February 6, 2003
The Fizgig Heaven...
I've recently finished reading the wonderful first novel by Alice Sebold called "The Lovely Bones". This book will go down as #1 in my all time favorite books.
It's a book about a young girl that was raped and murdered and what happens to her family and friends after her life is so tragically taken. It's completely written in her perspective from heaven as she looks down upon them.
I know it doesn't sound uplifting, but strangely it is.
The author takes us to the main characters heaven. She has such an incredible talent for description, that you can imagine you are there with her. The idea of her heaven is what is truly wonderful - it's simply what each person individually wants. In the characters heaven, she meets others, can view her 'old' world and surrounds herself with the things that made her happy on earth, just in a different form.
Since I've read the book, I've thought at great length about "MY HEAVEN".
What would I want my heaven to be?
The sounds that I'd most like to hear in my heaven?
Children laughing - specifically, the way my nieces and nephews laugh without control.
I'd want to hear Van Morrison playing in the background.
If he's not in heaven with me, I'd want to be able to have a music box that plays the way my fella's heartbeat sounds.
The vision that I'd most like to see in my heaven?
All the people that have passed before me, my pops, Seuss, Matthew, my uncles - D & H, my grandparents, my cousins, my friends and my beloved old boss - SC. And I'd want to see all my pets again, Duchess, Rockbolt and LePue.
Like the books character, I know for certain I'd want to be able to see what was happening to my loved ones that I left on earth. I'd want to be able to follow their lives and perhaps act as a guardian angel.
I'd want there to be hills to climb, with beautiful valleys of flowers below them. And when I'd pick a flower, I'd want another to grow in it's place immediately.
I'd want a horse to ride along a sunny beach or in an open meadow.
I'd want to have an old house with a wrap-around front porch with rocking chairs everywhere. It would have comfy furniture and fireplaces in every room.
I'd want a perfect body, hair that was never messed up, makeup that never smudged and nail polish that wouldn't chip. .
I'd want to be able to eat whatever I wanted and never gain weight.
I'd want there to be an Irish Pub on every corner that served Kilkennys, Caffreys and Guinness.
I'd want to be able to meet specific people and have them be my friends. People like Gilda Radner, Mike Royko & Bobby Kennedy.
I'd want there to be a baseball game on all the time and I'd want to be able to play.
Mostly, I'd want someone to answer all my "Why" questions.
So it appears that a lot of what I imagine my heaven to be - will be just like all the things that bring me comfort here on earth.
If all goes according to plan, my heaven is going to be, well, heaven.
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