No Accidents – Signs Surround You

What rules your life: destiny, fate, coincidences, chance or free will? Perhaps it’s a combination of them all. Largely I believe your life follows a blueprint, or as I like to call it – a screenplay…that you wrote to have certain experiences in this Matrix like game of life. Which means, there are more destiny than chance occurrences. What if you had a contract with every single person you encountered? After all, a simple dirty look or a smile from you can have an untold ripple effect on another.

In 2012 one of my closest Soul Mates left this Earth, and he has become a guide for me from the Other Side. He regularly sends me signs to remind me of his loving presence. Because of my experiences I may be more aware than most of the opportunities I have to help empower the people who cross my path. I believe my life’s purpose is to help send positive energy into the world. I would like to share one such story…

It was an unusually beautiful sunny day in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I decided to take full advantage of the weather to glide down a 10 mile lazy river in my kayak with my dog Storm. The activity had not been planned in advance, unusual for me, but I was on vacation and letting the weather dictate my schedule. Many others followed suit and it was a busy day on the river. As we passed a pack of kayaks pulled off on a sandy river bank, two fluffy silver colored dogs bounded out of their kayaks barking their hellos to my dog as we passed.

Four days later I was miles away from the lazy river swinging in a hammock on a tiny island on a lake. The view was glorious, as the lake was surrounded by tall evergreen trees reaching up toward a pale blue sky that was reflected by a purplish-blue water that was smooth as glass. My mid-day siesta was interrupted by the sound of voices as three kayaks floated by. I recognized the silver fluffy dogs immediately, and their owner recognized me. We all waved a friendly hello. A couple hours later I was gazing at the smooth water when I noticed two kayaks heading toward my tiny island and this time my dog barked her hello to the silver fluffy dogs who were making their way to us for a visit. After introductions and exchanging polite pleasantries, Bob, Dan and I settled into a conversation about the area. Bob had recently sold a cabin he had owned for years. When I asked why, he shared that his wife had died two years earlier of ALS / Lou Gehrig disease, and it was time to let the cabin go. I expressed my condolences for his loss. I’m not quite sure why I asked him if he had had any dreams of her since she died, but he replied wistfully that he had not. And I took his sentiment as my queue to share a bit of this story. I began…

Photo: Vishnu R Nair

I had met Mark Abrahamian when he was performing a concert in my area as the lead guitarist for the band Starship featuring Micky Thomas who sang the popular songs “We Built This City,” “Jane,” and “No Way Out” in the 80s. Mark had been with the band for nine years. Our attraction was magnetic and unstoppable and we became friends who quickly fell in love. Neither was available to be in a relationship with the other, but we spent hundreds of hours taking on the phone about life and “going deep” in conversation in ways I never had before. Mark filled a void I didn’t consciously know was missing, an emotional connection that I had been missing in my current relationship. Mark became my greatest spiritual teacher and exposed me to many new concepts and ideas. My life was never the same after meeting him. The timing for us to be in a relationship was “off,” and we decided to cut all communication and part ways.

Although he was no longer in my daily life, not a day had gone by where I hadn’t thought of him. Three years passed without communication – I was on my daily walk in nature when I had a thought that he died. Hmmmm, that was unusual; he was only 46 years old, and healthy as far as I knew. I pushed the unwelcome, preposterous thought away. An hour later I was in the shower when a second thought entered my mind. Again Mark had died, but this time the thought was that he had been killed in a plane crash and one of his band mates would be contacting me. Now this time I KNEW the thought was not my own. Although Mark spent a lot of time on airplanes, I thought air travel was safe, and if I were to imagine his death scene it would be from lung cancer from smoking, not from flying. I mulled the thought over in my mind and then pushed it away. I needed to get ready for work and focus on my upcoming client presentation.

