Lynne Jackson Quotes

Stick with me, babe, and I'll change your life.

I love your sense of humor and the fact you never ate grits before. There’s so much I love about you that I know I’m in love with you. So, honey, you can have all my shirts you want.

Nobody lives a small life. No one is forgotten by the universe.

We are all leaves on different branches of the same tree.

What is your view of the world?" My answer came easily. "I see the earth as a classroom," I said. "We are all sent here to learn lessons and help each other. But the real world is the spirit world. And that world is a world of light and love.

people are brought into our path for a reason. There is always something to be taught or to be learned, either for one of you or for both. And

Each time I saw you, I felt like . . . I felt like I knew you a little bit better. I never talked to you but seeing you always smiling or laughing . . . or being peaceful . . .” He shook his head, and my heart spasmed. “There’s something about that . . . it drew me in, Calla. Fuck. I fell for you before you even knew my name.

We feel called to something bigger in our lives. We might not know exactly what that is, but we can feel it in our bones.

We are not bodies with souls. We are souls with bodies.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. —ROALD DAHL

It’s one thing to break up and leave someone when you’re over it and ready to go. It’s a very different thing to break up with someone when you love them but realize you have to move on if you want to grow.

I gotta tell you that I love you, Calla,” he said, and I was surprised the heart monitor didn’t catch the fact it felt like my heart had stopped for a moment. “No bullshit. I do. I love the way you think, even if it’s annoying as fuck at times and even then it’s still cute. I love that there’s a shit ton of things you’ve never gotten to experience and that you’re going to get to experience them with me. That I have that honor. I love your strength and everything you’ve survived. I love your courage and I love that you make shit drinks, but no one cares, because you’re so damn nice.

Grief brings us great pain, but the Other Side teaches us that this pain is not about the absence of love—it’s about the continuation of that love. The brilliant cords of love that connect us to someone in this life endure into the afterlife. And when we feel unbearable pain at the loss of a loved one, it is like we are tugging on that cord of love. The pain is real because the cord is real. Our love doesn’t end—it goes on.

It has been said that people cross our paths and enter our lives as either a blessing or a lesson. Often, it is both. Either they have something to teach us, or we have something to teach them, or, at best, we have something to teach each other. That is how this great chain of light and interconnection works.

Imagine if we could all have that kind of clarity while we're here on earth. Imagine if we could all see illness and adversity as opportunities to expand our love on a soul level. The truth is, we can achieve this clarity. We simply need to see and appreciate the cords of light and love that bind us, in good times and in bad, in this life and the next. We need to honor the light between us.

If you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. —FRED ROGERS

Souls have deep connections and unique contracts that span centuries, exist back and forth in time, and bind us in ways we can't really understand.... These connections are ancient and everlasting, and they already exist in our hearts, even if we're not always aware of them.

If we keep trying to obtain something yet our attempts are blocked from every angle, and we can’t figure out why, consider that it might not be the right path for us. Sometimes, surrendering it to the universe and moving on is the most powerful thing we can do—our highest and best path.

I would not find my answers in this church, or any church, I decided. I believed in God and I believed God held the answers, but after my talk with the pastor I also believed God was so much bigger and more powerful than this little brick-and-mortar church. The answers were out there, somewhere else.

The universe is designed for us to be there for each other—we are not meant to retreat into our pain and grief alone. We are meant to honor the vibrant cords of light and love that bind us, because the love of others is the most healing force of all. Why would we shut ourselves off from this powerful force?

There’s the famous saying “Be careful what you wish for.” The Other Side has taught me a version of this lesson—sometimes it’s a blessing not to get what you want.

We are meant to shine our truest light fully and bravely in this world.

Love is the bridge between you and everything. —RUMI

Art in all its forms is a kind of dialogue between us and the entirety of existence, past, present, and future. It is us elevating our lives by elevating our energy.

believe there is a beautiful afterlife. I believe we are never alone.

I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear. —MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

The universe sends us signs to steer us toward our highest paths.

Our job is never, ever to follow a path of hate. Our highest and brightest life paths are always paths of love.

Jackson

When you ask for signs from the Universe, the Universe speaks back.

