A little over a month ago, Jean had surgery to replace a ruptured mitral valve.  So our Friday seminar time was interrupted while she was hospitalized. Even so, I visited Jean each Friday afternoon and shared that special time with her as best I could.

A couple of weeks ago, Jean moved to a rehabilitation center to continue her recovery.  I’ve continued to visit on Fridays, bringing salads as well as other goodies.  Since Jean needs to regain the more than ten pounds she’s lost, I’ve enjoyed supplying Jean with a stash of delectable pastries that she otherwise would not consider consuming.  She often hides her goodies in a drawer near her bed, happily indulging in them late at night when she finds herself awake and hungry.

This past Friday afternoon around 3:00 pm, I brought lunch to Jean along with a box of muffins, breads and other goodies she’d requested.  Jean’s roommate had gone home, and we had the room to ourselves.  Jean wasn’t hungry as she had just eaten lunch.  So she set her goodies aside and we chatted for awhile.  Jean mentioned how grateful she is for her MSIA family (yours truly being blessed to be one of them) as this time of physical challenge has been painful and trying for her.

“Speaking of MSIA family,” I said, “It just so happens that John Morton is scheduled to speak on an internet radio show, right about now.  I don’t know if my cell phone can receive it, but would you like me to try?”

“Of course!” Jean said.

In Spirit’s perfect ways and perfect timing, I connected easily to Awakenings, an internet radio talk show.  To our delight, John Morton was just about to come on the air.  The host, Michele Meiche, introduced John. Then Jean and I enjoyed 90 minutes of John sharing his loving, wise messages, humor and anecdotes about spirit, loving, finding peace within ourselves, and knowing the blessings that we already are.

Since Jean is hard of hearing, I turned up the volume on my cell phone as high as I could and shut the door to the hallway so we wouldn’t be interrupted.  Still, Jean could only hear John’s voice if the phone was right next to her ear.  So I told her to lie down and rest her head on her pillow.  I set the phone on her shoulder, like a baby nuzzling her neck, and she nestled herself in comfortably, soothed by John’s voice right next to her ear.  I pulled up a chair and sat next to Jean by her bedside.  We listened together for the entire interview, lulled by the sweetness and comfort of John’s loving messages of inspiration.

At one point during the interview, I noticed Jean had drifted off.  Her breathing was steady and deep, and she had the most peaceful glow on her face, something I hadn’t seen since before she had become ill.  As John continued to share the teachings of MSIA and answer questions from the host and listeners, Jean drifted in and out, smiling throughout.  I did too.

As the interview came to a close, Jean stretched and shared how much she appreciated the loving comfort of what felt like an MSIA home seminar to both of us.  She then began to indulge in some of the goodies I’d brought, noting how her appetite had been sparked once again.  We shared with each other our gratitude for the synchronicity and wondrous gift of having John’s interview scheduled during our weekly time together and choosing to take the gift presented to us and “tune in.”  Then, while we basked in the afterglow of a palpable peacefulness, a new roommate arrived, wheeled in on a gurney by medical attendants.  The woman seemed disoriented from her ride from the hospital, but quickly settled in and relaxed, probably touched and soothed by the powerful sweetness that now filled the room.

Thank you, John, for serving us in this precious and profoundly helpful way.  As you shared with us in your interview, it’s wonderful to know we can “tune in” to the Spirit by going within anytime we choose. It’s also wonderful to know we can tune in to your words of wisdom and loving guidance by listening to the archive of this terrific interview anytime we choose.

Baruch Bashan

Terilee Wunderman

Working in accord with the pastoral department, I was given free rein on the wards.  Most of the patients were suffering from serious cancers and cancer related disorders (these were mostly AIDS patients with Karposi’s sarcoma, but even then they were isolated from other patients).   I went to the hospital at all different kinds of times. Morning, afternoon, evening or weekends.  That way my presence wouldn’t be expected and I could attune myself to whatever Spirit directed to do.

I met truly wonderful souls.  I recall one feverish man saying to me, “I knew you would come.”  It brought tears to my eyes for whoever I was to that man at that moment it was perfect for him.  Another was a woman who refused to die when the doctors told her family she would die.  She told me from under her blankets, out of which she refused to come, “make them go away.  I am not dying.”  She waited four months and died on Valentine’s Day.  She never came out from under those covers, either. 

 In my capacity as both minister and hospice volunteer I learned many things.  One, I learned that women, at least on the inside, are often stronger than men and face death with a great dignity and often with humor.  One woman named Marie, who had grown up in the logging towns of Northern Michigan and was a lumber worker herself, was dying of lung cancer.  She never complained.  Not once.  And every time I talked to her she would tell what a great life she had had.  “I smoked, I drank, I danced…what more could you ask for?” she said.  I was, to say the least, blown away.

But the woman who I remember the most was a corpulent black woman in her late 30’s.  When I entered her room I noted she was being fed iv’s from four tubes.  One in each thigh and one in each arm.  Her “sisters” were like angels tending to her every need.  Not one sour face existed among them.  No tears, just praises to Jesus.  I went to the woman and saw a radiant beautiful face.  She looked at me as I took her hand and said, “It is a blessing, it is all a blessing.”  I could hardly hold back the tears welling up from my throat and coming into my eyes.  She squeezed my hand and I asked her if there was anything I could do for her.  She squeezed back and said, “No, Jesus sent me these angels and He is my Savior.”

Well, that did it.  My heart burst open (as it is now even in writing this) and I felt as if I were in the presence of a spiritual giant.  It was I who was being blessed as well.  I stood in awe and walked away silently holding and calling in the Light (something I did for all the patients, as well as planting Light Columns in the rooms).

I came back the next day and found she had died.  The nurses praised her and said she never stopped smiling, right  up to the end.

As I stood reflecting on her, I realized I was shown something unique.  I had seen surrender, complete surrender and trust.  It is not something that has come easily to me, though I work towards it more and more.  Surrender.  Contemplate it.  To give over to God completely and in loving.  To not know fear, anxiety or dread, but to stand in our own heart and really let go and let God.  To feel the threads of negativity we hold just shred out of us and dissolve before us as a veil being lifted till we see Jesus standing there before us.

Whenever I reflect on this event, I experience as the blessing that keeps giving because she gave me the blessing within the blessing: surrender.

In Loving Light,

John Kadela, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA