Today I am thankful that I had lunch out with my friends Kathy and Maryann and her husband Tom.. They belong to a bereaved parent group that I also attend. Maryann lost her daughter and only child to an aggressive form of breast cancer. Her daughter left behind three wonderful children that Maryann is helping to raise. Maryann totally believed Olivia and my psychic reading. They all know I am a skeptic. Kathy lost her son, who was also her youngest child of 8, to the disease of addiction. Addiction is such a powerful disease. Some people think that addiction is a choice, it is not. It is a choice to take the drug the first time, but one's brain chemicals change with drugs. No one grows up and says I want to be an addict. Sometimes people get addicted because they have been prescribed powerful opiates after an accident or after surgery. And they can't get off the drug because their pain is so great And then they start buying the drugs on the street. Buying street drugs is very expensive The cheapest drug to buy on the street is heroin and that is why there are so many heroin users. I also know there is a strong genetic component to children born to drug users and alcoholics. I have lots of friends whose kids have struggled with drugs, including one of my own children. Addiction is scary for families. There are no clear cut roads to travel. Some parents make their kids move out when they are in the throes of addiction. I don't know if I could ever do that. Sometimes parents are totally in the dark when their kids start using.
I always have a nice time when I am with Kathy and Maryann. Somehow it is easier to laugh with other bereaved moms, I am not sure why that is, but it just is. We were all raised Catholic. Maryann is so funny. She says that she believes in God and an afterlife but she tries not to think about it too deeply because if she delves too far into thinking about it, it all falls apart. The thought of a higher being/God is very comforting and soothing and makes death not so scary. But when one really starts to analyze it, it really makes no sense. To get into Heaven, one has to believe in Jesus as the son of God and our Savior. I always think about the people/children/babies who were never taught about God or Jesus. What happens to them? I know that missionaries travel to foreign remote places to spread the word of God but we know they can't reach everyone. If one does evil deeds throughout their life but makes a change right before they die, do they get to go to Heaven too? I think I am delving too far into it for it to make any sense!
I think we all go to heaven. I know that the bible has been written and transcribed so many times that we can't be sure it is the right translation. Think about a group of people witnessing the same event. Everyone has their own spin on the event. I think that's how I believe that we go to heaven and some of the other strange things in the bible. No eating meat on Fridays is not in the bible. If I was to believe that unless we accepted Christ as our saviour to go to heaven then I would never see my brother, father and mother. That's crazy!
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