Picture a hand with five fingers. Each finger is distinct, but each finger also connects to the same source—the hand itself. The fingers are separate, but connected. We as humans have vastly different experiences here on earth, but all of our experiences funnel into one massive collective experience—the experience of our existence. Our souls, ourselves, our experiences, our existence—these are not isolated in any way. The universe is not a place of separateness, it is a place of entanglement. We are connected to others in ways we cannot fathom.

I have encountered pets in hundreds of readings, and they always appear as happy bundles of light and energy. While they’re with us, they are our teachers, sharing profound lessons about unconditional love—lessons they are uniquely suited to teach. And when they cross, they remain connected to us in real and powerful ways, providing hope and comfort and support and, of course, everlasting love.

Sometimes the end of a relationship isn’t a failure at all, but rather a release for both people so that they can travel on their own true paths. Some relationships are only meant to teach us lessons about love.

Our job is simply to remain open to receiving these messages of love and guidance. When we do, we will know the most powerful truth of all—that the universe is constantly loving and supporting and guiding us, even on our darkest days.

We are all distinct instruments, playing our separate beautiful notes, and it is our job to play them as best we can—but when we all play together, we produce a magnificent symphony that lifts us all and makes sense of our individual roles.

Prayer is when we direct our thoughts to God/the universe; meditation is when we listen back. It is not unusual to get downloads of information from the Other Side while meditating, because it creates a beautiful space for us to “listen back.

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again! —HENRY SCOTT-HOLLAND

I love you, Jackson James. I love you. I love-" His arms tightened again and his deep growl rumbling out of his chest silenced me. Our gazes locked. "I need to be in you. Now." My eyes widened. "No time to go home." Then he took one of my hands and started walking back toward the hotel entrance. "Jax?" He looked down at me, his eyes full of hunger. "No time." ... We ended up back in the hotel, standing in front of a wide-eyes hotel clerk. "I need a room." Jax said, smacking down his wallet. "Now.

Sometimes, the sign is the whisper in our heart, the deep and undeniable pull, the inherent knowing that the answer is already there.... If we are open to this, it will truly enrich our lives. Because life is so much more than we can see in this dimension.

Art is the way we tell the collective story of all humanity, but it’s also one of the most powerful ways we connect with one another here on earth. To deprive ourselves of this connection is shortsighted and costly. To ignore art is to deprive ourselves of all the light

This is not about you making a million dollars. This is about you embracing the journey. The success was in finally taking this path. And by doing that you are empowering yourself! You are saying, 'My voice matters! What I feel matters! Who I am matters!' That is a full victory right there.

The universe has been conspiring to help us since before our souls’ arrival on this earth. Our teams have long been in place. Our job is simply to remain open to receiving these messages of love and guidance. When we do, we will know the most powerful truth of all—that the universe is constantly loving and supporting and guiding us, even on our darkest days.

You might wonder how those on the Other Side know to use my screen or my body, or even how they find me. My answer: they just know. We are tied to all those we’ve ever loved by cords of light. Those cords can never be broken. Think of them like a fishing line of love. If you tug on one end, the other end feels the tug. And those on the Other Side are always on the lookout for openings between the worlds. They can locate the portal they need. The most important thing for a sitter to know is that he or she doesn’t need a psychic medium to communicate with loved ones who have passed. If we open our minds and our hearts, we will begin to see the signs and messages they send for us to feel their presence in our everyday lives.

Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die. —MARY ELIZABETH FRYE

Our loved ones on the Other Side send us signs designed to make us think of them. They do so to remind us that they are still connected to us in very real and powerful ways. The love that bound us here on earth continues to connect us after they’ve crossed. The interests we shared, the joys we had in common, the memories that make us laugh—these are all part of the ongoing and everlasting connection between us and the Other Side.

