Our pool deck in the backyard is pretty old and nasty. Part of the reason is that a few years ago, trying to get it ultraclean as part of my spring cleaning, I pressure washed it and then followed up with a nice muriatic acid scrub. As I did it, I noticed the deck, once off-white, was not getting whiter. It was getting grayer. I essentially took it down to the concrete base! So Rune has been working on it since last weekend. He’s pressure washing each segment, then painting it with a beige color we picked out. He was so dedicated to the project that, against warnings from me and other family members, he decided to slap a coat of paint on one segment when the rain clouds were looming. He got it done just in time, but had to use my hairdryer to dry the parts that were still wet. The humidity must have been around 3000% because it was taking forever. Not sure if I liked him using an electric hairdryer while it was sprinkling (since it didn’t make much sense anyway,) but it was dry enough before the gullywasher came down that only patches of the paint washed away. Last night, he started up his pet project again, then put the pressure washer hose down and said, “Okay. I’m done. Let’s get the painter to do it.” That’s the thing about painting. You get all excited at the prospects of bringing a room or deck to life only to get 30 minutes into the masking and draping and paint-spilling before you’re so, so done with it. 

Enjoy today’s Best of Erik!

Me: Okay, Erik, what about abortions? Why do some souls choose to be aborted, and why do some parents choose to abort their pregnancies? Now, I’m talking about on a spiritual level, of course. Are there lessons or anything like that involved?

Erik: Oh, there’s always a lesson involved, Mom. Always. Usually, the lesson is for the mother. Did you know that a child actually has thoughts in the mom’s womb?

Me: Oh, sure! Of course.

Erik: Some kids even know consciously that they’re be coming into a world that will be filled with abuse or harshness. It’s the mother’s lesson to learn.

Jeannie: That’s interesting, and I’ll have to tell you a story. I had a girlfriend who told me that she literally remembers being in her mother’s womb and thinking to herself, ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t want this,’ because she knew that she was coming into a life of neglect and abuse.

Me: Wow! Now, is that one of the reasons behind miscarriages and stillbirths, but also of abortions? It seems like souls who have second thoughts on facing those challenges might want to bail early, but with abortion, it’s the choice of the parents or at least the mom.

Erik: Yeah, if the child decides they can’t do it or they don’t want to do it, then, yeah, a stillbirth or miscarriage can happen, but—

Jeannie: My friend remember thinking that right before she came out and so it was too late for a stillbirth or miscarriage.

Me: Oh!

Jeannie: And it happened; she didn’t have a very good childhood.

Me: Aw, poor thing. But I guess that was by design. But, certainly some souls become stillborn or miscarry because they want to teach the parents about loss, right?

(Pause)

Me: Or maybe they want to learn about how precious the opportunity is to incarnate and have the human experience, or maybe they want to teach others about the sanctity of human life.

Erik: It can be. It can involve lessons for the incoming soul or the mother. With stillbirths, it’s often to teach the mom about the sanctity of life. Or it could be for so many different other reasons. SO many reasons.

Me: Okay.

Erik: But usually abortions are to teach the mom about how important it is to cherish life, like maybe in a past life they didn’t really take it seriously. Maybe they took their own life; maybe they let someone die by not watching out over them, um, or taking care of them. Maybe they out and out killed someone before and didn’t feel the remorse they should have felt. So, when they have to take the life of their own child, it’s sometimes a helluva hard lesson.

Me: But some people don’t seem to be emotionally all that affected when they have abortions.

Erik (laughing): Oh really? How do you know?

Me (laughing): You got me there! I guess I really have no idea. I just know that when I lost my baby pretty late in the pregnancy, I was devastated for a long, long time. But some women who have abortions, they don’t feel like it’s really a life, you know, at least not early on. Of course that’s a topic with very polarized views, so I’m not going to get into that one.

Erik: Yeah, and stillbirths and miscarriages can be a lesson for the mom, too. Some souls will design a life where they’ll experience a tragic loss like that—usually it’s a more highly evolved soul who wants to cram in a lot of shit to make sure it’s their last lifetime. That’s why you had all those losses this lifetime, Mom.

Me: Yeah, it sucks too. I get it, already!

Erik: And sometimes miscarriages and stillbirths are cuz the souls changes their mind about coming into that life, like I said before.

Me: Okay, Baby. Why do people choose to be adopted or to adopt?

Erik: Really? That’s a question?

Me: Um, yeah! Of course? Why, isn’t there an answer to it? Is there not a spiritual aspect to it?

Erik: Search for love and placement. And on the opposing side—why do people adopt—search for love and placement.

Me: Oh, okay.

Erik: Think about it, Mom. If you come into a body that’s broken, that doesn’t make a baby, but yet a spirit here has picked you as being the mom and you wanna be a mom, there are ways of making that connection.