Something happened the morning after Harley died that changed everything I thought I knew about love, loss, and what’s real.

He meowed. Loud. Unmistakably him.

That single moment unraveled three years of what I thought grief was supposed to look like, and opened me into something I’ve been documenting ever since: the possibility that the bonds we form with our beloveds don’t need to end. We can let them evolve.

Field Notes is the living record of that discovery. Science, dreams, synchronicities, somatic responses, and the everyday moments of recognition that keep arriving—documented honestly, shared openly.

The work here is built on one central question: what if love doesn’t just survive loss, what if it becomes something we can actually feel, sense, and grow within?

Whether your beloved has whiskers, wings, two legs or four — here or in spirit — you’re in the right place.

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He Died. Then He Meowed. What Happens When No One Tells You They Aren’t Really gone.

What worked for me in the earlier days of loss.

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You’re not making it up. You’re making it real.

See you in the braid…

Jasmine & Harley

I want to tell you about this morning.

Because if you’ve been doing this work, following your braid, documenting your signs, trusting the connection… you will recognize this morning.

And you need to know what happened in it.

I woke up flat.

Not sad. Not disconnected. Not in crisis.

Just existing. The particular quiet that settles when you’ve been living in your head. I’ve been deep in launch preparation, website copy, book outlines, platform building. Beautiful, necessary work. But work that lives in the head, in analytics, not the field.

And somewhere underneath the quiet was a fear.

Is this my new normal?
Will I ever feel the amazement again?
What if I have to WAIT for it?

Maybe you know this fear.

The fear that the big moments, the dreams, the signs, the synchronicities, had nothing to do with my participation. They just happened to me. Whenever the universe decided to deem me worthy.

I fed MaggieMay her breakfast and sat with the flatness. And then quietly, clearly, unmistakably, I heard it.

Use your tools. Do a reading.

Harley. My Higher Self. In my head. Gentle. Certain.

I sat down with my Harley Speaks Oracle Deck. Split it into three piles. Asked what message he wanted to share. Let the pendulum choose. Spread the cards. And let it choose again.

I pulled card 22.

The master number. The card that was created for Harley. A tuxedo cat — black and white, with a white luminous bib— sitting in a garden in full sun. Looking up. Present. Peaceful. Completely himself. The number that kept showing up after he passed. 22.

Since creating this deck, I have never pulled this card.

The Sunbeam-Seeker.
Seize the moment

.

I started to weep.

Not from sadness. From recognition. From the overwhelming, undeniable sense of being so completely heard and seen.

He heard me. He always hears me. Even when I think I can’t hear him.

And as the tears came, the soft vibration began. The full body hum. Our baseline signature energy. His frequency meeting mine as the energy that braided us together stabilized. And then something much bigger opened…

The connection isn’t out there.
It was never out there.
It lives in here.
In presence.
In stillness.
In the turning inward.

The external signs: the meows, the synchronicities, the convergences… they were never the source of the connection.

They were Harley being loud enough to cut through grief’s static until I KNEW. So deeply I couldn’t unknow. That the love was real. That the bond continued. That the field is alive.

And once I knew…

He could just sit in a garden. In the sun. Looking up. Card 22 saying:

Stop waiting. Stop looking out there. Come in here.
This is where I live.
This is where we meet.
This is where the field is.
Right here.
In presence.
In you.
Always.

And then the connection got even deeper.

I wept because of the clarity of the quantum love bond we share. It isn’t only with each other. It is one with God/Source/Creator. With life itself. In the field we share there is no separation between me and Harley, between me and Source, between me and life. It is all one.

We just get different ways of experiencing it.

In presence, loss and longing are also beautiful. A compass back home to love that never dies. It shows that we came here, into density, into form, into this magnificent illusion of separation deliberately. Joyfully. Specifically to feel what can’t be felt anywhere else.

The ache.
The grief.
The recognition.
The I KNEW IT moments.

These feelings of separation don’t happen in the higher realms. We came here to feel them. All of them. Completely.

To love in a body.
To lose in a body.
To find again, in a body, and say, I knew it.
I always knew it.
Love doesn’t end.
It was never supposed to.
This was the whole point!