I'm not stupid, Malek," he said softly. "I know I'm in trouble. Big trouble. Jackson…" He closed his eyes and took a heavy breath before continuing. "Mating Jackson has awakened everything I felt for Kat after she died. It's like I'm feeling it all over again." He slowly swirled his drink, making the ice clink the sides of the glass. "And he doesn't love me. He never did. I can hear his thoughts and know there's someone else. I see what they do with one another, but there's nothing I can do to stop him, and yet I can't walk away." He lifted his gaze to Malek's and saw complete and total understanding reflected back at him. Like any other male of their species, Malek knew Micah was between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Micah looked back down into his glass. "It's just a matter of time, Malek." A matter of time before his mental faculties short-circuited and tossed him like a rag doll into suffering so intense he'd be lucky to remember his own name when the end came. Malek's

IN THE PAST, when dying was typically a more precipitous process, we did not have to think about a question like this. Though some diseases and conditions had a drawn-out natural history—tuberculosis is the classic example—without the intervention of modern medicine, with its scans to diagnose problems early and its treatments to extend life, the interval between recognizing that you had a life-threatening ailment and dying was commonly a matter of days or weeks. Consider how our presidents died before the modern era. George Washington developed a throat infection at home on December 13, 1799, that killed him by the next evening. John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and Andrew Johnson all succumbed to strokes and died within two days. Rutherford Hayes had a heart attack and died three days later. Others did have a longer course: James Monroe and Andrew Jackson died from progressive and far longer-lasting (and highly dreaded) tubercular consumption. Ulysses Grant’s oral cancer took a year to kill him. But, as end-of-life researcher Joanne Lynn has observed, people generally experienced life-threatening illness the way they experienced bad weather—as something that struck with little warning. And you either got through it or you didn’t.

The most important thing for a sitter to know is that he or she doesn’t need a psychic medium to communicate with loved ones who have passed. If we open our minds and our hearts, we will begin to see the signs and messages they send for us to feel their presence in our everyday lives.

Let's keep this simple: We separate religion and government in this country. That means the state has no business setting aside special days for prayer or other religious observances. Thomas Jefferson knew that. He refused to issue prayer proclamations during his presidency. James Madison issued a few under pressure from Congress but later in his life wrote an essay saying he wished he hadn't. Andrew Jackson followed Jefferson's lead and refused to issue such proclamations entirely.

In short, sir, we have been too long subject to the policy of the British merchants. It is time we should become a little more Americanized, and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own, or else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be paupers ourselves.

Some people are brought in as blessings, others as lessons—and sometimes, we are a lesson for someone else. Often, once a lesson is completed, the Other Side will shift a particular person away from our path. Understanding that and letting go of these people can be a very powerful tool to help us achieve our best and highest path. It also opens our energy to new and

The love that we feel on earth comes with us when we cross. The love we have for one another, and the love we have for all the things we bonded with while we were here.

Intuition is one of the great gifts we have as human beings. But it only works if we heed it.

because no matter how many signs we get, the sense of physical loss is always there.

The lesson here: We need not just to look, but to see.

We are all on this wild and beautiful ride together. The truest joy of all existence is this very interconnectedness.

The Other Side will also use strange and unlikely electrical occurrences—cellphones acting weirdly or receiving inexplicable texts and calls, lightbulbs flickering or burning out, and broken transistor radios suddenly playing music, to name a few.

Pay attention to the happenings in life that provoke an involuntary response in you. The Other Side is endlessly inventive and creative, and the members of our Teams of Light are, in a way, big show-offs. They love to dazzle us. And if they can knock our socks off, even better. If something happens that strikes you as totally odds-defying, chances are the Other Side has just worked its magic.

The love we hold in our hearts on this earth does not disappear into nothingness when we cross—it travels with us and becomes a part of the massive, universal life force that is the collection of all of our love and light. In the same way, our passions and our unique individual gifts and personality come with us, too. Someone who is an artist on earth will be an artist on the Other Side. Someone who was an incorrigible jokester here on earth will be the same once they cross. If we adored elephants when we were in our bodies, we will still adore them once our consciousness has transitioned out of our bodies and turned into pure light energy. What we love, we take.

The Other Side wants to help us avoid pursuing something that will not bring us true fulfillment, or something that may lead us down a path of sadness and anger or even danger. If we keep trying to obtain something yet our attempts are blocked from every angle, and we can’t figure out why, consider that it might not be the right path for us. Sometimes, surrendering it to the universe and moving on is the most powerful thing we can do—our highest and best path.

Each of us has a Team of Light—a group of unseen helpers who work together to guide us to our highest path. This team is made up of our loved ones who have crossed, our spirit guides (also commonly known as guardian angels), a higher angelic realm, and God energy, which is based in the strongest force there is or ever will be: love.

