ESSENCE

“An example of essence is what is captured of someone’s personality in a good photograph”.
Now that is a simple statement. But I believe it goes much further than that. To me the ‘essence’ is the soul. It’s what has built up often over many years to a personality. It has little to do with what the person was like or how they behaved. It’s an ineffable part of them. The fact that most of us fail to recognise it in ourselves and others makes no difference to it. Like unconditional love it is untouchable. So much in Nature is hidden from us. We think we know most of it, but the fact is that we are only just beginning to understand. There’s a long way to go yet.
Most of us on here are still in the throes of grief. But would we not rejoice if we knew that somewhere our loved one is still there. The ‘essence’, the person we knew, but renewed in love.
If a flower blooms and dies in a wood and is never seen by a human does that make it less beautiful? It’s ‘essence’ remains. I think that when we talk of feeling the presence of a loved one it’s that essence we feel. Because it’s indestructible it remains. But do we block it by disbelief?
You don’t have to be ‘religious’ to feel it. It has nothing to do with religion.
If we can sit quietly and meditate on our life and enter the silence we may feel it.

“Don’t stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there I do not sleep”

That’s what I mean in that lovely poem. ‘They’ are not there, not in the grave or in the ashes. But the beautiful essence remains. Some will know what I mean.
Blessings to all. John.

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Hi John. When mum died the minute she stopped breathing. I say to people quite regularly. Her essence was immediately gone. It was just her body left. I think it’s why I got through the funeral as I did not connect to the coffin I knew she wasn’t really in that coffin. Everything that made her “her”. Went with her soul

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This is such a beautiful post, John, I do believe that the soul of our departed loved ones is always with us. Thank you,
Blessings,
MaryL

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