Marlee was a true force of nature. Like many women of her kind, she raised children who were iron-willed, fiercely independent, and unafraid to walk their own paths.
She was preceded in death by her husband, whose spirit animal was the Wolf. As with the wolf itself, his nature reflected both poles of that powerful archetype; the lone wolf who charts his own course and the devoted pack member whose life revolves around family. It is the eternal dance between "it's all about me" and "it's all about family."
Marlee stood at the center of that dynamic. She was the linchpin that held relationships together, the peacekeeper who instinctively sought common ground, and the peacemaker who never stopped searching for the highest path forward. Where others saw differences, she searched for understanding. Where conflict threatened to divide, she worked to restore balance.
Marlee walked the Earth a prisoner of her era yet carried the heart of a seeker. Born into a time when many questions were discouraged and certain mysteries were meant to remain unspoken; she spent a lifetime looking beyond the boundaries of accepted belief. Her spiritual curiosity knew no limits. She studied esoteric traditions and theologies from around the world, searching for the common thread woven through them all. She sat in meditation for hours, exploring the landscapes of the soul with the same determination others devote to exploring distant continents.
Long before such conversations became commonplace, Marlee turned her eyes to the heavens and wondered if humanity was truly alone. She searched the night skies for Star People, sensing that the Universe held a story far larger than the one she had been given. While others were content with certainty, Marlee remained devoted to discovery. She understood that faith and curiosity were not opposites. For her, the search itself was sacred. Every book opened, every meditation undertaken, every question asked beneath a canopy of stars was an expression of a soul reaching toward something greater, something just beyond the horizon of human understanding.
Her children branded her as likely mentally ill; someone who fell under the spell of her second husband who encouraged her fantasy. She was forced into the role of second fiddle when it came to her husband who must approve her pursuits and searching for answers to the great mysteries.
Marlee's earthly experience was often marked by conflict. The woman who spent her nights searching for answers to the great mysteries of existence was frequently viewed through a far less charitable lens by those closest to her.
Some of her children came to believe that her spiritual pursuits were evidence of mental illness rather than the expression of a deeply inquisitive soul. They saw a woman who had fallen under the influence of her second husband, interpreting his encouragement of her explorations as validation of fantasy rather than support for a lifelong seeker.
Yet those judgments reveal as much about the era in which Marlee lived as they do about Marlee herself. She was a woman asking questions that many people around her were unwilling to ask. She spoke openly about subjects that others dismissed, feared, or ridiculed. In many ways, she was forced into the role of supporting player in her own life. The expectations of her generation often dictated that a husband's approval should precede a wife's passions. Even as she searched for answers among spiritual traditions, unexplained phenomena, and the possibility of life beyond the visible world, she often found herself negotiating for the freedom to pursue those interests.
Despite these constraints, she never entirely surrendered her curiosity. The seeker's heart within her remained intact. While others sought certainty, Marlee sought understanding. While others accepted the boundaries they were given, she continued to peer over the fence, wondering what lay beyond.
Perhaps that is why her journey was not an easy one. Souls who arrive carrying questions are often misunderstood by those who have already decided they possess all the answers.
Marlee was often drawn to those who claimed to possess the answers she sought so desperately. Her hunger for understanding was genuine and profound, touching the deepest questions of existence, purpose, and the mysteries that lie beyond the visible world.
Like many seekers, she occasionally fell under the spell of charismatic teachers, self-proclaimed mystics, and spiritual authorities who promised certainty where only questions existed. For a time, their words offered hope, direction, and the tantalizing possibility that the answers she longed for had finally been found.
Time and again, the masks slipped and the enlightened teacher revealed human flaws. The miracle worker proved to be a charlatan. The keeper of secret wisdom turned out to be selling illusion dressed in the language of revelation. Each disappointment left its mark. It was not merely the loss of faith in a teacher that wounded her. It was the loss of the piece of herself she had entrusted to them. With every betrayal, her spirit became a little more fragmented, scattered among broken promises and abandoned certainties. The search that had once been fueled by wonder became increasingly burdened by grief. And yet, even then, Marlee continued searching.
