When I was very young, 8 yrs old, I made a scrapbook of men holding their infant or child with so much love and affection. And I knew then that was the most important quality I wanted in my future husband, if i would be so lucky to find him. A man who is a good, loving husband but above all else a good father to his children!
My name is Elmira van Galen, I am now 47 years old in 2011, and below is the story of how Michael Jackson impacted my life.
I was one of those people who hardly knew who he was. When I was young we did not have television so I never saw any video clips and I didn't start listening to pop music until i was in my teens, I am an unmarried woman of 47 yrs old, living in the Netherlands. All I knew about Michael before June 25th was "some popstar with hair hanging over his face." Somehow even the molestation allegations and trial went right past me.
But then he died. And I bought all the newspapers and magazines I could find on him. Watched tv reports, all his clips on MTV and TMF and could not get enough. Watched Youtube videos for hours and hours, sleeping very little, dreaming of him every night for months. After the memorial I cried buckets of tears for a man I had never met in my life but who captured my heart and soul in a heartbeat.
At first I started lurking on mjjcommunity.com, just reading the posts and comments. This went on for two months. Then I felt a need to reply to things posted there, to share with like-minded people what was in my heart, and on my mind 24/7.
I have been connecting to Michael Jackson myself through meditation and it has been a life-changing event, inspiring me to expand my spiritual horizon, apart from my religious upbringing. Thanks to his sound advice I have read the Bhagavad Gita, become enthralled with India in so many ways, I'm now about to start reading a book called "In an Eastern Rose Garden" on sufism. What these books have in common is the bonding in Love, Light and Unity. We are all One! The language and words are different from what I am used to,but once you get to see past that, you can only smile in recognition and simply say "Thank you, Michael".
Not a week goes by without some synchronicity occurring, relating back to him in some way. ( white feathers, red roses, an orange light in my car, elephants, a key I had dreamed of many years ago, very intricate and old-fashioned, then I open the book written by Katherine Jackson "Never Can Say Goodbye" and I get the chills because in that book is a drawing of the key in my dream with which I was able to open a door. And the meditation many years ago at a one-day course to find the love of your life, in which I saw a man on an elephant in an orange-colored room, hearing "Another Part of Me" extremely loud, really loud, waking me up with a start, in a dream and finding a Major Love Prayer website soon after that. When I was into "who killed Michael and why" theories I heard "Money" extremely loud. The following year, coincidentally (?), was a money-themed year ( financial bad luck all year long)).
At some point I realized that Michael had "taught" me about pure, unconditional love. One day, I was feeling particularly lonely sad and unloved, and I asked for a sign of the pure, unconditional love that bonds us in some mysterious way. ( Any sign I usually get within 24 hours). That day my best friend phoned if she could come over to chat about her boyfriend troubles and such, I said "Oh yes, sure, come on over, the coffee is waiting for you." She had had a little card that she wanted to give me as a token of friendship and she did not know about the sign I had requested so needily to Michael about pure, unconditional love. She arrived with a little gift for me. A small card with a rose quartz heart on one side and the text "Rose quartz is the stone of the pure and unconditional love, pay it forward" I broke down and cried, so grateful for the sign from Michael, via my friend.
Another time, february last year - 2010 - Blanket's birthday was coming up, I was so devastated and heartbroken and I cried for hours, my eyes swollen, snotty nose, looking and feeling like a total mess, crying for losing Michael as I felt like his death had left a hole in my soul and my heart. Then out of nowhere I heard a deep, soothing, calm loving man's voice "Don't be so sad, I'm always here, if you need me,call my name and I'll be there" and other things like that. And also out of nowhere I received the inspiration to start a thread on www,mjjcommunity.com called "Positive Websites and Videos that celebrate MJ". I started it, with permission of the forum's owner per february 24th. Since that day for until today I have posted something there, with the source mentioned like it should be. For 10 months at least I posted daily in that thread, never missing a day, always finding inspiration for a new search phrase in Google together with his name. After that I posted almost every day, at least 6 days a week, the stories became more personal, sometimes with poems, and it just gives me so much joy and pleasure to create a new post every single day!!
At one time I heard Michael, in a dream or meditation, saying to me that his mother was overcome with sadness about losing her son and if I could write to her to comfort her. What I wanted to write to his mother didn't fit on one card so I sent her two cards, about the cherry tree I had planted in my back yard on June 25th ( not knowing that that is what is common in the African-American commuity, celebrating life of the person who passed away a year ago, rather than mourning and crying ( which is done, but more in private). And I told her about my surprise of seeing footage of her and one of her nieces planting a tree for Michael on June 25th in the garden of that tiny house in Gary, Indiana.
Apart from these experiences it is a great joy and source of comfort to be able to share these experiences with my newfound friends from all over the world who love Michael as much as I do and are just as inspired by him to become a better person. Because of Michael I assist charities in getting much needed funding for diseases. I sponsor a child in a country far away and I try to live my life through his example, carrying love in abundance in my heart. Although these last two years have been the hardest years of my life, it has also been a blessing of sorts, a real gift and a true gem, to find that I have that much love inside me!
