Letter

As I was going through the house moving things around, I found several sets of motivational CDs and a CD wallet. I filled the wallet with Anthony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, and Jim Rohn. I started with the first CD in the wallet and now I'm listening to Excuses Begone by Wayne Dyer. I've listened to this many times, but this time it spoke to my heart. There's a letter from Ram Dass to the parents of a girl who was murdered. The words were exactly what I needed to hear. The message is what my friends have been trying to tell me all this time, but now I get it. This is the letter with names changed:


Dear Parents,


Roc finished his work on earth, and left the stage in a manner that leaves those of us left behind with a cry of agony in our hearts, as the fragile thread of our faith is dealt with so violently. Is anyone strong enough to stay conscious through such teaching as you are receiving? Probably very few. And even they would only have a whisper of equanimity and peace amidst the screaming trumpets of their rage, grief, horror and desolation.

I can't assuage your pain with any words, nor should I. For your pain is Roc's legacy to you. Not that he or I would inflict such pain by choice, but there it is. And it must burn its purifying way to completion. For something in you dies when you bear the unbearable, and it is only in that dark night of the soul that you are prepared to see as God sees, and to love as God loves.

Now is the time to let your grief find expression. No false strength. Now is the time to sit quietly and speak to Roc, and thank him for being with you these few years, and encourage him to go on with whatever his work is, knowing that you will grow in compassion and wisdom from this experience.

In my heart, I know that you and he will meet again and again, and recognize the many ways in which you have known each other. And when you meet you will know, in a flash, what now it is not given to you to know: Why this had to be the way it was.

Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts – if we can keep them open to God – will find their own intuitive way. Roc came through you to do his work on earth, which includes his manner of death. Now his soul is free, and the love that you can share with him is invulnerable to the winds of changing time and space. In that deep love, include me.

In love,
Ram Dass

This letter seems sooooo appropriate. It makes me feel so much better. Roc had a purpose-filled life. It was short, but he really lived in those short years. He had the best parents. They let him experience life in so many ways.