How Spirits Try to Connect from the Other Side

• Awakened Living

In my daily work with clients, I’ve heard hundreds of stories about grieving people finding an object that they believe is a sign from their departed loved one. These experiences are always very healing for the grieving person—a moment that helps them understand that their loved one lives on and watches over them.

On Valentine’s Day, seven months after my husband, Paul, died, I was going through a filing cabinet, looking for financial information to prepare my taxes, when I discovered a chocolate Valentine heart with a ribbon wrapped around it and a note from Paul wishing me Happy Valentine’s Day. It stunned me to find it.

As I sat on the floor, crying and amazed to be holding a Valentine’s gift from my dead husband on Valentine’s Day, I remembered that one year ago, Paul had said he couldn’t find a little Valentine’s gift he’d bought me. He was frustrated that he couldn’t remember where he’d put it. One year later, seven months after his death, he nudged me to find it where he’d left it. He helped me find it exactly on Valentine’s Day.

I believe that these impossible events are not coincidences. They’re our loved ones reaching out to help us heal and to show us that we’re not alone. Take a moment to reflect on when this may have happened in your life. Do you remember finding something that you knew in your heart was a gift from your departed? Honor them by acknowledging you received it and knew it was from them. Say, “Thank you, I recognize your divine presence in my life.”

Signs in Nature

When Paul and I were falling in love, he gave me a beautiful silver necklace and matching earrings with a jade moon and star pendant. The necklace pendant and each earring featured a crescent moon with a star in the middle of the crescent. He told me that he was the moon and I was his shining star. This became the symbol of our love, and I wore the necklace every day. Many times during our relationship, he whispered to me, “You’re my shining star.”

Three days after his death on July 13, we held an outdoor memorial service in our backyard. It was a clear, beautiful summer evening in the mountains. A group of about 30 friends sat in a large circle, sharing Paul stories.

In the middle of this heartfelt evening, a friend nudged me to look up at the sky. Directly above us was the crescent moon with a bright star (Jupiter) in the middle of the crescent—exactly reflecting the image in the pendant Paul had given me, which I was wearing that evening. I shared this uncanny sign with our friends and passed around my necklace for everyone to see. The pendant was duplicated in the sky above our heads.

We all felt a rush of energy and knew that Paul was with us. It was a healing moment for everyone in the group— a sense of his presence and a sign of divine order in action. Later, I learned that the sky configuration with Jupiter nestled inside the crescent moon rarely occurs. I don’t believe in coincidences. Imagine how many factors were in motion to line up that exact astronomical configuration (which had always symbolized our relationship) on the night I would be sitting outside, mourning his loss with my friends at his memorial service.

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Excerpted with permission from Bridges to Heaven:True Stories of Loved Ones on the Other Side, © 2013, by Sue Frederick.