28. Heaven
Episode Description: Belinda Carlisle might have had it right. Those of us still living have yet to determine what heaven is and if it even exists. Today, I nod to my version of “heaven.”
Episode theme music ‘A Place Beyond Belief’ by SLPSTRM
TRANSCRIPT
Hey you, welcome back.
This morning I was thinking about heaven and growing up as a Catholic girl, I made my way through all the ways that heaven has been presented to me, mostly in one way, actually—that we die, and if we are right with God (I’m doing “right” in air quotes), we go into a place where God is, mostly described as in the sky somewhere.
Over time, I've questioned, is it a place or is it here and we can’t see past the illusion of the private hells we create for ourselves, or—there’s a lot of things that I've entertained or studied or thought or visualized or dreamt about heaven being. But one thing that I'm confident in, and again, confidence, beliefs, our hardcore truths…
…they’re all based on what we want to think, seriously, what we want to think. But what I take great comfort in is that one day I will again see people that I've lost to their next life adventure. Whatever that is.
I imagine it like walking into somewhere where people are excited to see me, and they yell, “Née Née” with just exuberant joy. I can see all four of my grandparents walking toward me with these big smiles.
My Uncle Steve running and scooping me up in that bear hug that he always gave me while he bit his tongue in that Rellihan way.
And then my cousin Pete, laughing that beautiful laugh that I miss when I or someone in the family says something funny, and then he takes my hand and walks me, while my uncle Joe looks on and nods at me with that affirming nod he’d give me from behind his glasses, which I never really knew what it meant other than he saw me and was affirming and acknowledging me.
All the way to everyone else I've lost and everyone else whom I love and want to see again someday.
So it doesn't really matter what we believe in a religion or a spiritual context. Nobody knows what heaven is. They just, like everything else, constructed it in their minds. In their thoughts. And so do we.
I think (I personally) we're all one, and we will all return and reconnect, whether it's with bodies or not, whether it's just energetic. But I like to envision—and I think we are all comfortable envisioning the reunion like the one I just described because it’s familiar—it’s what we KNOW. it brings us comfort.
It brings me hope; it makes me hopeful. It makes the missing hurt less.
And no, I don't know if that'll ever really happen, but it's what I count on, and it makes this life richer because that's what I count on.
And I think that's what belief is. I think belief is a culmination of thoughts that we, that bring us comfort, that bring us motivation, they help us to do things the way we believe we should be doing them, or want to be doing them.
And it's nothing more than that, but that is not a downplay of it. That’s just calling it what it is. And what a beautiful thing. We have the ability to think and create in our own minds that which we aspire to, that which we look forward to, dream of, or hope for.
So today, this is short and sweet (not that these episodes aren’t already short and sweet, or short and annoying, or short and dumb, or whatever.
Today thought is to say, I think heaven is a place, be it a place we'll journey to at the end of this time, that we are living and breathing now if we would only perceive it, or a place in our minds that will suddenly unfold when this existence stops, and we are ready for our next adventure.
We could go back to boundless Source energy that we return to, maybe without a body.
I don't know. Does it matter? What matters is that we, for our own selves, figure out what brings us comfort, what gives us hope, and what keeps us reaching from this moment now to the next moment now.
And if someone says you’re an idiot for believing in heaven. That isn’t about you. It’s about them.
And if someone says you’re wrong and that you’ll burn in the flames of hell because you don’t believe in heaven, that is also about them, and it’s not about you.
So believe what feels real and hopeful and good for you. Because belief is just thought reimagined, reconstructed, molded for our use, our good, our life experience—for us.
Regardless of what heaven is or isn’t, I can’t get Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven Is A Place on Earth’ out of my head.
And now, you probably can’t either.
Okay.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
If you love this podcast, please FOLLOW, RATE, and REVIEW it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Visit Jenée's IG profile
Peruse Jenée's complete website
The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
Cover art by Jenée Arthur
The songs used in the individual episodes have been licensed for use. You can find each song credit on the individual episode pages here.