I started this morning flat.

Afraid the amazement was behind me. Afraid I’d have to wait. Afraid I had no control over when or how I’d feel that connection again. Then I followed the nudge. I turned inward. I became present. I used my tools and I generated it from within.

In one sitting. With one card. With one tuxedo cat in a garden looking up at the sun.

The teaching isn’t, “Wait for the extraordinary.” The teaching is, “Presence generates the extraordinary. From within. Every time. Without exception.”

If you’re in a flat morning today… Don’t wait. Use your tools. Become present. Follow the nudge.

Your beloved is already there sitting in the garden. In the sun. Looking up. Waiting for you to become quiet enough to feel what never left, what is always there.

Love is the architecture of life that doesn’t end.

With love from the braid,
Jasmine and Harley 🐾❤️

P.S. The card read: “Don’t waste time analyzing the gift — just dive in and claim your patch of celestial warmth.” Card 22. The Sunbeam-Seeker. And the first time ever I pulled it. Of course it is.

P.P.S. I began creating this deck four to six months after Harley crossed when nudged with downloads. I finished it when I moved to Sedona. Somewhere in that window of grief and learning and building and trusting. I sat with all the cards before numbering them. I knew Card 22 , the number I kept seeing, the master number that represented us, was most important. This was the card I chose. LOL. He chose.

I pulled it for the first time this morning. On the morning I needed it most.

I didn’t receive this card today. We created it together. Long before I knew I’d need it.

That’s the quantum love bond.
That’s the braid.
That’s Harley.

If this resonated please share it with someone who needs it.

With love from the braid,
Jasmine & Harley 🐾❤️

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© 2026 Jasmine Sterling | Soul Braid™ Framework | All Rights Reserved
This content is for personal reflection and educational purposes only. Not intended as medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice.

When Harley first crossed over, the pain was so huge I could barely breathe. Not because I was drowning. It was more that I felt suspended between two worlds — devastated on one side, and strangely, certain on the other. Certain that our bond was too big to just disappear. Certain that something was still here. Certain, somehow, that I had something to do with continuing it. What I didn't know was how. Or what that would look like. Or how completely it would change everything I thought I understood about love, death, and reality.

Then within 24 hours of his crossing, he meowed. Loud. Clear. Unmistakable. Real.

Nothing has been the same ever since.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve felt this way too and had your own signs. Maybe you’ve heard them, felt them, or seen something that made you wonder. And maybe part of you is terrified you’re making it up. That the grief is so big you’ve lost touch with reality.

I’m here to tell you the signs are real. Your beloved IS still here. And what you’re going through isn’t just grief, it’s grief alchemy. If you're not sure what signs to look for, I put together a free guide — 7 Signs Your Cat Is Still With You (and how you can trust what you feel.) Email me at Jasmine@JasmineandHarley.com and I'll send it straight to you.

This post isn’t about “getting over it” or “moving on.” It’s about learning how to not get stuck in a limited 3D reality—the reality where your mind insists they’re gone forever and the pain will never end. Because that’s not even close to the truth.

The whole truth is you’re learning to meet your beloved in a higher frequency state. A place where the braid between you is still alive, still building. And yes, there will be moments when it hurts like hell. Even three years later, I still have moments where my mind takes over and I feel the disconnect. Where the grief crashes in and I forget everything I know.

This guide is to help you remember what’s real. Because here’s what I’ve learned… coming back into the present moment, into my body, into NOW, is what always dissolves the anxiety and lets me feel Harley again. The mind can’t feel your beloved’s presence. The mind creates the disconnect. But presence is where they are.

What follows are the tools that brought me back to presence when grief pulled me under. They’re not about numbing the pain. They’re about raising your vibration when you’re down, so you can meet your beloved here, now, in the braid — the energetic structure love builds between bonded beings —you’re still building together.

The Floor

I’m starting here because if you’re in acute grief, you need to know I was on the floor too. The ache was that big. I couldn’t think my way out of it. I couldn’t do any of the “practices” people had suggested. All I could do was put my hand on my chest and say out loud,”Harley, if you’re here, I need you to show me.”

