Following the Light towards Home

'If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.' Rumi

This quote is like spiritual valium to me, I say it out loud, and my troubles step aside and peace comes and huddles next to me. The two words that make up the medicine for me are 'light' and 'home' - words that have become such eternal concepts in my personal belief system that they defy simple definition.Perhaps it is the many years I have spent studying survivors of Near Death Experiences (NDE) that has given the word 'light' such irrevocable power in my life. The most universally shared experience that those who return from the edge of life report is an interaction with ' the light'- which is unlike any light or source of light they had ever known before. This light is always described as a dynamic force of good that seems to have the ability to take on not exactly human qualities- but instead angelic or benevolent God type qualities. One near death experiencer named Pam Reynolds described her experience of standing in the white light like this, "I realized that I was standing in the breath of God.'  That sentence always hits me so deeply- and when I hear it, I again feel that spiritual valium kicking in.The second word, 'home', has also taken on vast meaning in my world. Again this likely comes from the years of interviewing NDE survivors who so emphatically claim that the 'real home' they visited during their brief time out of body, is an abode that houses peace beyond anything we can imagine.

Life is hard and there is not one among us who walks the proverbial yellow brick road or is exonerated from the doubts and the darknesses that are an inherent part of the human experience.  Doubts and darkness will pay their visits to all of us, but I absolutely trust Rumi when he advises that if we keep light in our heart, we will find our way home.