{"id":1508,"date":"2014-10-01T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2014-09-12T15:59:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T19:59:29","slug":"1508","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2014\/10\/1508.html","title":{"rendered":"Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I was deciding what to write this week, this wonderful story arrived in my inbox so I thought I would share it with you.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A man died&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When he realized it, he saw God coming closer with a suitcase in his hand.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Dialog between God and Dead Man:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> Alright son, it\u2019s time to go<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> So soon? I had a lot of plans&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> I am sorry but, it\u2019s time to go<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> What do you have in that suitcase?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> Your belongings<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> My belongings? You mean my things&#8230; Clothes&#8230; money&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> Those things were never yours, they belong to the Earth<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Is it my memories?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> No. They belong to Time<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Is it my talent?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> No. They belong to Circumstance<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Is it my friends and family?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> No son. They belong to the Path you travelled<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Is it my wife and children?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> No. they belong to your Heart<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Then it must be my body<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> No No&#8230; It belongs to Dust<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Then surely it must be my Soul!<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> You are sadly mistaken son. Your Soul belongs to me.<\/p>\n<p>Man with tears in his eyes and full of fear took the suitcase from the God&#8217;s hand and opened it&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>EMPTY!!<\/p>\n<p>With heartbroken and tears down his cheek he asks God&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> I never owned anything?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> That\u2019s Right. You never owned anything.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man:<\/strong> Then? What was mine?<\/p>\n<p><strong>God:<\/strong> your <strong>MOMENTS<\/strong>. Every moment you lived was yours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>* ***<br \/>\nDonna Henes is the author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com\"><em>The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife<\/em>.<\/a> She offers counseling and upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donnahenes.net\/queen\/consult.shtml\">Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to <a href=\"mailto:thequeenofmyself@aol.com\">thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I was deciding what to write this week, this wonderful story arrived in my inbox so I thought I would share it with you. A man died&#8230; When he realized it, he saw God coming closer with a suitcase in his hand. Dialog between God and Dead Man: God: Alright son, it\u2019s time to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190,13,440,140],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-celebrate","tag-holistic-living","tag-life","tag-living-in-the-moment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Moments - The Queen of My Self<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2014\/10\/1508.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moments - The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I was deciding what to write this week, this wonderful story arrived in my inbox so I thought I would share it with you. 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A man died&#8230; When he realized it, he saw God coming closer with a suitcase in his hand. 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She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed Ezine and writes for The Huffington Post and UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy where she works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/author\/dhenes"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}