Calder had one other important message to share with his mother. “He is sending you messages all the time, and he sees that you are getting them, but that you’re immediately questioning them,” I said. “Calder is telling you, ‘Stop doing that. Stop questioning.

often asked if our pets cross to the Other Side and if they, too, can send us signs. The answer to both is yes. The animals we loved so dearly here on earth are indeed on the Other Side. And once they’re there, they can—and do—send us amazing signs.

When our pets cross, they want to let us know that they are okay. If they were infirm or in pain and suffering at the end of their time on earth, they want to let us know that they are now pain-free and once again frolicking and jumping and running. And when they cross, they want us stop doubting ourselves or feeling misplaced guilt. Our pets know that every decision we made was made with their best interest at heart. They know we did everything in our power to make their crossing as comfortable as possible. They want to assuage our grief and heal our broken hearts. And the way they do this is by letting us know they’re still with us.

Many people face hardships and obstacles, and sometimes they push away the people who love them. Kyle’s struggles made him feel alone. And then, in the most tragic of circumstances, he accepted someone’s love, and in that instant he learned he had never really been alone.

Death ends a life, not a relationship. —MITCH ALBOM, Tuesdays with Morrie

The way we carry and share our energy may be invisible to the naked eye, but it is as real as a handshake. We all bring a particular energy to every encounter in our lives.

Negative thoughts are like stinky bits of trash thrown into our energy field (with some being bigger and stinkier than others). Now think of positive thoughts as lovely flowers surrounding

Sometimes our highest path takes us away from someone we romantically love or think we love, simply because they aren't ready to change paths with us. We need to realize that even if we choose a path that doesn't include them, or that our time together wasn't "the right path." We cross into each other's path for a reason-to teach each other useful lessons and help each other grow. But sometimes, in order to keep growing, we have to venture onto a new, higher path by ourselves. And that is okay. You can love someone and still not be meant to spend your whole life with them.

The brilliant cords of love that connect us to

The brilliant cords of love that connect us to someone in this life endure into the afterlife. And when we feel unbearable pain at the loss of a loved one, it is like we are tugging on that cord of love. The pain is real because the cord is real. Our love doesn’t end—it goes on.

Coins, too—since they consist of metal—have a level of conductivity that seems to make them easy targets for the Other Side. Look for coins appearing in unlikely places or at unlikely times, specifically when you are thinking of someone you love who has crossed, wrestling with an important decision, or having a difficult day. I once found a dime standing on its edge in my dryer—at the exact moment that I was thinking about my father, who had crossed. The Other Side finds a way to grab our attention, so I interpreted that unusual coin behavior as a sign—a hello and a hug from my dad.

Sometimes what’s exceptional about a sign is not the sign itself, but its timing. Your favorite pick-me-up song plays on the radio just when you’re feeling especially down. The number 100 appears on your Starbucks receipt just when you’re worrying about flunking a test. The answer to a crossword puzzle clue is randomly spoken by someone on TV just when you’re about to give up on it. All of these simple, surprising occurrences can be signs from the Other Side, because their timing makes us feel connected to the world in a way we can’t quite explain—as if all we have to do is release our feelings of fear and doubt into the universe, and the universe will respond with playful, wonderful reassurances.

The universe is very responsive to our needs—the Other Side knows when we need to receive a sign.

Did you know that hummingbirds have been around for forty-two million years? And that a hummingbird’s heart beats more than twelve hundred times per minute? That’s roughly twenty heartbeats a second! A hummingbird’s tiny wings can flap as fast as ninety times per second! All that flapping makes the hummingbird the only bird that can hover in the same spot for a long stretch of time. That’s why, when we do spot a hummingbird, we often get a pretty good look at it—because hummingbirds love to stop and say hello and hang out for a while.

In my experience, hummingbirds have played all of those roles—helper, healer, messenger, bringer of love—except with a twist: These special creatures are frequently messengers from the Other Side.

The Other Side does not wait until we are perfectly open to receiving signs. Our loved ones and spirit guides will send us signs and messages whenever we truly need them, ready or not. Which means that before we devise a language of our own creation, the Other Side will use default signs to try to connect with us.

