Although their cycle had ended as they finished their journey here on earth and moved on from the third dimension, they have not moved on from their connection with you. Though they have returned home to the Creator’s Light by shedding their physical body presence, their spirit, that eternal part of them that is truly who they are, is always available for you to connect with. All you have to do is think of them, and communicate your thoughts to them as if there were here. They will get the message.

If you have the courage to go one step further and take your communication with them to a level beyond the limiting belief systems that you may have grown up with, you will even hear their response to you. You need only allow and trust. You will get your message from them by feeling it in your heart, for now that they are in the dimension where there is no duality, it is only in love that they are able to connect with you. If you feel they have communicated to you, whether it is through a feeling, a knowing, or a synchronicity, trust that beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are very present around you though their physical body is not.

What is a Spiritual service?
Spiritual Services are all encompassing. While I do open the service up to a “Higher Source”, I do not specifically call to any certain deity to be present (e.g. Jesus, Buddha, Mother Mary, etc) but instead call upon the infinite beauty of the Creator and the love of the Spiritual to be present. In a Spiritual Service we celebrate the person’s life here on earth, with the theme being that just because they have moved on into a new dimension to experience a new journey, their spirit lives on forever in our hearts. Although I open and close with prayer, and read selected passages from the Bible, I also include poems and anything else that I feel would be an enhancement to honoring your loved one.

If your family is religious, perhaps Christian or Catholic, I would recommend that you seek a clergy member from your church to perform the service as this would probably be more appropriate. Although I am fully able to lead a Christian Service, and actually quite versed in the ways to do so, I find that it limits my expression which takes away from the authenticity of my words.

I believe that when a person passes away, no matter what they believed in, no matter how they were judged to have lived their life, no matter what they did or didn’t do, that they return back home to the Creator — the dimension of spirit — a place which I have come to understand that we have all come from.

As is commonly said, I believe that we are all spiritual beings here on earth living a physical life. I do not agree with many mainstream religions that say that there is a “Heaven” and a “Hell” and that if you have not accepted Jesus into your heart, that you will not be welcomed into heaven. I believe that the Creator is infinitely loving being and our soul is an extension of this beautiful light. I also believe that we are able to directly communicate with all that is non-physical vs. having to go through a church in order to be able to communicate with God. Finally, I have come to understand that the person we love that has passed is no further away than our thoughts, that they are infinite and ever evolving, and do not go to some far off place in Heaven where we cannot reach them.

That said, religion and belief systems aside, those who have engaged my services or attended a memorial service that I have performed have found it to be an experience of love, peace, honor and respect. I allow space for sadness, to grieve and to reflect, but also firmly guide the service to close on an elated note — one that brings forth the positive of all that the person has brought to the earth by their very existence here.

I have come to fully understand that when someone passes from earth, they have literally “graduated”, learned all that they needed to learn, experienced all that they needed to experience and are in full celebration of what they have just accomplished. They are celebrating in their new life and it is only appropriate that we support them in this as well, though of course we sorely miss their presence in our lives.

My Qualifications
I was ordained as a minister in August of 2001 by the Church of Eternal Light, a non -denominational spiritual non-profit organization. I was given the title of “Reverend” and in September of 2001 became licensed to perform weddings in the state of Hawaii. As the years passed, I became interested in performing Memorial Services as my ministry and level of desire to be in service took on deeper meaning for me.

Since my interest in spirituality in 1996, I have become familiar with the teachings of many of the spiritual masters of all religions and have learned about many of the spiritual paths that have graced this planet throughout history.

Since 2003, I have been a Minister of the Honolulu Church of Light on 3075 Kalihi Street in Kalihi Valley.

Why I chose to begin doing Memorial Services
Over the years I have come to understand the life and death process in great detail from the spiritual perspective, and that we are literally spiritual beings here to do a physical journey and when the cycle of life here ends (death) that no matter what age, or for what reason the life ended, that it is in true perfection of the soul, no matter how the family and others may see it. Experiencing the loss of someone close is one of the most challenging things for those of us who are left here, however, by understanding this from a different perspective, we can somehow ease the “why” of the process and bring in healing from a place of greater clarity.

Over the past few years as I began guiding clients through the process of understanding how to see death from a different perspective, the pain of the grieving process was lessened and I felt a new inspiration. While in years past, I always turned down requests to do Memorial Services, but now I find that I can take my training and knowledge and be in service to families in a deeper and more meaningful way, and in this I feel humbled to be available for this.

In Closing
Please accept my blessings to your family for your loss. In between the sad moments, as fleeting as far between as they may be in this moment, remember to celebrate everything about their life here on earth and what you have gained by them being a part of your life, but most importantly be so very happy for them as they are in a space that is so filled with love and peace and in this moment, they truly couldn’t be in a better place.