Katy's Legacy: Anna Comes to Earth

Katy’s Legacy

Anna Comes to Earth

Davia A Massey

Copyright © 2015 Davia A Massey.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 (877) 407-4847

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3164-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3165-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015906145

Balboa Press rev. date: 05/21/2015

Contents

Preface

Prologue

Part 1 The Path

Chapter 1 Anna and the Meadow

Chapter 2 Anna and the Garden

Chapter 3 Anna Grows Up

Chapter 4 Anna Comes of Age

Part 2 The Stepping-Stone Years

Chapter 5 Anna at Forty

Chapter 6 Anna at Sixty

Part 3 Around Each Bend

Chapter 7 Anna Comes Home

Chapter 8 The Transition Years

Chapter 9 Anna at Eighty

Chapter 10 The Card Girls

Chapter 11 The Writing Day

Chapter 12 The End of an Era

Part 4 Bookends of a Life

Chapter 13 Anna’s Tenth Decade

Chapter 14 Closing Moments

Chapter 15 Anna Goes Home

Epilogue

Afterword

Acknowledgments

About the Author

To my mother and father

I am grateful for the opportunity to be their daughter.

We invite our experiences in life—by the thoughts we allow, the truths we accept, and the choices we make!

Preface

Anna’s Journey: In childhood, Anna demonstrates her love of nature and her deep awareness of life beyond the physical. Throughout her time on earth, she increasingly endeavors to live effectively in both the physical world and the higher realms of spirit. As the years pass, she comes to know the vital importance of this path, if she is to live a life of joy and inner truth. Ultimately, she finds the place within herself that is not thought and not feeling—but the space that cradles her in peace and softness.

Upon her passing from the earth realm, Anna leaves a manuscript as a legacy for her daughter Katy, titled Anna Comes to Earth. Katy is on her own path of spiritual understanding and is deeply moved as she reads the words her mother has written. She adds a prologue, an epilogue, and a postscript to each chapter and finds a publisher for her mother’s book.

~

Anna drops many pebbles along the path of her life. May you find those pebbles in the pages of this novel and view your own journey with expanded clarity. It is hoped that you will take from this book the portion that is yours, and then rise above and go beyond the message held herein.

✳✳✳

The story of Anna came from a deep interest in the story of human life. It arose out of a life time of experience including a continued search for spiritual truths—and a desire to leave a meaningful legacy for future generations. Anna’s journey reflects both real and imagined happenings. Maybe there are other earth lives for Anna or Katy to explore in the future.

Davia A. Massey

Prologue

Katy slid out of bed and put on her robe. It was early morning. She looked out at the sunrise along the distant horizon. The expanse of red and orange across the mountain peaks seemed brighter and more beautiful than ever. She wished her mother was with her. She loved it when she came to visit. The occasions had been rare of late, and around the third day Anna was generally ready to return home. Katy was attuned to her mother’s wishes, and for the past couple of years she had only arranged for three-day visits with no efforts at persuasion.

Katy glanced again at the horizon and rubbed her eyes. She remembered that she had had a dream that was leaving her. It had something to do with a meadow. She thought about how her mom had always felt the meadow near her home was such a special place—even sacred. Anna has never said that—but Katy just knew.

It was Friday, and she had made plans to spend the whole day with her mom and Essie, her mom’s caregiver. She reflected on how her mom liked to have days just by herself. As Anna had aged, Katy had tried to help her protect her time alone. When Essie had moved in two years ago, Katy explained to her the importance of letting Anna have alone time, while keeping an eye on her.

Katy felt a wave of aloneness as she left her house around seven-thirty that morning for the hour-long drive to the home place, where Anna lived. She wondered what that feeling was trying to convey.

Soon she turned onto the dirt road leading to the old home place. She drove slowly and savored the beauty of the trees. She passed the graveyard where her mother had put up her gravestone just last year. The sun was shining through the big oak tree casting early morning leaf shadows on the stones. She arrived, fumbled in her bag for the front door key, and stepped onto the front porch. The door unlocked with a click, and Katy called out softly, I am here. Her voice seemed to bounce off the walls like an echo in a big empty room. Katy’s senses were heightened. A chill traveled slowly up her spine.

She noticed a light blue notebook on the hallway table. There was a note attached that read, For Katy. Beside it was a neatly wrapped package that said, For John at ninety. Love Anna. Katy smiled because as always her mother had everything prepared for their day together. She wondered what the blue notebook contained.

Her mother was still in bed. Essie never disturbed her before nine o’clock so Katy quietly tiptoed into her bedroom. Anna was lying on her side with her back to the window, her knees tucked up and her arm under her pillow. Katy recognized this as her mom’s favorite sleeping position. She opened the blinds fully and said, Mom, time to get up. She had been holding off another chill that was pressing its way up her spine.

She took the three steps from the window to the bed, and touched the blanket. Her mother’s body felt warm and still. She held back tears of unease as she knelt beside the bed, gently shaking her mother’s body. She called to her again, but there was no response. Katy’s head fell to the blanket. She felt suspended in a cloud of numbness. For long moments she stayed in this empty space. She knew her mother was no longer in her earthly body. How could she bear the pain of her absence? Her mother was her mainstay, the person on earth who had always been there for her. Her heart and body ached.

