Working as a Medium, I relay messages from the Spirit World. Although these are messages meant for the Sitter, sometimes their Spirit-Person will have a message for me. This is a phenomenon I find fascinating, by the way. Although I’m never asking for this information, they must know that it’s something I’m interested in for my own development, and it is perhaps a way of saying “thanks”. I imagine that after a lifetime of providing readings one must gather quite the understanding of the spirit world. One such message I received concerned the spiritual meaning of aging and disability.
I do want to start off this discussion by acknowledging that aging and disability are hard and that there is a lot of suffering involved. Also, some people become disabled while they are still young and not everyone lives to old age. My own father did not live long enough to become an old man and I have personally had my own struggles with chronic pain and illness. My goal is not to gloss-over the very real difficulties of this human life, but I do want to share a perspective that perhaps one can gain once they are on the other side of this human life.
One particular spirit began by telling me that what he didn’t know then that he knows now is that when we age, it is to allow us the opportunity to separate from the body. It also allows our loved-ones time to prepare for that separation. We have a tendency to cling to these bodies, but they are only ever meant to be temporary. As we slow down with age, it also gives us (forces us) time for contemplation and reflection to more fully prepare for that transition.
A message I have received from multiple spirits who died with dementia, is that dementia in particular allows the soul to leave the body from time to time and receive that added transition-preparation that most people never get. They are able to come and go from their body and experience the spirit world while still alive. It sounds hard to believe, but these spirits saw their dementia as having been a special gift they received.
Other spirits have relayed to me that as they aged and declined more and more, they were able to hold on to their life up to and until their children were ready to let them go. Once their surviving children felt ready for them to die, they did. Their increasingly declining health helped their children to let go, and their children’s acceptance of their impending death, helped them in order to let go and cross over. Again, this was viewed as a special gift that they were able to hold on until their children were ready for them to go.
Since receiving these messages, I’ve done some research on aging. As it turns out, this is a pretty unique human phenomenon. Most animals don’t experience menopause. There are animals here on Earth that don’t age at all. Some experience what’s called “catastrophic aging”, whereby they suddenly age and die within a short time period. Some animals even become stronger and more vital the longer they live. Human beings are unique in that we have such a long slow decline. The only other animals to age like us are whales and some of the great apes. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these are the most sentient and most conscious animals on the planet.
What are we to make of this? Although our time here on Earth is fleeting, the Spirit World definitely emphasizes the importance of it. Spirits are very encouraging (more like demanding) that we take care of our health and stay active and healthy for as long as we can. They want us to go out and experience the world, form relationships and stay connected with each other, celebrate holidays and milestones, travel, etc. But they do also emphasize the importance of embracing the seasons of life and changing roles as we get older. Although staying young at heart is important, remaining overly attached to the body through say cosmetic surgeries is really bypassing the spiritual lesson we are meant to be learning as we grow older.