Perhaps that persistence reveals the truest measure of her character. Lesser souls might have surrendered to cynicism; Marlee did not. Though bruised by disappointment and wounded by misplaced trust, the seeker's flame within her never completely went out. She continued to reach toward the Light, believing that the existence of counterfeit answers did not negate the existence of truth. In the end, it was not certainty she was seeking but understanding. Despite the many false guides who crossed her path, that longing remained one of the most authentic expressions of her soul.
How does such a lovely soul become stranded in the In-between? The question lingered as I stood with Marlee. Nothing about her suggested darkness. Nothing about her reflected malice, cruelty, or a refusal to love. The Light offered everything she had spent a lifetime seeking: answers, understanding, grace, acceptance, and a Love so complete that no earthly relationship could rival it.
Why, then, would she remain?
The answer did not arrive as judgment but as compassion. Marlee had spent her earthly life searching for truth. She searched through religions, philosophies, teachers, mystics, and possibilities that stretched from the depths of the human soul to the farthest reaches of the stars. She sought understanding with extraordinary determination, but her journey was repeatedly interrupted by disappointment. Each false teacher, each broken promise, each person who claimed certainty and delivered illusion left a wound upon her spirit. By the end of her life, Marlee had learned a difficult lesson; not everyone who offers answers speaks the truth. That lesson served her well on Earth. Unfortunately, it accompanied her into the next world.
When the Light appeared, carrying the very things she had always sought, a part of Marlee could not fully trust what she was seeing. Her heart longed to step forward, but the fragmented pieces of her earthly experience whispered caution. If so many had deceived her before, how could she be certain this was not another illusion? Another promise destined to dissolve in her hands.
The tragedy was not that she rejected the Light. The tragedy was that she had spent so many years pursuing truth that she no longer recognized it when it finally arrived.
The Light remained patient. It did not condemn her hesitation. It did not withdraw its invitation. Love simply waited. Grace simply waited. Understanding simply waited. The Light understood something Marlee had not yet realized. Every disappointment she endured had strengthened her discernment but weakened her trust. Before she could accept the answers she sought, she first needed to heal the wounds left by the questions.
She remained in the In-between, not because she was unwelcome in the Light, but because she was still learning that this time the invitation was real. This time there was no charlatan standing behind the curtain. This time the answer she had spent a lifetime searching for was searching for her as well.
My team and I encountered Marlee in a temple of sorts, although ancient might be too generous a description. Time and neglect had reduced it to little more than a crumbling shell. Weathered stone columns leaned at impossible angles, and pieces of the ceiling had surrendered long ago to the elements. What remained bore witness to a place that had once been sacred but had been abandoned by all except one determined soul. Marlee sat on the cold stone floor at its center.
Spread around her were what appeared to be thousands of puzzle pieces. They covered the floor in every direction, overlapping one another in chaotic clusters as she feverishly searched for connections. She would fit two pieces together only to pull them apart moments later. A flash of excitement would cross her face, followed by frustration as the image refused to reveal itself.
For Marlee, these were not merely puzzle pieces. They were the fragments of every question she had pursued during her lifetime. Every mystery, spiritual teaching, philosophy, vision, revelation, and disappointment. She was convinced that somewhere within the scattered pieces existed a completed picture that would finally explain everything. It became clear that she was not trapped by the puzzle itself; she was trapped by what she believed the puzzle represented. In her mind, she could not enter the Light empty-handed.
The pursuit of understanding had become so intertwined with her identity that she believed it was the very purpose for which she had been born. Her life's assignment had been to seek answers to the great mysteries, and now she stood at the threshold of eternity convinced she had failed.
How could she walk into the Presence carrying unanswered questions? How could she stand before the Holy Ghost, naked of certainty, admitting she had not solved the riddle?
The irony was heartbreaking. The Light was not asking for answers. The Light was offering them. Yet Marlee remained on the temple floor, desperately trying to assemble a gift she imagined God required before granting her entry. She could not yet see that the invitation had never been contingent upon success. Grace was not a reward for solving the puzzle. Love was not reserved for those who completed the assignment. So, she searched among the fragments while the completed picture patiently waited beyond the doorway, not judging her failure, but gently inviting her to lay the pieces down and come home.