In a last glimmer of hope, she reached for Anna’s wrist, but there was no pulse. She put her arm over her mother’s form. Tears flowed from her eyes as she sobbed into the blanket. Even in her pain she so cherished these precious moments with her mother’s body. She wanted them never to end. It felt as if Anna’s presence was surrounding them both. After a long while, Katy slowly raised her body from her mother’s bed. Burdened with her grief, she reluctantly left the room to find Essie.

~

The next few days seemed like a blur to Katy. Her body was in shock, her mind numb, and her grief seemed too much to bear at times, even amid friends, family, funeral arrangements, flowers, food, and tears. Her daughter, Layla, and her grandchildren, Ellen and Patrick, formed a protective cocoon around her. Many friends attended the funeral and gave her their warm condolences. Her heart was broken, and a deep, deep feeling of loss pervaded her whole being.

After the funeral and the burial, Katy lingered long at the grave side. Friends left, and she asked Layla, Ellen, and Patrick to leave her alone at the gravesite. They reluctantly left her. As she sat, the warm sun on her back gave her some sort of comfort. The minutes turned to hours. Grief, memories, tears, thoughts, and appreciation for her mom poured through her. She felt the pain deeply, but at some inner place a wave of healing seemed to be permeating her body and spirit.

The sun was setting when she finally lifted herself from the chair. She looked long at the golden rays filtering through the branches. The shadows were softly moving across the tombstone that read: LeAnna Faye Redmon, with ‘Anna’ centered underneath. Katy turned and saw her car at the roadside. She felt gratitude that her family had honored her desire to spend these last precious hours beside her mother’s grave. She knew they were waiting at the home place for her. She drove a lonely two miles to the house that was home for her mother just three days ago—but no more.

Days and weeks passed. Katy spent a lot of time at the home place of her mother, where she had much time for thought. She felt Anna’s offerings to spirit lingering in the space. At times she felt a peaceful presence surrounding her. She knew her mother had spent much time in contemplation, prayer, and gratitude within the walls of this small and humble house.

~

One morning, Katy rose early. She was aware that she needed to reinvolve herself with life. After a long leisurely breakfast and a second cup of coffee, she got dressed and went into the garden behind the house. She strolled along the overgrown path and wondered how many times the garden had been revived. Her grandfather had spent a lot of time there, but it had gradually lost energy as he aged. Anna had revived it when she retired and moved back to the home place. Again it had seemed to lose its vibrant quality during her mother’s last years. Essie had made some efforts to tend the garden. However, after keeping house and caring for Anna, not much time or energy was left for gardening. Katy walked past the barely kept shrubbery, the overgrown flower beds, and the empty kio pond. She began to see spaces for flowers, vegetable plants, a fruit tree, and maybe new kio in the pond. She wondered how long the little pond had been in the garden and who had put it there. She suddenly felt a great interest in the history of the home place, which was now hers, and the lives of all who had lived there.

The next morning Katy walked through the woods on the twenty-minute trail to the meadow. She smiled when she remembered that Anna had once told her the meadow controlled the destiny of all of the acreage on the home place. Katy had smiled at her mother but had continued to believe that a meadow could not be alive. It was just a meadow that could neither connect nor communicate.

When Katy emerged from the trail, a soft, warm breeze was blowing over the tall grasses. The sky was a pale blue with a few scattered clouds. A falcon flew overhead and called, as if speaking to her. The trail around the meadow looked dry and white. She felt the breeze on her face. For some unexpected reason, tears rose to fill her eyes. She breathed deeply, and a peaceful inner smile consumed her.

She looked across the meadow and was suddenly struck with its beauty. At this very moment it was teeming with life and emanating a peaceful joy that surrounded her. For a moment she had a profound feeling of oneness with the meadow that seemed to reach deep within her. She said aloud, I am sorry for discounting your aliveness. I feel your energy. I appreciate you. You were a solace for my mother. I want to be a part of you too. The lack is within me and my ability to know. Katy was surprised that she was actually talking to the meadow. She was even more surprised at the emotion and connection she felt at the moment.

Her brief commune with the meadow made her steps feel effortless. She sensed the same energy she had felt at the graveside of her mother, weeks ago. It had brought a temporary relief from the numbing pain she felt that day. She remembered the request she had made for just one last message from her mother. Even now, weeks after that lonely time when she had sat alone at the grave, she remembered clearly the immediate thought that came to her mind. It came encased in the most compassionate energy she had ever felt. Follow your heart, Katy; listen to that still, small voice within you. Katy had felt an immediate change in her body and mind. She had more clarity and greater love. A subtle but definite desire to know more and to fulfill her purpose on earth had begun to emerge within her heart. Today, as she walked around the meadow and recalled that graveside event, she knew her mother would lend guidance, even from the other side.

From a place on the hillside, Anna was aware of Katy on the meadow trail. She knew that the earthly place where her daughter now walked would help her find the meadow that resided within her own heart. Anna smiled.

~

Katy had lots of decisions to make. She packed a few things and headed home to her high-rise apartment and the beautiful skyline. It had been weeks since she had been there. As she drove toward the city, she knew she would return to the home place soon. She felt a comforting desire to take her inner search to a new level. She anticipated the journey. She knew there would be ups and downs, as life had always been, but she felt ready. She prayed to live long and to experience the type of peace that had resided within her mother. She longed to revive the garden and have it teeming with the new life of