At 7 a.m. yesterday, as I sat holding my Mom’s hand, I gazed deeply into
her fading eyes as I sent loving energy to her.

Being trained in the internal martial arts, it was only natural for my focus
to be inward as well as outward. The “dan tian” area, located a few inches
below the navel center was one internal focus point. And as I kept this focus
energy streamed through my body, connected to my core and flowed into my
mother’s body via our connected palms.

On two separate occasions Mom looked at me and smiled. Despite her agony,
she still found a way to express the joy she embodied.

Before my eyes I saw how our roles were now reversed. It wasn’t that long ago that
Mom was helping a newborn baby come to life in this world – and stay alive. It
was “only a flicker” ago that I was in the hospital bed with her, and it was my
lips that were shaking. It was I who couldn’t speak. It was I who needed love
more than anything else.

Now I was “Mom” and she was “me.”

And in a strange twist of the cosmos, for the very first time, my arm was an umbilical
chord sending love to my mother’s soul. I felt the energy pulsing so strongly from my
center and through her arm that I realized: “HA. Birth and death – same-same.”

They may not feel the same – but they really are.

There is no “loss” in my Mom’s exit from this earthly plain. Only gain.

As I told my Dad yesterday, “To go out on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a victory. She’s
singing, ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I’m Free at Last.”

I thank all of you for your kind emails, text messages and Facebook comments. They mean
a lot to me.

In particular, I cherish the message that read, “I feel honored to have met your Mom.”

Yes, it was an honor to know my Mom. Even more to be raised by her.

Thank you,

Matthew John