Scarlett Lewis - Nurturing Healing Love: A Mothers Journey of Hope and Forgiveness

Copyright 2013 by Scarlett Lewis

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Michelle Polizzi Interior design: Celia Fuller-Vels

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

All images courtesy of Scarlett Lewis.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lewis, Scarlett.

Nurturing healing love : a mothers journey of hope and forgiveness / Scarlett Lewis, with Natasha Stoynoff.1st edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-4019-4423-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Children DeathReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Consolation. 3. School shootingsConnecticutNewtown. 4. Lewis, Scarlett. 5. Lewis, Jesse McCord, 2006-2012. I. Title.

BV4907.L385 2013

248.866092dc23

[B]

2013026949

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-4423-0

16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
1st edition, October 2013

Printed in the United States of America

LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO MY TWO SONS, J.T. AND JESSE, WHOM I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART; ONE MY ANGEL ON EARTH, THE OTHER MY ANGEL IN HEAVEN.

Hanging with the boys in moms hammock on Mothers Day, 2010

CONTENTS

I didnt read this book. I felt it. I felt every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every page, every chapter, right up through the end when Scarlett thanks her precious little boy for teaching her the greatest lesson of this life: love never ends.

The penetrating and thoughtful book you hold in your hands brought home to me, in a very big way, something the poet, spiritual teacher, and my friend Maya Angelou said when we were on a radio show in San Francisco many years ago. Ive learned, Maya said, that people will forget what you said, will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. I have never forgotten these words, though sometimes their truth hits me more forcefully.

Immersing myself in this book made me feel in a way that I will always remember. It made me feel a wide range of emotions from anger to frustration to sadness to despair to joy to appreciation for the endless miracles that surround usand it made me feel hope, hope for a far better world. And finally, it made me feel love because the book you are about to feel is not a story of rage and revenge as one could well understand in the face of such a horrific experience as the one that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School where Scarletts little boy Jesse was senselessly murdered. No, this is truly a love story, a story that clearly sends the message that love itself never ends and that it is our destiny as a people to learn and apply this lesson even in the face of circumstances that are beyond comprehension.

When tragedy strikes, our first human response is to react in anger and with rage in our hearts, to attempt to end such dark behavior by throwing more darkness at the problem. Yet our rational minds tell us that reacting with darkness in the form of hatred and madness simply expands and multiplies the darkness. The only answer to so much darkness is to bring light. As Saint Francis of Assisi reminded us in his widely recited prayer, Where there is darkness, let me bring light.

Scarlett, in writing this book and sharing the lessons of her bodhisattva son Jesse, is asking all of us to bring our own light to the omnipresence of darkness in our world. She asks us to see that love itself is the way forward, reiterating what Jesus taught us: But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is the only solution to the kind of darkness that brings such violence.

Scarlett Lewis has faced the ultimate darkness. She has shared, from a deep place of truth within, the agony of losing her Jesse at such a tender age. She has shared her very personal journey back to living and teaching how to become instruments of love.

Jesse Lewis is here among us. He communicates regularly with his mom to keep her on a path of love.

He came to Scarlett as a bundle of love, and his few short years here among us were all about fun, laughter, excitement, joy, gratitude, and yes, love. It was the very last message Jesse scrawled in the frost on his mothers car window on the day he reclaimed his place with God, the place that is defined as love: God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in him. (1 John 4:16) In fact, it was words he left for Scarlett that comprise the title of this book: NurturingHealing Love. These words illuminate how this young boy lived a life of Christ consciousness right up until his last breath. He sought to share his happiness, to have fun, and to glory in the natural gifts provided for all of us.

Jesses life is a model for us, and Scarletts courageous sharing of this story is Jesses gift to her and to all of us who strive to shift our planet and our people once and for all out of the darkness of hatred, fear, and inhumanity. The great lesson of this book is that love never dies. How can it? It is formless; therefore, it has no beginning and no end. There is something deathless that lives in every one of Gods creations. It is eternal. It is our source of being. It is spirit. Jesse is right here, right now with me as I write these words and as Scarlett goes about living her transformed life as a teacher of this divine love. This is her new mission, to teach us all that it is possible to change an angry thought to love just as Saint Francis beseeched God in his prayer, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. This is our ultimate calling. This is what we must learn if we are to survive and thrive as a people. This is our greatest challenge, to put aside our egos and to embrace compassion and love.

As the poet William Wordsworth reminded us, Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting Heaven lies about us in our infancy. A young child named Jesse Lewis came to us and showed us that Earth really is crammed with heaven, and he left his mother an assignment to live and teach love even in the most abominable of situations. Jesse is there giving his mama clues that she can always choose love. He is with her even now, fulfilling his own dharma to bring the light of love to the world, to help people realize that they can choose to change an angry thought to one of lovingkindness. I once heard the Dalai Lama say that if we took each child at the age of eight and taught him to meditate, we could end, in one generation, the hatred and violence that is so much a part of our lives. This is the power of love and the power of Jesses message.