My team members appeared to Marlee in their human guise of TA and PT. They sat in silence on the ground of the temple and began handing her pieces of the puzzle. Each piece fit perfectly into the next. Excitement grew, as more and more of the picture began to emerge. In human time it was probably days or weeks. Each piece put into place would enhance the light surrounding Marlee’s heart.
My team members appeared to Marlee in their familiar human guises, TA and PT. Neither offered a lecture nor challenged her beliefs. They did not attempt to convince her that the puzzle was unnecessary. Instead, they joined her.
The three of them sat together on the worn stone floor of the ancient temple in companionable silence. Then TA reached down and handed Marlee a single puzzle piece. PT found another and pressed it gently into her hand. Marlee studied the pieces and immediately recognized where they belonged. To her surprise, they fit perfectly.
A spark of excitement flashed across her face as she slid them into place and watched a tiny portion of the image emerge. The fragment by itself was insignificant, yet suddenly the puzzle no longer appeared impossible.
The work continued, piece after piece was gathered and offered. TA would discover one hidden among the stones. PT would unearth another from beneath a pile Marlee had long dismissed. Sometimes they handed her pieces she had unknowingly possessed all along but had been unable to recognize. With every connection, the picture grew clearer. What had once appeared to be thousands of unrelated fragments slowly revealed itself to be a single story.
In human time, the process might have taken days or even weeks. Yet time possesses little meaning in the In-between. There was only the work, the companionship, and the growing sense that something remarkable was unfolding. Each piece found its rightful place, and the light surrounding Marlee's heart intensified. At first it was little more than a faint glow, scarcely noticeable amid the shadows of the ancient temple. Then it became a gentle radiance. Then a brilliant warmth that illuminated the stones around her. The puzzle was changing her. Or perhaps more accurately, the puzzle was reminding her of who she had always been.
For the first time since her arrival in the In-between, Marlee was no longer searching alone. The burden of proving herself had softened. The fear of failure had loosened its grip. The frantic urgency that had once driven her hands gave way to curiosity, wonder, and even moments of laughter.
What Marlee did not yet understand was that TA and PT were not helping her find answers. They were helping her discover that the answers had never been the point. The puzzle was not a test. The Light had never required a completed picture as the price of admission.
In an act of extraordinary compassion, the Universe had chosen not to tear the puzzle from her grasp. Instead, it sat beside her in the dust of an ancient temple and patiently helped her finish enough of it to see what had been hidden in plain sight all along. The image emerging from the scattered fragments was not a map of the Universe.
It was a portrait of Marlee herself.
Every question, every disappointment, every betrayal, every moment of wonder, every prayer whispered beneath the stars and every ounce of courage it took to continue searching after the latest answer had crumbled into illusion.
The completed picture was not understanding. It was the soul who had spent a lifetime seeking it. and as that realization dawned, the light pouring from Marlee's heart became brighter than the temple around her, brighter than the puzzle at her feet, brighter than the questions that had defined her life. For the first time, she began to understand that she had never been judged by the answers she found. She had always been loved for the courage to seek.
Marlee's heart expanded until there was no longer any distinction between the love she carried and the Love that had always been calling to her. The ancient temple seemed brighter than the stars and the puzzle pieces scattered across the stone floor no longer appeared fragmented or incomplete. Every question, every search, every disappointment, every revelation occupied its perfect place within a pattern so vast that only now could she perceive it.
She looked down at the image she had spent a lifetime trying to assemble and she laughed. Not because she had finally found all the answers, but because she realized she had never been expected to. The understanding she sought had not been hidden behind the last puzzle piece. It had been present all along, quietly waiting beneath every question. The Light had never required certainty. Only trust, trust in that inner voice that asked the questions.
As this realization settled into her being, the radiance surrounding her heart grew until it could no longer be contained. The light within her recognized the Light before her, and the separation between them dissolved.
Marlee's heart became one with the heart of all Love, and she was gone. Our assignment was complete. The temple grew silent once more as somewhere beyond the veil, a seeker who had spent a lifetime searching finally discovered that she had never been lost. She had been loved.
Because in the Light, we are all Love.