Five hundred miles away, my dad had just arrived at work when a banner caught his attention on the computer. He saw a news ticker move across the screen that said, “Mark Abrahamian of the band Starship died on Sunday shortly after stepping off the stage at a concert in Nebraska.” My dad immediately texted me, but I never saw his text. Ultimately my Mom was the one to deliver the sad news to me 30 minutes later. I was stunned! First by the news, and secondly by the earlier thoughts I had had of his death. Was Mark reaching out to me from beyond the veil with this news?

Photo: Alexandre St-Louis

Two days later I got in my car. The radio is always turned on, but today the engine noise was all I heard. Then I noticed the radio screen. The station was tuned into XM radio’s The Bridge, and said, Jefferson Starship “With Your Love” was playing…only no sound was coming out of the radio. I turned up the volume; nothing. My right brain was screaming, “It’s him, it’s him!” While my left brain was looking for an explanation. My left brain reminded my right brain that we had not spoken in three years, and why would he be reaching out when we were no longer connected. I got brave and began pushing buttons, first other XM stations. The radio crackled to life with another song playing on that station, but the screen remained frozen: Jefferson Starship “With Your Love.” I got the same results pushing the AM and FM stations: Jefferson Starship “With Your Love.”

My left brain decided something had happened to my XM radio subscription, and it won, ultimately resulting in me calling XM Radio. After waiting on hold for 20 minutes the man from XM Radio said my subscription was current, and he had never heard of anything like this happening. He offered to reset my radio. My right brain didn’t like this solution one bit, but my left brain was dead set (pun intended) on proving it. The man from XM Radio said it may take 20 mins to return to normal. Twenty minutes later nothing had happened; the screen still said, Jefferson Starship “With Your Love.” I even turned the car off and on twice while running errands. Still frozen. Finally I arrived at my friend Dawn’s house. Dawn had been my partner in crime, attending every concert with me to watch Mark play. She took one look at my screen, waved “Hi, Mark.” and when I returned from lunch the screen was back to normal.

This was to be the first of hundreds of signs Mark has sent me since his death in 2012. I meticulously write down each sign in a notebook as soon after it occurs, so as not to misremember the details. When I reached the two year milestone of Mark’s death I had filled an entire notebook with the details of his signs. Shortly after he came to me in a dream and told me he was “…most proud of our story.” The next day a chapter appeared in my mind that I merely transcribed. A few months later a book had been completed, “Signs Surround You, Love Never Dies.”

Bob had listened intently to me recounting my story. He said, “Wow, I never see signs from Nancy!” I asked him if he wanted to see signs and he vigorously shook his head yes. I explained that my book had been written in two parts: part one was the story of Mark and my relationship while he was alive, and part two was a collection of the signs I received from Mark in the first two years after his death and while writing the book. Each chapter was named for a song and while I was writing it I would often be out of town on business when I would walk through a parking garage and the song from the chapter I was working on would play overhead. Or I would be sitting in my rental car and someone would call the local radio station to request the song from the chapter I was writing. I could not deny the timing or the synchronicities. I wrote this book in two parts with the hope that when someone would read the book they would understand how signs worked for me, and would then be able to extrapolate it to their own relationships with lost loved ones to begin seeing their own signs. Bob said he was definitely going to get my book. I wrote the title down on a piece of paper and we bid our goodbyes. As they started floating away, I said, “No accidents!” Bob smiled and repeated the sentiment.

I am in love with my life! What a blessing to know beyond a reasonable doubt that when we die, we merely transform our energy. I also love to be able to share my incredible experiences with YOU. Einstein taught that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. We don’t really die; we merely change energy forms. What about you…why are YOU here? Well, since I don’t believe in accidents, this must be for Bob AND for you! I want you to know that if you’ve lost a loved one they are right there with you when you think of them. If you didn’t get to say goodbye or there were things between you left unsaid, they have heard your every thought. They know what’s going on in your life and would never miss an opportunity to attend your big events. Most of all, they love you, never leave you, and will be waiting for you when it’s your turn to return to the Other Side.

For more on musical messages from the afterlife, see Lisa Smartt’s post ‘A Novelist Asks: Am I Channeling or Imagining?’