Here are many of the most common default signs sent by the Other Side: Birds and butterflies Deer Electrical events (often with cellphones) Coins appearing in our path Rainbows Pictures Slogans Billboards Magazines License plates Street signs Music/songs Feathers Ladybugs Numerical sequences There is a reason the Other Side uses these things as signs: They tend to be easier for us to recognize—and easier for them to manipulate and put in our path.

We can love someone’s soul and at the same time understand that we are not meant to stay with that person.

At first, I was troubled by my abilities—even skeptical of them—so I sought to have them verified. I applied to be tested so that I could volunteer as a medium for the Forever Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping those in grief, particularly parents who have lost children. The Forever Family Foundation is very protective of the people who come to them for support, who are at their most vulnerable, so their screening process is quite rigorous. I passed their tests and have been volunteering for the foundation as a medium since 2005. In 2011, I submitted to an eight-step, quintuple-blind screening administered by scientists at the Windbridge Research Center in Arizona. I became one of only a small group of Certified Research Mediums around the country. I’ve been working with scientists ever since, exploring the mystery of our interconnectedness and of how consciousness survives bodily death.

It’s about connecting you to a very simple but powerful idea—that the universe is always sending you signs and messages in order to communicate with you and steer you to a higher life path. It’s about how many miraculous and beautiful truths go unseen in our lives, and how, with a subtle yet meaningful shift in our perception, we can begin to see them.

A sign is a message sent to you by the universe. The universe is the term I use when I refer to God energy—the all-encompassing force of love that connects us all and that we are all a part of. The universe also includes the angelic realm, spirit guides, and our loved ones who have crossed to the Other Side. The Other Side, simply put, is where our loved ones go when they pass, and where our spirit guides reside while they watch over us. It is the heaven many people speak of. The Other Side is our true home. It is the place we will all one day return to. It is a place ruled by love and only love. Signs are a method of communication from the Other Side. Signs can come from different sources—our departed loved ones, our spirit guides, and God energy. These are all part of the universal Team of Light that each of us has working for us every single day.

At first, the Other Side will use what I call default signs to communicate with us: objects, animals, or events that jolt us into seeing a meaning that might otherwise escape us. Default signs might be coins, birds, butterflies, deer, numbers, and electrical disturbances, such as empty cellphone messages, among other things. You find a dime standing on its edge in the dryer just as you are thinking of and missing someone (this very thing happened to me). A butterfly lands on your arm for an instant on your birthday. A car drives past with a license plate that has the birthdate of a loved one who has crossed, who was just on your mind. You get blank cellphone messages on the anniversary of a loved one’s crossing.

Another default sign is what we might call a meaningful coincidence, or synchronicity. Synchronicity shows our innate and active connection to one another and to the world around us. You think of someone, and all of a sudden they are right in front of you. You hum your favorite song, and suddenly it starts playing on the car radio. You’re doing a crossword puzzle, and the very answer you’re looking for appears on the TV news. All of these things can happen without us asking for them or expecting them.

You are receiving signs. The universe, God energy, your loved ones on the Other Side, and your spirit guides are sending them to you, reaching out and trying to connect with you. It is happening. It is happening a lot. And deep down, you already know it is. —

E all have a Team of Light on the Other Side. These teams send us signs. And these signs come from three distinct forces: We receive signs from God energy, which is what I mean when I say signs from the universe. This is the highest and most powerful source of love, and we are each directly connected to it, and also to one another through it. We receive signs from our spirit guides/the angelic realm. We receive signs from our loved ones who have crossed.

Our relationship with them is uncomplicated. They are simply there to help us, and that’s it. They ask nothing in return. They have no other mission. They are a part of the vast, loving energy of the universe, and they have been specifically assigned to us. They are connected with the purest, highest form of the love and energy that constitute the universe, which encompasses both this side and the Other Side. They are tasked with, and devoted to, making sure everything that happens in our lives is geared toward our soul’s development.

As I noted earlier, spirit guides together with God energy and our loved ones who have crossed make up our Team of Light on the Other Side. If the concept of spirit guides sounds a little strange to you, you should know that it’s not a new concept—it’s been around since the dawn of humanity. Different cultures have different names for them, but they have always been a part of the tapestry of human existence. In Christianity, they are called angels, or guardian angels, and they play a prominent role in the Bible.

