With a song in my head.

Every morning, the thoughts in my head can usually be summed up with:

"Ugh. It's morning already?"

But these days, I wake up with part of a song stuck in my mind. Not so unusual. Lots of people have this.

My experience went a few steps farther, however. One or two lines of the song repeated endlessly inside my mind, until I wondered if I was going mad!

Interestingly, I chose instead, to listen with purpose. Once I did, this started happening a lot more, and I realized something. The song phrases were strangely appropriate to my life, and I began considering them like they were pieces of advice from a good friend.

And then, things changed again. The phrases in my head became more mysterious, and didn't immediately make sense, until days later, when something else would happen, to confirm that what I'd heard inside my head, days earlier, was real!

It was early in 2021, when I got out of bed and took that first, luxurious stretch. With my arms high in the air, I suddenly heard a woman's voice, interrupting my thoughts, shouting excitedly, "Yo!"

I recognised her voice immediately, and also the phrase.

She had said this exact thing to me, only a few months earlier, when she thought I wasn't paying attention, and she needed to tell me something.

Was this another memory? Or something else?

The voice was not just a memory, however. It didn't fade away, as I went about my morning preparations. Instead, it got louder.

"YO! Wake UP Sunshine!"

WOW. Okay, now I was intrigued, and slightly creeped out.

Unsure what else to do, I quieted my own thoughts, and formed a thought response.

I'm listening.

"Finally! Today's the day!"

Her voice came through so clearly, that my eyes filled with tears at the sound of it, but her next phrase made me laugh out loud.

"No more salt water facials, yo," she said, with her signature sarcastic tone. "It happenin' it's finally happenin'! Today's the day!"

Okay. For what?

"Something amazing. You'll see."

Still vague as ever, I replied. A vision appeared in my mind just then. She was smiling excitedly, and gave me a sly wink. "Aw, yeah. Get goin', yo! It's happenin' today!"

There was no question that something important was going on for her, but since I didn't have coffee in my system, I couldn't imagine what it could be.

An hour later, I had my answer. A coworker told me that the family was holding her celebration of life that afternoon, and although covid still had a grip on us, limiting participation in person, I could attend virtually.

Wow.

Thank you, M.

An incredibly loving and kind person, she was taken to heaven too early.

It is an incredible gift to be her friend, and a true blessing to be able to speak with her, now that she is on the other side.

You're probably weirded out right now. It's okay, so was I, at first. It's happened so often that I stopped asking "why me", and now, I just say thank you.