, perhaps you wanted to experience being murdered (yeah, I know, who would choose that? Believe it or not, most of us do choose it in at least one life). So, the cause of death (the dying) is supposed to be a quick gunshot to the head; while, the death itself (the transition from life to afterlife) is supposed to be filled with joy for having taken the bullet to save someone else. However, the person who agrees to be your murderer makes the killing more painful than it needs to be; perhaps, wounding you several times before killing you. So, now your death also has fear, pain, and maybe even regret for having acted bravely instead of the joy you originally planned.
The way you die can color the whole death experience, changing it, twisting it, or (sometimes) making it even better than you planned. For instance, you may have opted to take an overdose of pills because you believed that no one cared about you. Therefore, you planned on a death filled with the same type of loneliness and depression that you had faced in life. However, the person who finds you, holds you and cries for you as you’re dying, and you realize that someone cared. This may make your death (your transition to the afterlife) more joyful and less traumatic because now you know that someone really cared about you.
Dying and death are usually planned as a unit, which enables each person to create a full experience for themself. However, plans can change, needs can vary, and other people’s choices can interfere. That means you may need to re-evaluate your original plan and try something else. And, while death escorts can step in and help, most souls prefer to just accept the experience as is (changes and all). After all, that’s what life (which includes dying and death) is all about…experiences, with all the unpredictability and fickleness that goes with them.
So, the next time you speak of dying and death, remember that they are two distinct steps in the overall experience we call life.
Summary: Farleigh Place, the ancestral home of Lord Westerham and his five daughters, now also houses a division of British soldiers, changing the way they have to live. When a soldier with a failed parachute falls to his death on the estate, questions are raised and suspicions are aroused. The soldier’s uniform and possessions aren’t what they should be and MI5 operative and family friend, Ben Cresswell, is covertly tasked with determining if the soldier was a German spy. The assignment also offers Ben the chance to be near Lord Westerham’s middle daughter, Pamela, whom he furtively loves. But Pamela has her own secret: she has taken a job at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking facility.
As Ben follows a trail of spies and traitors, which may include another member of Pamela’s family, he discovers that someone near to him has an appalling, history-altering agenda. Can he and Pamela stop them before England falls?
Recommendation: Yes
Review: For me, this was an interesting glimpse into World War II from the British perspective. While it’s focus was primarily on the upper-crust, it also included a number of everyday citizens, since the setting was mainly the estate of Farleigh Field and the nearby village and neighboring estates.
The writing evoked Britain in each word and action; yet, as an American, I had no difficulty understanding and empathizing with the characters and their plight. It was an engaging story with well-developed characters. The author has an easy voice to listen to and a warm, welcoming writing style.
Although, the story read more like a mystery novel rather than an action/adventure spy novel, I was fine with that. It was moderately paced, with enough clues and romance sprinkled throughout to keep me intrigued and satisfied.
There were no major twists or surprises, but there were some interesting insights into history that I had never considered or known before. For example, when reading about the intense darkness that several of his characters encountered when trying to walk to their home at night, I wondered why they just didn’t use a flashlight. The author, evidently anticipating such questions, explained that using any type of light was banned, because it could be used by German bombers as a target. However, some of the characters did use flashlights with black filters or clothes over the lenses. It was these types of details that truly brought life to the story.
The only downside to this book was that I wanted a second one. Several of the secondary characters had story lines that could (to my mind) be broken out and turned into books, and I would welcome the chance to read them.
So, if you’re looking for a pleasant, well-written, historical mystery to read, this is a good choice.
Death, like a butterfly, comes on wings of beauty. It is a ray of light that carries you to glory. But dying…dying is a vulture that devours the body. It swoops in like a raptor, ripping you from your life. — Tricia A. Sullivan
In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen