Death by Drowning and Back Again

By Andy Petro

(Andy reads the poem, click here)

Oh God, I’m drowning! My life is all black!

Why me?  Why me, God?  Please, can’t I go back?

I sank into an abyss of ice-cold pain,

Surrounded by blackness again and again …

Though my senses were numb, my pain was intense!

I screamed out in silence … death seemed so immense!

Every fiber of my body continued to fight …

The ugly, frigid, blackness was void of any light.

I continued to sink and struggle without end.

Until finally, I hit bottom … alone without friend.

Stuck in the mud and try as I might …

Escape was impossible from this black, hideous sight.

A voice from my depths, tells me what’s best.

“Let go … for just a moment, you need a little rest.”

I’m afraid to stop trying … for one breath of air!

To rise from the bottom … break free from despair!

Again, the voice assures me … “Let go, it’s all right …”

“After a brief moment, you can continue the fight.”

All right then – OK then – I’ll let go of my life.

A moment of rest, and then on with the strife.

I release!  I let go!  Then in an instant so fine …

I’m hurled from my body through a tunnel in time.

I look down and see my body all knurled up in fright!

I look up, and the tunnel is aglow in white Light.

In a heartbeat, a gasp, my senses are alive!

I am warm, I am loved, I am happy … completely revived!

The Light is so bright; it should burn through my eyes,

But It pulls like a gentle magnet, and then I realize

I’m engulfed in the Brightness, with love and with care.

The Light, It sustains me … I can breathe its warm, sweet air.

And then in a moment I appear in a sphere.

My lives are all around me, I can see them, I can hear …

Every moment, every thought through lifetimes unfold …

There is no judgment or fear to behold,

No accounting, no damnation, just observations so clear …

That my lives are just choices and it’s love that endears.

“Don’t be afraid,” the Light says through my ears,

“I love you, we love you, and there’s nothing to fear.”

I’m welcomed by the Light … and the Light smiles within me!

We talk, we play, we laugh … Its Love sets me free!

At last I am Home!  The universe is such a wondrous delight!

The Light is One with Me … and I am One in the Light!

Surprisingly, the Light says, “Andy you must go back!”

“No, I‘m finally Home!” I screamed in a counterattack.

The Light insisted, “Back to earth you must go.”

Earthly images terrorized me and tears started to flow.

In an instant I was back, coughing up water on the sand…

The agony of earth overshadowed a Light so wonderfully grand.

                                                      Prayer from Archbishop Fenelon          (Submitted by Eric)

Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee.

Thou only knowest what I need.

Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself.

Oh, Father!  Grant to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask for.

I dare not ask either for crosses or for consolations.

I simply present myself before Thee.  I open my heart to Thee.

Behold those needs which I myself know not of.

See and do according to Thy tender mercy.

Smite or heal, depress me or raise me up, I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them.

I am silent.  I offer myself in sacrifice.  I yield myself to Thee.

I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will.

Teach me to pray.  Pray Thyself in me.

Amen.

INNER  PEACE

by Madelaine Martino Luther

Peace of the Soul,

Peace of th Mind,,

Comes to us Slow,

But in Good Time.

When knowledge and love

Abound in our life,

Then we have won,

The goodness of life.

These qualities still hold,

When are souls are freed,

Then we are told,

What it means, Indeed!