Recently I became a believer in reincarnation. I personally witnessed evidence of it. And I am here to share it with you.
Reincarnation is the belief that an aspect of a living being goes through successive starts in a different physical body or form, called rebirths. And that "Karma," which literally means "action," is the sum of one's actions and the force that determines ones's next reincarnation.
(Before I go any further, let me be clear that what I'm about to describe does NOT FIT the classical definition of reincarnation! It's probably not appropriate to even use the term, other than as an asociation and to serve the purpose of a headline. But I digress and having your attention, I thank you, and can move on.)
I am a recent witness to reincarnation. And the realization came to me as I was searching for a song I wanted to listen to called "Asher Yatzar," named after a Hebrew prayer of the same name. The song is written and performed by an artist named Dan Nichols. It is on his album "Beautiful and Broken." While that song relates, it was not what triggered this blog.
I came across a song by Dan Nichols called "May I Suggest To You." As I listened and absorbed its message I actually got a bit choked up. It is both very sad and very joyful at the same time. The lyrics say all one needs to say about how I percieve the concept of reincarnation and Karma.
But it was not that song either that actually triggered my thoughts on reincarnation.
It was latter on the same day when I saw a Facebook post by my daughter-in-law Melissa. In her post, Melissa shared a humorous article about the "First Intensive Care Unit Opened for Men Suffering from a Cold." Naturally this invited a series of funny jibs & jabs, sexists of course, to which my son Alex who was home suffering from a cold had now recieved "insult to his injury," and had become the brunt of the humor running through this particular Facebook thread. Alex, like a good sport, defended himself tongue in cheek, with the following response,
"Listen, this hybrid strain of bird flu crossed with swine flu that I have is a real ass kicker. Only a man could make it out of this one alive. Just be glad I've passed on these tough as nails genes onto our daughter."
I came back with, "I'm with you son. Very frightening. Charlotte is very fortunate. Hopefully she has your never get cavity teeth too!!" And then, that is when it hit me!
You see, Alex has never had a cavity. I rarely get them either. Neither did my Dad. And his Dad, Alex's great grandfather was a dentist. There it was, Karma - the sum of one's actions!
Mary and I, and Melissa's parents, Don and Cindy, recently all became grandparents. And when we did, it reminded me of something I said to Don years ago while at the bar when he and I were hanging together during Alex's bachelor party. Don, I said to him as I put my arm on his shoulders, we are going to make babies together. Creepy, yeah, but we laughed, and cried a bit too, because Don is as sentimental as I am, and I love him, and he got it! Don lost his father at a young age to a bazarre and tragic accident. We both understood that our children truly are our, our parents', and our parents' parents, and on, lasting legacy. And all we wish is for them to do better than we did.
Now, if you would like, listen to the song I mentioned above in this blog post, and I hope you will understand now why I said the lyrics say all one needs to say about how I percieve the concept of reincarnation and Karma. Again, the song is "May I Suggest To You" by Dan Nichols, and it was inspired by the film "Road to Eden."
If you are a grandparent, you will get it too!