<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048343231903172967</id><updated>2024-11-01T05:02:43.865-07:00</updated><category term="#heaven"/><category term="afterlife"/><category term="death"/><category term="dying"/><category term="family"/><title type='text'>Life After Death</title><subtitle type='html'>After my son died, he sent bluebirds to let us know he was somewhere in time.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4048343231903172967/posts/default?redirect=false'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Mary Bradley McCauley</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12783440295999481103</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>2</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048343231903172967.post-6816912696846003763</id><published>2010-06-10T05:22:00.002-07:00</published><updated>2021-02-17T05:51:24.098-08:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="#heaven"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="afterlife"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="death"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="dying"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="family"/><title type='text'>After Death Connection With My Son</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;When my son died in a car accident coming home from his daughter&#39;s soccer game, I was en route home from FL to TN. I got the information along the side of the road outside of Atlanta where I was planning to spend the night with a friend. My first reaction was to scream, pound the steering wheel, and cry. I forced myself to be calm, got to my friend&#39;s house, and there I fell apart and gave in to my grief.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;My friend had to leave for a short while, and I assured her I was okay to be alone. As I sat crying and feeling overcome with sadness, I felt an overwhelming presence. I suddenly knew my son was okay, somewhere, and I felt a calmness completely, almost a serenity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Of course, I still cried, but it was for my loss and my family&#39;s, and his family, a wife, and three daughters.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;His daughter who was in the car with him was in the hospital with a broken ankle and ripped pancreas otherwise alright. My daughter-in-law asked me if I would stay with her at the hospital overnight. My oldest daughter and I did.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;I told my Granddaughter about the sense of peace I felt and that I felt her dad&#39;s presence. She smiled&amp;nbsp;a bright smile and thanked me for telling her. She said that during the night she felt someone holding her hand, no one was there, she knew it was her dad.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;One of the things I loved about being at Steve&#39;s house was watching the blue jays at the bird feeder. I had mentioned it to him and he said they could be really mean birds.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;During the days prior to his funeral, I sent mental messages to him asking him to send me a blue jay.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;The morning of his funeral, I looked out the window of my bedroom, and two blue jays flew into the tree, lighted briefly because the branches of the tree aren&#39;t very strong--they flew away--but they were there. They were definitely there.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;This all occurred in late May and early June.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;Another granddaughter, after hearing me tell about the blue jays said, &quot;I&#39;m going to ask Uncle Steve to send me some too.&quot; She was 9 at the time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;In the fall, she called me from Gainesville where she and her mom, one of my daughters, had been to a Gator game. Steve had gone to the U of FL and had been a loyal Gator fan.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Guess what Grandma!&quot; Her voice was excited. Uncle Steve had two blue jays fly in front of us at half-time.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;I know, I&#39;m probably going out on a limb, no pun intended, on this but how often do blue jays fly down in front of the crowd, during half-time??&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;The next incident happened to one of my other daughters, I have 4, who is a major skeptic.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;It was close to a year after Steve&#39;s death--the family was together for the 1st Annual Steve McCauley Memorial Golf Tournament to raise money for students in need at the local high school.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;My daughter was sitting in Steve&#39;s office, my younger son had taken over the business,&amp;nbsp; putting together a CD to play at the &#39;tee-off&#39; cocktail party the night before the tournament.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;She calls me, very excited. &quot;Mom, you aren&#39;t going to believe this. Oh wait a minute, I&#39;m talking to you. You will believe it.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Believe what I asked?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;I&#39;m sitting in Steve&#39;s office trying to decide which songs I want to put on the CD when I looked out the window. Guess what was sitting on the mailbox!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;I didn&#39;t have to guess. I knew.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&quot;Mom!&quot;--She was nearly shouting--&quot;it was a blue jay&quot;. A blue jay,&quot; she repeated.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s now four years later and I still send little messages to Steve. It eases the loss for me to think he hears me.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;This morning I was waiting to pick up his wife at the car dealer service center. I was parked under an overhang by the showroom. A Blue Jay fluttered in front of my car, perched on one of those round, put out your cigarette things, twirled around a little bit, then facing me, he flapped his wings and flew directly over my car.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;And my friends, you can call me sentimental, or reaching for straws, want to believe, over the hill mom and grandma, but I know those birds flying by us were no coincidence. And that&#39;s why I believe in life after death. And I know, Steve is there, somewhere.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/feeds/6816912696846003763/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/2010/06/many-of-you-know-about-blue-jays.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4048343231903172967/posts/default/6816912696846003763'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4048343231903172967/posts/default/6816912696846003763'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/2010/06/many-of-you-know-about-blue-jays.html' title='After Death Connection With My Son'/><author><name>Mary Bradley McCauley</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12783440295999481103</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048343231903172967.post-8302768443002393007</id><published>2010-01-31T09:54:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-06T11:32:38.316-08:00</updated><title type='text'>FREE Amazon Kindle for the PC</title><content type='html'>I downloaded Amazon Kindle for PC and am delighted.&amp;nbsp; It isn&#39;t necessary to own a hand held Kindle to read the books that are available.&amp;nbsp; You can download a Kindle on your PC and read Kindle books on it.&lt;br /&gt;
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There are free books and then there are best sellers.&amp;nbsp; The best sellers are cheaper than print books, about $9.99 some are less and a few are more.&amp;nbsp; It&#39;s an exciting adventure I&#39;m on and looking forward to putting some of my own writing on Kindle.&lt;br /&gt;
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I can get Dan Brown&#39;s &#39;The Lost Symbol&#39; for $9.60--downloaded to my Kindle.&amp;nbsp; The print book on Amazon is $29.95&lt;br /&gt;
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A feature I found interesting is that Paulo Coelho has decided to make 17 of his books, including the iconic O Alquimista (The Alchemist), available exclusively on Kindle.&lt;br /&gt;
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I am currently waiting to see when Annon&#39;s Secret Something Within is available on Kindle.&amp;nbsp; I made the price remarkable low.&lt;br /&gt;
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Stay tuned.&lt;br /&gt;
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Check it out.&amp;nbsp; I have a link on the top left.&amp;nbsp; See if it&#39;s for you.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/feeds/8302768443002393007/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/2010/01/amazon-kindle-for-pc.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4048343231903172967/posts/default/8302768443002393007'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4048343231903172967/posts/default/8302768443002393007'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://21010-commitments.blogspot.com/2010/01/amazon-kindle-for-pc.html' title='FREE Amazon Kindle for the PC'/><author><name>Mary Bradley McCauley</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12783440295999481103</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>