Life is like a mountain railroad with an engineer that’s brave
We must make the trip successful from the cradle to the grave
Watch the curves, the hills and tunnels, do not falter, do not fail
Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail
Blessed Savior’s love will guide us
‘Til we reach that distant shore
Where the angels wait to join us
In that great for ever more.
- Gospel Song, Life’s Railway To Heaven

Life is no brief candle to me, it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
-George Bernard Shaw

All my life’s a circle, sunrise and sundown,
Moon rolls through the night time, ‘til the daybreak comes around
All my life’s a circle, though I can’t tell you why
Seasons spinning ‘round again, the years keep rolling by.
- Harry Chapin

And we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough. All those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival the only meaning.
- Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Bernie wrote:

Life is a series of passages and it is indeed a circle through which we will all pass more than once. I shall discuss how I know this later in the article. Life is meant to be a chance to obtain an education, like going to school, and hopefully not being left back but advancing through the grades. When you give a report in Heaven, which I often do since I am an outside consultant to the Board of Directors, you conclude your report with the words, “The Beginning.” The first time I was told to do that I asked why we weren’t saying, “The End.” God’s response was that when you graduate from school it is called a commencement, not a termination, and the Bible ends in a Revelation and not a conclusion. So life is a series of beginnings or passages and whether we learn something, experience a change or lose something we are to begin a new life.

God reminded me that a perfect world is not creation. It is a magic trick and so we are all here to live and learn and hopefully move up through the grades as we acquire wisdom and then when our bodies cease to exist we can pass on through our consciousness, which never ceases to exist, what we have learned and experienced and hopefully enhance life rather than detract from it. But remember becoming angry at third graders accomplishes nothing. We must help to educate everyone and lift the level of consciousness of all beings. Animals are already complete and do not need to learn from experiences as we do. So let your curses become blessings and keep beginning as you pass through life.

My life has been filled with many interesting passages. The first being my passage through the birth canal into the world. Due to an illness, and my mother’s state of health, she was told not to become pregnant since it would be a threat to her life. Her mother decided otherwise, however, and had her lie down on the couch while she fed her constantly. When my mother gained thirty pounds I was conceived. The next problem was a multitude of complications of the pregnancy and prolonged labor with no child appearing. After telling my mother she might not survive a Cesarean Section my mother tells me, “They reached in and pulled you out.”

So my first passage was a very traumatic one and I was born an ugly duckling. “Your father and I wrapped you in kerchiefs and put you in a carriage which we covered and hid you behind the house. So no one would see you and be upset.” When I asked my mom why I didn’t turn out to be an addict or alcoholic, which infants treated this way do become, she said, “My mother took you, poured oil all over your body and pushed everything back where it belonged.” An infant massaged in this way gains weight fifty percent faster than an infant fed the same amount but not touched. And in orphanages in the 1800’s infants were not touched to avoid spreading infections and ninety percent died because they were not touched. So to pass through life successfully we need to experience love.

Let your eyes be the mirrors which reflect love and beauty back to those who look into them.

I realize that if we all had loving grandmothers there wouldn’t be any ugly ducklings who have to struggle to discover their beauty. Something which most of us never accomplish. So when in doubt act like a loving grandparent to ease the passages of others. Let your eyes be the mirrors which reflect love and beauty back to those who look into them. Experience reveals when someone you love is present during labor or any painful experience the pain experienced is dramatically reduced.

Reprinted from Cosmic Lighthouse www.cosmiclighthouse.com