We are connected to God energy. We are connected to the angelic realm and to our spirit guides on the Other Side. And we are connected to our loved ones who have crossed. Together, these forces of love make up our Teams of Light. And our Teams of Light send us signs and messages all the time.

Sometimes when we get signs from the Other Side, we dismiss them or let our logical minds talk us out of them. We don’t mention them to anyone because we’re afraid they’ll think we’re crazy. But deep down, we recognize that they are real.

Our reading was powerful. Caleb came through so forcefully. All of the energy and passion that had marked his life on earth was still there, only amplified. He was brimming with love and excitement. “He wants me to explain to you what it feels like on the Other Side,” I told Eliza. “He says it feels like the most love you can ever possibly feel, multiplied by eight billion percent.” There was so much more—a steady stream of impressions and ideas. “Mommy, Daddy, it is amazing here,” Caleb said. “It’s like outer space, but better. I can be everywhere at once. I can be both dark and light. You wouldn’t believe how incredible it is. “I am home now,” Caleb told his mother. “And it’s your home, too, you just don’t remember it.

Our reading was powerful. Caleb came through so forcefully. All of the energy and passion that had marked his life on earth was still there, only amplified. He was brimming with love and excitement. “He wants me to explain to you what it feels like on the Other Side,” I told Eliza. “He says it feels like the most love you can ever possibly feel, multiplied by eight billion percent.” There was so much more—a steady stream of impressions and ideas. “Mommy, Daddy, it is amazing here,” Caleb said. “It’s like outer space, but better. I can be everywhere at once. I can be both dark and light. You wouldn’t believe how incredible it is. “I am home now,” Caleb told his mother. “And it’s your home, too, you just don’t remember it.” Caleb’s message was very specific. He wanted his parents to know that their job had been to give him unconditional love, and that they’d done their job beautifully and completely. He said his time on earth was supposed to be brief, and that he was never meant to suffer, which he didn’t. He kept saying how dying was like falling asleep and waking up in the best dream ever. Most of all, he wanted his parents to know that he was okay—and that they would be okay, too, because they hadn’t lost him after all. He was still with them, and he always would be.

The Other Side has taught me that we see only about 15 percent of what is around us here on earth. The rest is unseen energy and light connections. Animals, however, can see much more than just 15 percent. For instance, animals have been known to react days before earthquakes and other natural disasters. Think about it—have you ever noticed your dog or your cat suddenly sit straight up and react to some imaginary noise or event? As if they saw or heard something you didn’t? Chances are, they reacted to something very real. Animals can also sense and see the energy of spirits visiting us on earth.

You can also assign different signs to different people on the Other Side. You could ask your grandmother to send you a pink heart with the word LOVE on it—and your grandpa to send a blue hippo. You can ask your spirit guides to send you the number 555. It’s all up to you to create the language you will share with them. And the more signs you create and establish, the more fluid the language will become. The phrase love you more. The number 333. Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” A bee. The more signs you create, the more expansive the language will become. So maybe we can’t share a cup of coffee with a loved one who has crossed. But we can share a lovely moment of feeling close again. All we have to do is ask.

It’s important that when we do receive a sign, we take the time to express our gratitude. If we asked our grandmother to send us a monarch butterfly, we should say, “Thank you, Nana, for the beautiful butterfly.” We should acknowledge the sign and be grateful, either with a thought or with actual words. Why? Because thanking the Other Side for a sign is a way to honor the powerful connections that exist between us. It is also a way to make the occasion of seeing the sign a shared occasion—a moment of joyful communion between ourselves and our loved ones who have crossed. From what I’ve seen, our loved ones on the Other Side derive enormous joy from connecting with us. It lets them know their presence is still felt, and conveys that they are still acknowledged as part of the lives of their loved ones here on earth. Hearing “Thank you” is the ultimate validation of that.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —ANATOLE FRANCE

There, in the top-left-hand corner of one of the dollar bills the nurse had given her, was a name, written in capital letters in black marker.

You are meant to be reading these words.

I want you to understand that this book has found its way into your hands for a reason.

The central principle of this book is that the universe brings the people, information, and events we most need into our paths. Powerful guiding forces exist that steer us toward happier and more authentic lives.