By Kimberly Darwin
In my opinion, Home with God is Neale Donald Walsch’s most revolutionary book. Although different cultures view death in myriad ways and teach their children that it is
part of life, most children grow to fear the unknown element of death. Will it hurt? Will I still be me? Will I live again? When will I get to see my mother again? Is it
dark there?
I grew up in the shadow of death, as my own father died just after I was born. I never knew him, and felt the terror of a young child contemplating the process and
wondering whether my father left me here because he didn’t like me. Death became a phobia for me, and I did anything to avoid thinking or speaking about it to others
even in adulthood. To me death meant deep pain; it meant grieving as I watched my mother struggle to raise five kids alone; and it meant darkness and lonely separation.
After reading Home with God, my fears of death dissolved instantly. Layers of my fear and panic of death peeled away with each passing page, producing concurrent tears,
smiles and goose bumps. I began to discuss death with others as it was meant to be, as a transition from one state to another in an eternal life. And not only did it help
me understand my mother’s sudden death, but it allowed me to put my other losses into perspective as well.
Until I read the Conversations with God books, I had defined my losses as things unfairly snatched away from me before they had been dismissed. After reading Neale’s books,
I now view the loss of my husband to divorce, of my mother to a heart attack, and of my home, job, business and friends to Hurricane Katrina as situations I chose for
myself and as growth opportunities. Since then, I have been gifted the time to educate myself and to create an experience for others so that they may view their
losses—whether they be from death, divorce, or natural disaster—as “soul expansion” experiences that we, as one God, may better understand what living really is. It is
through living a fearless life that we shun the fear of death.
~ Kimberly Darwin
Arizona
