Ryker Gamble Here

I had a very special visitor this morning. Someone some of you would recognize. I wasn’t a follower of his in life, but have since “fallen in love” with this unique and refreshing spirit. Due to this interaction with this young man this morning, I found myself googling his life’s work. This led me to a video on Youtube that was based in inspiring others to go forth and live their best lives. You can find his material on youtube under High On Life.

Ryker Gamble was an Angel. For real. That’s sort of rare really, especially in today’s day and age of social media influencers, where the quest for popularity often leads us to the shallow end of the pool. This isn’t the first time I’ve met Ryker since his passing. In fact I’ve written about him once before in my blog post, A Dance With A Dead Man, posted last July at about the same time (days after his death).

“Ryker Gamble, here.” He repeated at least a dozen times, as I replied to messages on my phone. Half invested in his appearance, I kept saying, “Ryker, I hear you, what’s up, bro? What do ya’ need?” To which the same reply from him would come back, “Ryker Gamble, here.” I finally understood that he wanted me to drop my phone and be fully present in that moment with him.

He even pressed his head (his spirit head) against my chest to listen to my heartbeat several times, before I gave in and showed him my full attention.

The video I watched was posted by The High Life, a group of friends who shared in adventures and travels together, becoming legitimate social media stars in the process. I browsed through the comments left and found that most of them were from people who had been inspired (sometimes through their darkest moments) to go forth, sometimes one foot a time, to attempt to live their dream lives.

It is no mystery to me why I was led to view this material. I am coming out of a dark period in my life, where negativity ruled. The light was sparse, and hope was non-existent most days. Ryker, like others who come been magnetically drawn to me in my journey, reminded me with his life’s work, that you really can live your best life. That anything is possible. And life is abundant with opportunity to be genuinely happy.

This message is one I have trouble accepting, because we base our knowing off of the past. And if the past has been that dark along the journey to self awareness, sometimes you think that darkness is all that is left.

When I asked Ryker how he felt about the way that he died (curiosity), he replied that he felt that his death was a reminder of what is important enough to die for. For those of you who don’t know, Ryker passed away along with two other friends, as two of them tried to save another of them in a tragic waterfall accident.

Like I said in my first post about Ryker, sometimes the person really is the person they say they are. There are Angels amongst us, and we are buoyed up by their mere presence in our lives.

I woke up this morning trying to answer a question I’ve received several times, about my will to survive my life. “How did you survive?” I’ve never known how to reply until this afternoon. I realized that I survived because of the connection I was able to either find, or create, in my darkest moments. I saw so many people willing to put their reputations on the line, to bring forth music, and movies, and art, that wasn’t purely for entertainment purposes. Things that reached deeper than the many shallow influences. So deep that they kept me alive.

A spark in the dark is the connection that saves lives. Be willing to be seen as imperfect, to share a vulnerable message,to be that unique in your approach to life.

Thank you, Ryker Gamble here, for allowing me to know quite insistently, that your message was meant for me too. Your life, though short, will continue to inspire others, because that’s what being authentically yourself does for the world.

Namaste

Mother and Daughter Reunited

I could hardly believe my senses this morning as I awoke from a deep and refreshing sleep. I was in Hawaii. I knew I was in Hawaii. I could hear the ocean waves crashing gently into one another. I could feel a cool breeze caressing my skin. I’ve never carried with me such vivid remnants of my time out of body, and I am so appreciate of this little cellular memory clip I got to bring back with me from my first ever (and long awaited) trip to Hawaii. I can’t wait to see it in the third dimension someday.

As I closed my eyes last night a toddler appeared at the side of my bed, holding herself up. As usual, information started presenting it’s self to me a little at a time. This toddler’s name was Michelle, and she had drowned in her backyard swimming pool in the late eighties. Or early nineties. The clothing was reminiscent of that time. Michelle couldn’t answer point blank, or adult questions, she was too little, so I had to ask simple questions about her life and death.

She had been standing near the swimming pool, and bent over in her dress, falling in. Screaming in terror under the water, wondering “how do I get out now?” Pleading with the water for her mother to find her, and then darkness overtook her. When I see clips of death, it always surprises me that though many suffer, there is a certain point at which it ceases, and that point arrives rather quickly in most cases. It’s as if the soul detaches from the body even before death has fully occurred.

Michelle’s mother also wore a dress, and her hairstyle was outdated by today’s standards. She was discussing another date on the cordless phone with a man she had fallen for, shyly, but confidently, carving out a new life for herself. On one hand unsure, and on the other, ready to move selfishly forward, to be happy. Her mistake had been leaving the sliding glass door open. And ultimately getting caught up in a moment that for her should have just been happy, new, deserved.

When she looked out the door, she dropped the phone and ran outside. She didn’t jump in the pool, she used the stairs to get in. Once she realized that she had made the biggest mistake of her life, she calmly walked upstairs to her bedroom, removed a gun from a hidden location, and shot herself. This caused a lot of confusion for both parties, as nothing was processed before death.

Andrea (the mother told me her name) appeared to me in a vision then, and I understood my reason for picking up the energy of this story then. Michelle was reluctant to leave with her mother, who stood with outstretched arms, pleading with her toddler to trust mommy, that mommy hadn’t meant to hurt her. I explained to Michelle that her mother would never mean to allow something like that to happen to her, and that it had all been a terrible accident. And that she was safe to leave in spirit form with her mother now. She seemed to finally understand as best she could, and left then with the spirit form of her mother.

I was also able to reassure Andrea that she had made a mistake, but that it was a tragic accident. That nobody would have believed she had been neglectful or a bad mother, that all that had truly occurred was life, and that if she had help, maybe her story would have turned out differently. A mother’s guilt survives even death.

Honestly, I cried. I could feel tears leaking out the corner of my eyes, as I kept them shut and tried to focus on my clients, Andrea and Michelle.

As I write this, I think, maybe this is too weird of a story to believe, but then I recall that I’m the one lucky enough to connect to these beautiful souls in their time of need, and that they trust me with their stories, which to me is such an honor.

I can see Andrea smiling as she picks her baby girl up again, and they start a new journey together finally, and at peace.

Namaste