Hello readers! I’m in the middle of moving this week, so I’m posting my first guest post by my dear friend, Mary Castiglione. My intention is to make space for regular guest posts over the coming months, so if you feel inspired to contribute a spiritual story or two, please reach out, and I’ll send you the guidelines. In the meantime, enjoy!
Luigi L. Castiglione, my father, was a kind and gentle soul. Maria Castiglione proudly delivered him as a second generation Italian son in 1921 in a small mining town in Pennsylvania. He rarely saw his father, Luigi, in the daylight because of his namesake’s long hours extracting coal in a narrow, cramped mine. Despite a hardscrabble upbringing, his parents modeled a loving relationship and strongly encouraged education as a means of creating a successful life.
After serving in WW2 my father was able to benefit from the GI bill. He and my mother, Dahlia, lived with Maria and Luigi in a small apartment in North Tonawanda, NY, until he graduated from dental school in 1954. I have many lovely sensory memories as a small child living in that space with my beloved grandparents….the aroma of freshly baked bread, hearing Italian being spoken among the older adults, and being awed by the beautiful colors, textures and shapes that I saw as I wandered through my grandfather’s garden among tomato plants that felt like giants to my small self. I remember feeling cherished.
When I was six my family moved to the beautiful, quintessentially southern city of Savannah, Ga., where I spent my childhood. When I was a young adult I moved away and set off off on many life adventures that included college, marriage, the birth of my daughter, divorce, delving into energy healing, establishing a career as a rather non-traditional physical therapist and exploring intimate relationships with women. All of these milestones required upheavals and relocation.
I treasured my occasional trips back to Savannah to visit family, and always relished conversations with my father. He confided to me several of his interesting out-of-body, deja vu and transpersonal experiences that he was trying to understand. He came to the belief that perhaps God was allowing him to “see and hear things” so that he could better assist people in his community. And he did… he generously offered pro bono dentistry to many low income families and created a free dental clinic for the indigent at a local hospital. When he retired at 60 he and a close friend successfully started the first Habitat for Humanity organization in Savannah.
As my father approached his mid-90s, our conversations frequently dealt with death experiences, afterlife and reincarnation. We discussed books written by Deepak Chopra, Eben Alexander, Raymond Moody, Brian Weiss, and others. He was a loosely practicing Catholic and could never reconcile his transpersonal experiences and expanding beliefs with the limiting dogma of the Church. Our discussions felt lively and nourishing, and helped forge a new intimacy between us. He shared that he wasn’t afraid of dying and that he believed that he “had done everything that God had put him on the earth to do.”
At 98, my father was becoming frail, and we both knew that his future days were numbered. I mentioned to him that I would be open to receiving any helpful communication from him after his death, and he offered that he “would contact me if it was possible.” His death in February, 2018 occurred one evening during his sleep. It appeared to be a quiet and peaceful exit from life, just as he had wished.
Afterwards, I became vigilant and actively sought for any sign that my father was attempting to communicate with me. I felt disappointed and discouraged that I wasn’t receiving a message of any kind, and I was grieving the loss of this very special person in my life. After a while, I reluctantly surrendered the notion that contact between us was possible.
One morning several weeks later, I was resting in bed during that fertile, magical space and time between sleeping and waking. What appeared before me was an image in my dining room of my father sitting in a chair facing away from me in front of a large window. I was vigorously cleaning the 3 paneled window with Windex and a cloth, wiping and wiping the glass in an effort “ see more clearly.”
My father very gently said to me… “That’s not necessary. Everything you are looking for can be found inside.”
His simple message affected me profoundly. I felt radiant and filled with love in those moments. I was reminded that he was indeed nearby, and rather than searching externally for solutions to problems that inevitably arise in life, sitting quietly and focusing inward can provide me with guidance, insight, support and delight.
This encounter with my father continues to live in my heart and guides me throughout my life.
Mary Castiglione is a retired physical therapist who assisted people in all areas of rehabilitation as well as Hospice. She continues to provide varied forms of energy healing. Mary enjoys a quiet life with her wife in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NorthCarolina. She spends her free time exploring the forests, kayaking, digging inher garden, and practicing Qigong.
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I really enjoyed this guest post and was especially interested in reading it when I saw that it was from a friend!
What a beautiful story. Thx for sharing. What a special man was your dad. 🙏❤️