Oracle of Consciousness
Journeys of the Soul
Family Reunion
A blending of hearts and souls
Angelique stepped off the fast train from London to Paris only to be surprised by her parents leaping out from behind a Gare du Nord station pillar, to a truly joyous homecoming.
They had driven the 40m kilometres from the Haute Vallee Chevreuse Regional National Park, a superb rural area south of Paris, to surprise Angelique who was prepared to make her own way down there.
Lots of hugs and kisses were shared and bubbling excitement at having their daughter back on French soil once again.
She had been sorely missed and the road trip home was filled with curiousity and relentless questions emanating from all three of them.
Angelique’s dog, Mirza, a two-year-old Labrador, went ecstatically ballistic on her arrival at the front gate, her wagging tail and rear half of her body almost becoming separated from the front, in pure elation of seeing her beloved Angelique.
The following three weeks were heavenly, with chats well into the night, walks in the countryside with Mirza, a Persian name of honour, and sunny al-fresco meals in their quaint little town.
Needless to say, Jake’s name came up regularly, bringing a glow to Angelique’s cheeks and it was obvious to her hopelessly romantic parents that she was in love.
Often their conversations were punctuated by Jake’s calls from England, sending Angelique and sometimes her Mum into a tizz.
They were of course delighted for her and keen to hear about him and eventually meet him in person.
Meanwhile on the other side of the English Channel, Jake was struggling.
He had not spoken to his two older brothers in the ten years since he ran away from home and conversations with his younger sister were sparce, mundane and somewhat stilted.
He was labelled ‘The Black Sheep of the Family’ which made him fair game for ridicule and ostracized for daring to embrace conspiracy theories, alternative this-and-that, disappearing for days, sometimes weeks at a time to embrace nature or delve into subject’s rendered taboo by his family.
His penchant for experimenting with drugs and plant-medicine didn’t curry any favours with his family, so they virtually cut him loose.
Three weeks after Angelique had left on the Paris train, he had called his sister to arrange for a family reunion, only to hear his dad was in hospital, not expecting to live much longer.
That left Jake flummoxed and confused as to what to do. He was preparing himself mentally for the family reunion but had not had the time to think the process through and to how to go about it diplomatically.
Now suddenly an unexpected urgency arose that completely stifled his plans.
His arrival at the hospital housing his father was nerve wracking for Jake, with all his past piling up on him, his judgement and virtual abandonment of his family rising to the surface of his awareness.
Then sitting waiting to see his dad, his mood spontaneously lifted considerably as he thought about what he had learnt and experienced on his recent travels with Angelique.
A quiet, peaceful calmness coursed through his body as the thought arose,
“We do not die.”
“Yes, these bodies will cease breathing at some time, but that which animates it, goes on in its infiniteness.”
These were the words learnt from Assaji, which had burnt a gapping hole in Jake’s previous fear of death.
A nurse tapping him out of his reverie, brought Jake back to present time and they proceeded to the ward holding his father.
“It is good you came today Mr. Jake,” she politely spoke. “Your dad has been in a coma for nearly six weeks and his vitals are slowing down, you better prepare for his passing”, she added, gently and compassionately touching his arm.
Jake took a deep breath and entered the ward, as the nurse quietly closed the door behind him.
Sure enough, his dad lay motionless and without expression on his face as Jake took his hand in his.
“Dad, its Jake, if you can hear me squeeze my hand.”
The faintest of grips rose through his dad’s wrinkled fingers encircling Jakes,
“Again dad, I know you can hear me, squeeze my hand again.”
This time it was a definite, but feeble squeeze, but a squeeze none-the-less.
“Dad,” Jake wept, “please forgive me, I have not been a good son to you and mum, and it was not right to just walk away and be out of contact with you for so long.”
With that, his dad’s eyes slowly opened, taking a minute or two to adjust to the bright lights and once focused on Jake’s sad face he whispered,
“There is nothing to forgive my dear Jake, we were all struggling and were not well equipped to deal with what was arising.”
“I love you son, even if it felt like sometimes I didn’t.”
More tears welled up in Jakes eyes as he gripped his dad’s hand firmly and from the depth of his heart, he whispered clearly,
“And I love you dad.”
“My body is tired Jake, said his dad “and I want to let it go and even more so now we have seen each other and spoken our words of love.”
“I feel I am complete now.” he added.
Jake replied, “You don’t need my permission to leave dad, but if you do, we will respect and honour your decision and celebrate the lessons we have learnt together as a family.”
They reminisced, laughed, cried and hugged each other over the next hour until Jake said,
"I am going to go now dad to leave you to make your choice and whatever it is, we will respect it.”
One more round of smiles and “I love you” from each other as Jake put his hand on the door handle to leave, unbeknownst to him then, that he would be slowly closing that chapter of his life.
On the way past the nurses station, he gave his telephone number to the kind nurse and asked to be kept in the loop on his dad’s progress.
Ten minutes later, his phone rang, and Jake knew with absolute certainty before he answered, that his dad had released himself from his tired body.
How did he know?
Call it Quantum Entanglement if you will.
“Jake I am so sorry for your loss,” Angelique sobbingly spoke when next Jake called, “do you want me to come to England and be with you or do you need more time?”
Jake immediately replied, “Oh please Angel, please come, I need you by my side.”
Jake’s mum, his oldest brother and sister attended the funeral, but the middle brother declined claiming to being too busy.
Jake had made a little progress patching up years of neglect, but the atmosphere from his family was tense and cautiously polite, with a little suspicion towards Angelique who stood firmly and lovingly by Jake’s side throughout the burial.
Jake had conceded that they didn’t have anything in common and where there was no willingness to draw closer as a family, then he would have to ‘suck it up’ and just get on with his life.
Jake had rented short-term, an apartment close by and it was to there the couple would recluse themselves, as Jake licked is wounds and healed his contribution to his past unhappiness.
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