Reaching Out & Flipping The Switch

     I was a good Catholic boy. I was a good Catholic boy with some strange ideas that instinct told me to keep to myself. For instance, my Dad was the youngest of nine children. This meant that as a child I attended a lot of Catholic wakes and funerals. I didn't really have a grasp of what was happening other than people were really sad.
     My kindergarten teacher, Sister Clara, showed the class where Kansas was on a globe one day. She also showed us where China was. Sister said that if we were to dig a hole deep enough we would end up in China. I thought that was something exciting to do someday. So when I went to the next funeral and we stood around the open grave, I naturally thought this person was going to China to live. It was sad to think we wouldn't see the person probably for a long time, but not the end of the world. I didn't think people were dead-dead, just resting for their trip to China. I also believed if I touched the people in the caskets they would wake up and the family wouldn't have to be so sad. I suppose this was my first inkling of reincarnation.
     Time progressed. I went to a lot of funerals without ever touching anyone until my maternal Grandfather. Granddad passed over the year I was to graduate college. I truly loved him and grieved his loss. At the funeral home I stood next to one of my aunts who was caressing my Granddad's forehead. I must have looked shocked because my aunt gave me a weak smile. "It's all right. This isn't him. His forehead feels like stone. You can touch him."
     I hesitated. Encouraged by my childhood believe that I could wake him and spare my family their grief, I placed my hand carefully on the old man's forehead. My aunt was right. This isn't how my Granddad felt. This wasn't him. He didn't wake up. However, I could now hear him talking to me. In fact, he talked all through his service as though he were sitting in the row of seats behind me and leaned forward to whisper in my ear.
     Somehow in that single moment, I flipped a switch and I hear my loved ones, as well as others, speaking to me from some place just over my shoulder. One touch opened me up to the stories I write down so that I can tell you a story I once heard.