“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.  Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.  Your life will never be the same again.”
– Og Mandino, American author

I experienced this. It was December 1997. My husband Saul and I had enjoyed a wonderful day skiing with our friends. That night during an emotionally close moment, Saul said to me, “I’m so lucky and thankful to have you in my life.” Less than 24 hours later, Saul was dead next to me in a tragic car accident.
I will never forget what Saul looked like slumped over the wheel of our car. And I will also never forget those words he said to me the night before he died. I will cherish them the rest of my life.The amazing messages I received two months before, during and just after the accident brought about a profound spiritual awakening that changed my life in many ways. One of the many offshoots of these changes was my decision to work with a gifted medium.

We had been invited to Vermont to facilitate a Gallery, which is a group gathering where a medium transmits messages from the deceased to their loved ones in the audience. As we walked into the room where the Gallery was to take place, we heard a young girl sobbing. Her deceased father immediately came through, apologizing to his daughter for the horrible, hurtful things he had said to her in the heat of an argument the night before he unexpectedly died.

Everyone in the room was blown away by this father’s apologies to his daughter and the way she responded to this validation that he was indeed still in her life, even though he was no longer physically with her. By the end of the evening, her hysterical tears had become smiles of relief and joy.

This experience taught me to be mindful of what I say to others, even when I am upset with them because that could be the last exchange we will ever have with one another. One of my brothers has a mantra I greatly admire. He often declares “Let’s agree to disagree” when there is a conflict. How very wise to treat a person with consideration, caring and respect as often as we can while we can, instead of carrying around a lifetime of regrets for those last, hurtful words said.

This surely gives an important new meaning to those famous words “Rest in Peace.”

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