There was the 87-year-old woman who told me a remarkable story of the spiritual experiences and signs she receives from her mother after she passed. The woman leaned in close to me and whispered, “I’ve never told anybody about this in all my life because I’m afraid people will think I’m crazy.”
And the mother who grieves the death of her young daughter yet lit up like a Christmas tree when talking about the heart-shaped rocks and leaves her daughter puts in her path.
And the man who receives signs of Guinness beer bottle caps from his father, and red cardinals from his mother.
I’ve had many conversations with people at my book talks, in interviews, over coffee, through my website. It’s been informative and meaningful to hear what aspects of my story resonate with others. My book details my deep dive into trying to understand what happens when we die; the growing body of work on the survival of consciousness; what documented near-death experiences teach us about the transition after bodily death and what the Other Side is like; how quantum physics is proving this greater reality. But, you know what everyone wants to talk with me about? The signs they receive from their loved ones in spirit. And their stories are always, ALWAYS, accompanied by smiles, exclamation points, acknowledgement of the comfort they’ve received. It reinforces what I already knew—that these experiences, and the continued relationship with our loved ones, is more common and natural than any of us talk about. These experiences bring so much healing to those who grieve.
Our loved ones are trying so hard to send us signs and messages—even really big, bold, hit-you-over-the-head signs, but we miss them. We’re distracted by our minds, our phones, our lives. We might even walk right by them and see them, but not really see them.
There are certain types of signs that spirit is so good at sending:
Disruptions with electricity and electronics
Animal signs
Repetitive numbers such as 1111
Objects in our path that were important to them
Their favorite song on the radio, or the lingering scent of their perfume, or of cigarette smoke
Visitation dreams
Tingling and goose bumps
You can also ask your loved ones for specific signs.
Just a week after my son Hugh passed, a colleague of mine that I barely know contacted me out of the blue with a message from Hugh. She knew nothing of him, little of me, but Hugh had seen a way to get through to me through someone else because I was in a sickening, heavy, dark fog of paralyzing grief. My colleague told me that his message was that I would receive the sign of cherries from him. I just didn’t even know what to make of that, or how cherries could ever possibly be a sign from him, and a sign of what, really?
But I’ll be damned if, particularly, every time I travel, I don’t receive some significant cherry occurrence that I’ve taken to be his way of telling me that no matter where I go, there he is.
I’ve traveled twice in the last month. The first trip was to the Helping Parents Heal conference in Phoenix. I’m co-leader of the Seattle group of this incredible global organization that supports parents who’ve lost a child. On Day 2 of the conference, after 10 long hours of programming and the poignancy of missing my boy so much, I walked back to my hotel room down a long hallway. As I had to make a 90-degree turn, I almost collided with a young man coming my way wearing a Cherry Dr. Pepper T-shirt, with two huge cherries as the graphic. Rejoice! I stopped him, told him about my cherry thing and we exchanged big hugs, so happy that he delivered that message from my son.
It didn’t end there. The next morning as I entered the conference concourse, boom, right there on one of the registration tables was a random bag of fresh cherries. The brand on the packaging was “A Half Mile Closer to the Moon” and right under the graphic was the tagline “Sweet cherries. Causes doubt.” These weren’t just any cherries. They were high-altitude cherries. How cosmic of you, Hugh!
And then a couple hours later, another mom participating in the conference walked right in front of me wearing a shirt covered in a cherry print. Wow, just wow.
The second trip this month was to France for a women writers’ retreat. At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, after making it through security and passport control, I popped out into the terminal and there was a huge digital panel running a video ad for Lancome’s new perfume featuring Julia Roberts—"La vie est belle Very Cherry Eau de Parfum”—with thousands of cherries cascading down a posh staircase as Julia sits at the bottom in a pool of them. Hi, Hugh! He never was subtle in life and isn’t still.
I also receive innumerable other signs—like the tiny, cut-out paper letter H just sitting on top of the washer when I went downstairs to do the laundry one day. Totally random, truly incredible. Or the countless times I’ve looked at the clock when it just happens to be 12:01—Hugh’s birthday, December 1st. Or when the blue Steller’s jays that I’ve come to associate with Hugh’s presence swarm me.
It really is something to be opened up to the idea that our loved ones are speaking to us through signs. That communication is possible. The important thing is to not doubt what you’re seeing, hearing, and experiencing. When something seems to be a great coincidence or synchronicity, pay attention. If you think something might be a sign, it is. The more you notice those things, acknowledge them as signs, and thank your loved ones for them, the more it opens the pathways of communication and the more you’ll receive.
I’m eager to hear about the signs you’ve received. Share in the comments below!