I know you all have been waiting for this one! Sorry it gets off to a slow start. Maybe Erik had trouble finding her.
Me: I guess we can go on to the celebrities, Erik.
Jamie (laughing): He saying he wants to do good-looking people again.
Me: Yeah, well, you want to see it Whitney Houston is ready. You want to do that?
Jamie (to Erik):Oh yeah. Go see if she’s here now.
(Pause)
Jamie: Wow, he left.
Me: Oh, okay. So there’s hope! The last several times he immediately said she wasn’t ready.
Jamie (Whispering) Maybe today is her day.
Me: Yeah!
(Long pause)
Me: She had an incredible voice. Did you like her voice?
Jamie: I did! I actually never had any of her CDs. .
Me: I loved her in The Bodyguard!
Jamie: Was that in Texas?
(At this point, I’m wondering why Erik is taking such a long time. This in so uncharacteristic!)
Me: I don’t know! I have no idea.
Jamie (to Whitney): Hi!
Me (Whispering): All right! Yes!
Jamie: She’s really tall.
Me: Hello Whitney.
(Pause)
Jamie: Hold on for a second. He’s talking to her.
Me: Okay. Maybe he’s explaining what’s going on.
Jaime: Yes. Yeah, He’s explaining what’s happening. She’s really nice.
Me: Aw.
Jaime: She looks really grounded. Um, you know, I kinda feel like the light went out of her eyes and kind of weirdness for the last decade.
Me (sadly)
Jamie: She says, “Okay.”
Me: First of all, I’d like to say that I hope yiou know from you funeral and even before that how loved you are.
Whitney: Thank you very much.
Me: You do realize that, right?
Whitney: It is a work in progress for me still.
Me: Well, I just have a few questions for you. First, what was your spiritual mission this lifetime, and what were you here to learn and to teach?
Whitney: I feel—
Jamie (giggling): God, I just made eye contact with her, and it threw me off.
I laugh.
Jamie (to herself): Don’t look at her!
Whitney: I feel like I was here to give a voice for other people. Other people’s lyrics always has to do with things I believed in. I never thought they were my words even though I was singing them, and I was attached to them. It felt much bigger than who I was.
Me: Mm. So were you here to learn anything?
Jamie: She puts her hands up. She’s very thin. And she says, “music.”
Whitney: “Music is love.” We’re meant to learn love, and getting deeper—
Jamie: Yeah, I can’t even look at her and listen for some reason.
Whitney: Getting deeper into love, I learned that it was not how not to give my power away.
Me: Gosh, you sure did that, too. Did you want to learn how to love to love—to give love, receive love or both?
Whitney: I feel like I knew how to give it, but I did not know how to receive it, and I didn’t know how to identify what a healthy love is.
Me: Mm. Okay.
Whitney: I know now, though. A healthy love is when you can become yourself in every facet and every way in every desire, and the person and people around you embrace you for that rather than tear you down for it.
Me: So, people should love you for who and what you are. That’s just plain old unconditional love.
Whitney: Yes.
Me: Now, did you already talk about what you were here to teach.
Whitney: No.
Me: Okay, so what were you here to teach?
Whitney: I don’t consider myself a teacher. I consider myself—
Jamie (to Whitney): Describe it again. I’m sorry. (Pause) By example?
Whitney: I don’t consider myself a teacher, but I feel like a taught by example just by living in the chaos around her. So, people could decide what they could like or dislike.
Me: Oh, so you were here to teach what how to be and not to be.
Whitney: Correct.
Me: Okay. Do you think you accomplished all you came here to do in large measure?
Whitney: No, if I could have stayed healthy, I feel like I could have had followed through, but I was so tired.
Me (sadly): Oh yeah. Was this one of your exit points?
Whitney: Yes.
Me: To get you out before things got more difficult?
Whitney: Yes. I—
Jamie: I don’t know why. Sometimes she’s kinda hard for me to hear.
Me: Yeah.
Whitney: I’m comforted that so many people thought I was turning myself around.
Me: Yeah.
Whitney: But it was just another rhythm in my pattern. I would come up for air and then crash.
