A kind acquaintance of mine passed away recently, and I’ve been thinking about him. We’ll call him Dewy. He came to visit me today, to say this:
In Korea, there was a time when I thought I could see the spirits / ghosts of my dead comrades. One was my (best friend, shows me two fists clamped together in strength and assistance.) He whispered “DOWN!” in my ear, and I nearly shit my pants! I ducked – more to get away from this cold whisper in my ear than because I heard the command, but I avoided a flying rock/ shard / some shit – saved my life (chuckle)
A ghost saved my life. This is why I always considered the rest of my life, (45 more years) to be “bonus time”. Because if it weren’t for my buddy, I *know* I would have died.
I thought of him as my “angel” ever since. I didn’t talk that much about it. I just knew it. I would sit in church with my family at Christmas service, and think about the holy spirit – my dead friend – he was *my* holy ghost.
He had my back, just as we’d promised. Even after he died, he still took care of me.
It’s this sort of camaraderie, brotherhood, that only happens when you’re in a life-threatening situation.
When I think about how fucked up Korea was, Viet Nam and the Gulf Wars, all that Insanity, I know, remember that this moment – this gift of 45 years and living my life as a gift for 45 years – could not have happened *without* Korea. So maybe in there somewhere, you can make some sense of war and why we do it.
I lived my life as a blessing – every fuckin’ day. “I’m still here, I’m still here. Thank you God for another day.” Even the shittiest days (at a funeral) I still said that to myself, in my head and out loud (eulogy) – let us all be grateful for the gift of one more day.
This is why I wasn’t afraid of dying, even though I was afraid of losing my dignity. This is why I loved my last days (in palliative care) – because even with these pretty young nurses flushing my colon, (just like the Korea hospital!) I NEVER lost my dignity.
I thank you for talking to me, dear. Dewy.
Kate Sitka 
Great post, Kate! Sorry I’ve not been tagging up when I read. Still following. xo
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I’m so glad you commented – I haven’t visited your blog in a while, and I just did some catching up. It’s actually incredible the profound change in your perspective in the past year, eh? Or myself, for that matter. Hence, the whole effing point of blogging!
You have inspired me to make a blogroll though, thank you for having my blog on your blogroll!
I loved that grounding moment you had at the reiki treatment. That is amazing. I feel so happy for you, but I can’t say why exactly – do you know what I mean?
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That’s a great story; he was a nice man. 🙂
And that happened to me too — the voice in the ear thing, alerting me to danger. It was… weird.
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Awe, wonderful Kate!! Thank you!!! Jxn xo
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:55:03 +0000 To: jandrake007@hotmail.com
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Okay, where do I even begin. I stumbled upon your blog about three weeks ago. I wasn’t even terribly familiar with Nirvana, I was just curious if anyone had ever successfully contacted Kurt beyond the grave, and here I came. After reading your blog, my life is changed forever. I am a Catholic-raised Agnostic that genuinely had no idea how everything works or why, and was trying not to get in over my head with figuring it out, but I get it now. There is no question that everything you guys talk about is authentic. It’s just amazing. I know to you guys it’s probably just every day normal, but to a kid just discovering all of these things at once it’s mind blowing. I read your posts and then the next following days I think of about a hundred questions I could ask you, but I try to keep from bombarding you haha. Thank you guys so much for sharing your experiences! I have a friend who I share music with occasionally, and this morning he posted this music video on my facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05gZ4lYi-Ho
I think it’s pretty relevant, so check it out if you get a chance.
What does one even say the people that made so much sense out of her life? You guys are so great.
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Hey Kerry – wow, thank you so much!
Funny I found your comment just as I was preparing to post another convo with Kurt – first one in quite a while.
No coincidence!
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That is fantastic! I look forward to reading it. I think me and him would be good pals if I had a third-eye, but I’m just going to have to live vicariously through you haha 🙂
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🙂
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