On May 11th we celebrated Linda Vierling’s life at the Foundation of Light (FOL). The plan was to take our usual Saturday two hour hike from 9:30-11:30am, then do a dish to pass afterwards from 11:30am-1:30pm. I went into FOL at 9am to set up some tables and chairs with a few hikers. The chairs and tables are located just outside the Great Room, requiring us to open two French doors. As we were getting the table and chairs out, two birds flew into the Great Room. We tried to encourage the birds outside before we left on our hike at 9:30 but they did not want to leave. We left the doors to the Great Room open while we hiked for two hours. We thought surely the birds would be gone by the time we got back.
When we returned the birds were still fluttering around in the Great Room. These birds seemed very happy and playful. At one point I looked up and said “Linda” and then paused for a split second. I then preoccupied myself with all the guests and festivities along with my concern that I was the responsible party on the contract for any damages to the building.
After our luncheon we cleaned up the Great Room and various people tried just about everything to encourage the birds to leave with no luck. I contacted the Director at FOL to let her know two birds were in the building. I was advised to leave the doors open and she would check in later in the day.
I left The Foundation of Light. When I returned home I received a phone call from Katherine, a fellow hiker, to say the birds were gone. Katherine had stayed behind talking in the parking lot after I left. I asked her how she got them to leave, she replied, “they flew out on their own”. I was relieved to know the birds would not be causing any damage to the building.
While at home a few hours later I realized that the birds represented Linda's presence during our celebration of her life. I was puzzled, why two birds? I reached out to my friend and fellow hiker Jana and told her this story and asked her, why two birds. Then I remembered today was Linda’s late son Aaron’s birthday. It suddenly all made sense. Linda and Aaron were with us today. I am feeling profound gratitude and amazement for this gift. Jana is intuitive and I asked her to help me understand this. Jana said, “I would say that their (Linda and Aaron) spirits interacted with the birds to have them come play with us, either talked with them or more likely embodied them." WOW.