The following story is one of many where with the assistance of my guides I have been able to contact and bring forth messages from the other side for someone who needed to hear from their loved ones who passed over. Conversations with the Other side

 I was doing a reading for this client and felt that she had recently lost someone. I asked if someone had passed over recently, someone like a Father or perhaps her Father? The client said yes, her Father had died about nine months earlier. I asked for his name so I could "tune" into him better. Sometimes I get the name, and sometimes I don’t. I can almost always connect to the person on the other side if I have their name. In my thoughts I asked if John was present. He was.

I told her that he was acknowledging her and that he was telling me that they had been very close. He was very proud of her and wanted her to know that he was doing fine on the other side. His illness had come unexpectedly and he had spent several weeks in the hospital before his condition got worse.

As I was giving her the images that I was being shown, I heard the name Laverne. Now, that is not a common name, so I asked if the name Laverne meant anything to her. She chuckled. Until her Father was in the hospital, she had never heard of Laverne. But a card had recently come in the mail for her Dad from his boyhood hometown and it was from a Laverne.

She took the card to her Father in the hospital . He told her that Laverne had been a childhood sweetheart until they went to college, then lost touch with each other. She had heard of his illness and decided to drop him a card to wish him well. She went on to explain that when she had told her Father about the card, it was one of his few lucid moments and he smiled fondly telling her about how pretty Laverne had been and the past so long ago. It created a rare moment for her to connect to her Father in his last days.

By giving me the name of Laverne, it was her Fathers way of letting her know that I was really in touch with him and that he really was doing fine on the other side.    

Let me begin by saying that I apologize for not having an article in the last two issues of Odyssey. My life has been very busy and I probably have not managed my time well enough to write. At the same time I feel that I just didn’t have anything to say. I believe that as a writer we do go through those periods.

I am not really sure what is going to come up today, but I feel an obligation to write. Not only to you the reader, but to myself. I could talk about so much and maybe that is what this article should be about. Let’s just talk. So many things have presented themselves for me to write about that I am finding it difficult to choose just one. Let’s start with a quote that I read that said, "In case no one has told you today, let me be the first, You are loved!" I love that. You are always loved no matter how much you refuse to believe it, or think that it isn’t true. Why even in the midst of your imperfection, you are perfect and you are still loved.

After watching the movie on this past weekend about the life of James Van Praagh, I was moved once again to realize that there are all those people who reside on the other side that we have lost who still love us. They are always with us. They never really go away. So, next to God, we can never say that no one loves us. It is comforting to know that all of the people that we have lost in this lifetime to death are looking out for us and that they are watching and waiting for our arrival. They send us messages continually and we fail to see them. We can be so caught up in our grief to receive them or just so blind to the knowledge that it can happen, we can receive gifts from the other side. One way of knowing that your loved one is around is a familiar song that connects you to that person will be played. A certain flower will be shown or given to you over and over again. You might start noticing the person name everywhere you go. A smell or scent will capture your attention. Your pet may be staring at nothing to you, but what is it that they see? A loved one will appear to you in your dreams. You might even have the opportunity to physically see your loved one.

I just remember that when I was a young boy knowing that when our loved ones passed, they never went any where. The person just changed form. And that they were somewhere watching over us. Much like a Santa Claus experience. I used to get nervous wondering if my Grandfather was watching me when I did something wrong, or something that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. I have since learned that they cannot stop us from the lessons that we need to learn. They know that we have a purpose in life that we must go through to learn. They can help us though in other areas of our lives. I remember also when my Grand-

mother was in the last years of her life that she stated to us that she was having visitations from loved ones who had been dead for years. No one believed her and they thought that she was dreaming, but I believed her. I believe that loved one did pay her nightly visits. She described perfectly the events of her passing, down to the color of dress and casket that they told her that she would have and as it turned out, she was right. How did she know this if it were not true? How can we not believe her? It was the very beginning for me in the search for something bigger than just you, I and God. I believe that we should pray for our loved ones and ask for their healing. I think that we should pray and ask that love and light be given to them. I also say thank you as often as I can to them for their love, help and support of me. I know that they have helped me so much. Do the same for them. Validate them by showing that you care and keep them alive inside of yourself.

The message is clear to me today to share this information with you. I believe that I have allowed spirit to come through to me and share this with you today. You know, at the end of every show John Edward ends his show by telling viewers to acknowledge and appreciate the ones you love by showing your feelings and by telling them your feelings so that a medium will not have to do so. Take the time to tell the people in your lives that you love them, because we are never guaranteed a second chance. Live for today, live in this moment. Don’t wait for tomorrow, or something, or someone to come to make you happy. Do it today for yourself. Love yourself enough to learn self-love, so that you will be able to love another in the right way.