Spirit World Dream

I think my sister came to me in a dream a couple of nights ago. I am not a big believer in life after death, and I tend to be skeptical about reports of contact with people who have passed away. Shortly after my sister died, my friend Phil friend lent me the book "Journey of Souls", and I read it eagerly, wanting to believe that a part of ourselves lives on after death, and returns again in some future life. But the rational part of me knows better. My ego has a difficult time believing that I will someday cease to exist. I'd really like to believe that my sister is not really completely gone. Knowing that she is out there somewhere in the spirit world would comfort me, if there is such a thing as the spirit world.

In my dream, it was a perfect warm sunny day with few clouds in the sky. Carolyn stood under a huge live oak tree. She wore a pink flowered dress with puffy sleeves and a full skirt, a style she liked when she was young. Her long chestnut hair, glistening in the sun, framed her smiling face. She looked so happy and peaceful. A butterfly fluttered by. Carolyn was surrounded by a small group of nebulous others, women, I think. I couldn't tell who they were. Maybe they were her friends from happier times, before she got so depressed. Perhaps they were the beloved women of our family, our late mother Iris and our grandmother Vergie, as well as our dear late aunts Leafie and Pat.

Carolyn's broad smile and easy laughter let me know that she is okay. Wherever she is now, she is happy, peaceful, and loved. I do not know if or when she will reincarnate, or if our paths will ever cross again. Even though she struggled with her own deep troubles, she was always only a phone call away or a day's drive up the interstate when I needed advise from a big sister. I wish that she could be that big sister to me again.

Time will tell whether Carolyn will visit me again from the spirit world. Will she come to me in my dreams even if my rational self knows that it is merely a wishful figment of my imagination? Native Americans believed that the spirits of those who were deceased could visit them through their dreams. Since our family's heritage is part Cherokee, I guess I don't find it totally out of the realm of possibility that this phenomenon can happen. At least I hope it does.