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I AM HERE, Helen.
Well, I am very happy, and you are happier and feel better.
I am now going to write you about my home, as I promised, and you must not think I am not in condition to write, if I should not be able to describe it as you may think I should; the only reason for my failure will be that I cannot find words to express myself.
Well, my house is a beautiful white one of a substance that you might think of as alabaster, and two stories in height, and rooms on each side of a wide and beautiful hall. The rooms are very large and filled with the most beautiful furniture that you can conceive of. The walls are all hung with satin coverings, and between are lovely pictures. The parlor, as you would call it, is filled with the most exquisite and comfortable couches and chairs, and with beautiful tables and bric-a-brac, and also many pictures of landscapes and fruits and flowers. I don't know who painted them, but they are there and give me much delight, and satisfy to so great an extent my love for paintings and pictures. There are also many little curios that would make the heart of an aesthetic person rejoice and feel glad. My music room has in it instruments of various kinds, and wonderful in sound and construction. I play some of them and also sing in my weak way, as you say on earth; but I enjoy the music more than I can tell you, and so do many spirits who call to see me.
I have other rooms, such as repose rooms, library and room for meditation and prayer. My library is full of books dealing with subjects that are to me now so congenial and necessary, for they tell me of God's love and care for his children. There are also books that deal with the laws of the spirit world and of the other parts of the universe; but these latter I do not read much, for my whole study is so given to the laws pertaining to our own spirit world and its relationship to your world, and the love of God and the love that should exist among mortals and spirits, that I do not find time for these other studies; and, in fact, I have not the inclination.
There are books that you might call fiction, but really are not, for they describe the actual experience of spirits in such a vivid and interesting way, that if they were portrayed in your earthly books you would think it fiction.
Not all the books in my library deal with the higher or more substantial things of this spirit life, for we have our recreation for the mind in the way of variety in reading that you do on earth, and we are the stronger and happier for it. So you see, if you were here, I know that the library would be your place of rest from your work, although I know you like music very much.
We have a dining room also, but we do not need kitchens as nothing is cooked, but everything eaten just as we get it from the trees and vines. We do not eat meat or bread or potatoes or things of that kind. Our food is principally fruits and nuts; and such fruits you never saw and never will until you come with me. The fruits, mostly, are pears and grapes and oranges and pomegranates of course, not just the same as you know them on earth. I merely use these words of description to give you some idea of what they are like. We have them in great variety and always fresh and ripe. The nuts too, are of many kinds and qualities. None need nut crackers for them to be broken in order to be eaten. There are no cakes or candies or anything of that nature. We do not actually eat these things with our teeth and palate and use intestinal organs, as you do, but we inhale as it were, the delicious flavors and aromas of the fruits; and strange as it may seem to you, we are just as much satisfied, and probably more so than you when you eat them with your physical organs. I cannot more fully explain to you just how this thing is, but, as we say, we eat the fruits and nuts.
We drink pure water, and nothing else; and spirits who say they have wines and other beverages, tell what I have never seen or heard of since I have been in the spirit world. Of course, I do not know every thing and what exists in all parts of this great world of spirits. And this water is so pure and satisfying, that I cannot imagine any spirit would want anything else to drink. But, yet, as I say, I do not know as to this.
We do not actually drink the water for we have not the internal organs that you have in the physical body, but we seem to absorb it in our system in some way that gives all the delight and satisfaction that you enjoy when you drink water.
We often have our "teas", as your fashionable women on earth might say, and very many of our spirit friends attend and help make the gatherings enjoyable and happy ones. Of course the male spirits attend, for I must tell you that in this life there are no clubs or businesses that keep the sexes apart, as in your life. I mean that the two sexes are more together, and enjoy the society of each other to a far greater degree than in your earth life. Of course, I do not mean that these spirits have all found their soulmates, for that is not true; but each enjoys the company of the others as friends and spirits having similar desires and aspirations. My companions are very similar in their love for the Father and in the development of their souls, and in their thoughts and desires for things spiritual. We discuss many questions pertaining to the soul and it progress, and to the love of the Father and to the love of spirits and mortals. While we are joyous and happy beyond compare, yet we do not indulge in frivolities or thoughts that have not a tendency to elevate us to higher things.
We have music and dancing, but our dancing is different from yours. We merely exercise ourselves in graceful and artistic movements without any contact of spirit bodies, or the embracing of each other. Of course, we hold hands as we dance, but no familiarity, as you would say, is indulged in.
Well, I have a room for repose, where after working long and to some extent, feeling tired, I rest on these couches that I tell you of. We do not sleep, but sometimes we go into a kind of dreamy state that gives us much refreshment and vigor. I am now resting from some hard work that I have been doing in your earth plane. I mean that when I am not writing to you, I am resting.
So, you see, we are not enjoying one continuous condition of feeling as that might become monotonous.
I am now trying to help some of the spirits who have recently come over from your city, and who were acquaintances of yours on earth. I will tell you of them when next I write you. I am tired now and must stop.
So with all my love, I am your own true and loving,
- HELEN.
