– November 2004 –
Connor was seven and Micaela was ten years old when I met Chuck on a blind date. After being hurt so badly, it was odd that I felt so comfortable with Chuck. I joked that after the first day he came over to my house, I never got rid of him, and there was a truth to that. I still had wounds and I was concerned about being hurt again, and yet I wasn’t worried that Chuck would hurt me.
I was going through court proceedings to go back to my maiden name when Chuck and I met.
“You might as well just change it to Robinett right now,” Chuck said seriously.
“Uh-huh,” I grinned. Now that was insanity.
“What?” He innocently looked at me. “You are going to have to go through this name-change thing soon anyhow.”
I checked with my guides, and they nodded that he was right.
It was on that first date that I laid everything out on the table about my abilities and my sixth sense. I didn’t, however, tell him who my guides were, even though Poe took full credit for the matchmaking.
I soon learned Chuck snored something fierce, so we normally didn’t sleep together in the same bed. He would sleep on the couch with my black cat, Oswald. We were just feet away from one another, as my home was only about 900 square feet. One afternoon we ended up falling asleep together in a nap. As I snuggled against him, images of several past lives together flooded my vision. It was as if someone had put a movie on in front of me and hit fast forward, or rewind, however you want to look at it. I caught blips of pictures, images, words, and even emotions from what I was being shown, but nothing was completely coherent. I woke up, grabbed my notepad, and wrote down everything that I saw. As I was scribbling, Chuck woke, stretched, and just watched. I was determined to get everything on paper and it was apparent without having to communicate it. Once I was finished, I set the notepad on the oak nightstand, snuggled back into his arms, and began to cry.
“What was that all about?” Chuck asked.
“Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“Absolutely,” he answered without hesitation.
I leaned on him, looking into his brown eyes that most of the time sparkled with laughter and teasing. This time they were serious.
“You don’t?” he asked me.
I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Poe years ago.
“It goes against what I was taught. It goes against my religion. And yet … ” I took a deep breath. “And yet there are way too many coincidences, or synchronicities, within my life and others. My dreams and visions from past lifetimes and the information that I receive isn’t just from spirits and guides, but from firsthand experiences in other times.”
“And so what’s this all about?” Chuck pointed to my purple spiral notebook.
“I dreamed … ” I shook my head and took another deep breath and began again, “No, not dreamed, I had a vision of several lifetimes that we shared together. Do you know anybody with the last name Butler?”
Chuck let out a small laugh. “Yeah, my mom. My great-grandfather was Arthur Henry Butler and my great-grandmother was Cora Margaret Vaugn.”
“Well, somehow, some way, we also had the last name Butler in one of our lifetimes.”
“Interesting. What else did you see?”
“A lot, actually.” I grabbed the notepad. “We lived in this beautiful city, with a park and water in front of us and cobblestone streets. You were a lawyer who decided to become a politician.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said, lifting his chin in an arrogant motion.
“Yeah, well … !” I smirked and continued sharing my notes with him.
“All the lifetimes blended together, to be honest. So, I’m not sure if Butler was a seventeenth-century lifetime or nineteeth-century lifetime.”
Chuck shook his head in confusion.
“From what I can gather, there were two lifetimes that we shared. One revolved around Massachusetts and the Salem Witch trials.”
“So you were a witch?”
“Perceived as one, yes,” I nodded. “Which makes sense as to why I’m so hesitant at this psychic stuff today.”
“I wrote down Bliss, with a capital B, and I do know that there is a Mary Parsons-Bliss connected. I am not sure of the connection, though,” I sighed in frustration.
“Keep going,” Chuck urged. “And was I a lawyer in this lifetime?”
I nodded. “It looks like both of these lifetimes you had something to do with law and politics.”
“Let’s get dinner,” Chuck said, stretching. “And take your notebook.”
We got ready and went out to the local diner, sitting in a back booth.
My mind wandered to my meditation where my heritage dated back to Ireland, but I was living with my father and two sisters in Winchester, Massachusetts. In the vision, I lost my mother early on and my father was a farmer and was very well-respected by the Native Americans who didn’t live far from the land. He worked hand in hand with them, which frightened many of the white men, yet they respected the relationship. The three of us grew up being very open-minded and with special attachment to nature and spiritualism. We grew to respect the air, the water, and the earth. Because of this, we were looked at as possible witches at the same time the chaos in Salem was happening. We weren’t accused of witchcraft, but there were
whispers.
The youngest sister chose a man that neither I nor my other sister found particularly handsome, but he had a heart of gold. She would get angry at our continuous teasing and storm off and was very good at stomping her right foot. Her husband owned a hotel near a railroad (I kept hearing a train whistle) or some sort of a station and was quite the entrepreneur. I married an attorney who was strong willed and, although loving, could come across as aggressive. And my other sister married a physician who reminded us most of our dear father. Each of us had children, beautiful homes, and really tame lives, thanks to the respect our father had. He never remarried and was quite fond of his sons-in-law and adored his grandchildren.
“Well, it looks like in this lifetime you were afraid that they may point me out as a witch, so you took our family to North Carolina. I hated it there. No, I detested it there and wanted to come back home, but you did what you had to in order to keep us all safe.”
“And in the other lifetime?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure. I wrote down North and South Carolina, Philadelphia, Civil War, law, and poetry, but I haven’t a clue what it means.”
“Well, one day we will find out, I’m sure,” Chuck said, taking a bite of his pulled pork sandwich. “Maybe now isn’t the time,” he rationalized.
I never liked leaving things unresolved, but I realized that was all I could do. Until I was gifted another vision and in the dream was told to go to Maryland. I had a sneaking suspicion that Poe would be able to help give the reason why.