Mabel Gomes

Biography

I am a Bangladeshi-American who migrated to United States in 1982. I am married, have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. I have taught in John Jay College of Criminal Justice< CUNY, since 1994. I retired in 2022 for health reasons. I love reading, watching podcasts on ancient history to recent world events. My hobby is gardening, singing and playing the harmonium --which is like a piano that you play with one hand and pump air with the other. I love nature and the turning of seasons and still marvel in the changing of the color of leaves and the renewal of spring. I believe in reincarnation very strongly--more after my grandson told me we never die at the age of 2 and half. He told me he was my son in a previous life. He is 22 years now and doesn't remember our conversation, but believes in reincarnation. He told me, "I'm alive now because I was alive then." It took me a long time to understand that to him death never happened--its just a continuation of living. My another grandson from my son said he was in the plane that crashed into the second tower on 9/11. He described the loud crash and how he saw the ground below when it flew low before crashing and then it was black. I had done hypnotic regression of my past lives too and go a lot of insight into my current life and challenges in life. I would like to hear from others who believe in reincarnation and have stories to share. I taught and also counseled students in their academics, as well as their life challenges. I believe that I helped students in understanding the meaning of their lives more than academic knowledge because our education system had overlooked the need of helping them to understand a holistic picture of education and life choices and challenges. They hunger from lack of this gap in making right choices for their personal growth and happiness. In one of my class lectures I told my students the simple truth--"Smiles are free--give them away." the following week one of my students told the class how she remembered this advice and smiled at a very physically handicapped young man and he told her in sign language--"Nobody ever smiled at me." This was a very profound feedback of just a simple sentence I had told my class. My whole class erupted in emotional applause to hear this touching encounter. My student doesn't understand sign language, but what are the odds that a lady standing next to her knew sign language and interpreted the young man's sign response to her about smiling at him Please pass this message forward to everyone. We never know when all they needed at that moment was a simple smile from you. I am involved with a few non-profit organizations where we reach out to young children and youth to help them in their formation and challenges in life. Life had taught me to trust myself and to listen to my inner voice which I believe is my higher self guiding me in my life. I believe God talks to us through us--which we call inner voice or intuition and I have personally experienced listening/ignoring this inner voice and the consequences of either listening or not listening. I enjoy my grandchildren--and observing them more intensely in many things they do and say--more than when I raised my own three children where i was more concerned with my way of raising them properly rather than their inner divine purpose for which they chose to come to this life. I hadn't read Khalil Gibran's quotes on children come to live their dreams and not ours-- we are just their gardeners to help them bear the fruits of their lives --good/bad. We are all the rivers of life--each meandering along paths where the next river bend hides the uncertainties/challenges--but we continue to flow into the vast unknown sea of eternity.