I’d sit there until I felt my shoulders drop and my breath slow down. Not a practice. Not a tool. Just breathing and knowing he was present, meeting me in the dark. Just talking to him directly and asking for help.

Talking to Harley became one of the most important things I did. Out loud when I could. In writing when I wanted a longer conversation. I told him I missed him. I asked him to help me feel his presence. I asked him to comfort me, to show me he was still here. And he did. Not always in ways I could immediately sense, because acute grief creates static in the field. When you’re in that raw, shattered state, you might not be able to hear them or feel them responding, even when they are. And that’s okay. It’s part of the process. They’re still there. They’re still responding. You’re just learning how to tune the frequency.

This is a time to be very gentle with yourself. When you’re in these intense emotions, love yourself. Give yourself permission to just BE in it. The pain will pass when you don’t hold judgment against it. Don’t fight it. Don’t shame yourself for feeling it. Just let it move through you.

And keep talking to your beloved. Ask them to help you sense their presence. Ask them to comfort you. They can hear you. And they will respond in whatever way is available—a dream, a sign, a feeling, a warmth in your chest. The bond doesn’t break. You’re still building it, even now. Even on the floor.

The Ache Isn’t the Enemy

What I didn’t know at first was that the ache was trying to teach me something. The ache is longing. It’s the creative nudge designed to move you forward. It’s the electromagnetic force that pulls you like nothing else, back toward what you love, back toward presence, back toward the bond that never broke. The ache is part of love’s design. We just mistake it for pain.

There are two kinds of feeling in grief: The pain that contracts is when your mind takes over. When you’re stuck in the story that they’re gone, it’s over, you’ll never feel them again. That pain says “something is wrong, withdraw, protect.” It closes you down, makes you want to shut off, go numb, disappear.

The ache that expands is different. The ache says “something beautiful is near, come back to presence, come back to NOW.” It opens you up, even when it hurts. What I learned is the ache is showing you where you’ve slipped out of presence and back into linear, logical thinking. The mind itself isn't the enemy. The looping thoughts are. The analytical, story-generating, "he's gone forever" mind. That's what creates the static. But the mind at its edges, softened, surrendered, half-dissolved into sleep, becomes a doorway rather than a barrier. Which is why the practices that follow aren't about silencing your mind. They're about returning it to rest, so presence can do what it already knows how to do.

The ache is the signal to come back. Back into your body. Back into this breath. Back into NOW—where your beloved actually IS.

When I come back to presence, when I put my hand on my heart-center, when I do the breathing, when I let myself FEEL instead of THINK… the ache shifts. Usually a release of exquisite tears will flow, and It becomes a healing bridge. It becomes the very thing that lets me feel him again.

The ache is love approaching. It’s your bond calling you back to the higher frequency where you can actually meet your beloved. It’s them, reaching back. And it’s your body saying: “Stop thinking. Start feeling. I’m here. They’re here. Come back to now.”

You don’t need to get rid of the ache. You need to let it guide you back to presence, back to the place where the braid is still alive, still building, still real.

In time you’ll learn to see how sacred the ache is, because it lets you know how deep your connection is. And the depth often washes through tears, clearing away the static the fear of disconnection creates. You learn to ride the wave until the peace and love are vibrating back in your body, and heart center again.

Thought Replacing

Grief thoughts always feel so real. Like facts spoken from the floor of the universe itself.

“He’s gone. It will always feel this way. I can’t survive this.”

But because I’d heard his meow, because I KNEW the bond was still alive, I couldn’t stay in those thoughts for long. Maybe a day. Maybe two. Then something would pull me back: a sign, a dream, a feeling in my chest that said “that’s not true.” I started noticing: some thoughts choked me. And other thoughts, even sad ones, let me breathe.

“I miss him so much” → still sad, but I could breathe with it.

“He’s gone forever and I’ll never recover” → that one choked me.

I started very gently reaching for the thought that let me breathe. Not because I was “over it.” But because I needed AIR. Here’s what I realized… thoughts are visitors. You get to choose which ones you invite to stay.

Thought replacing isn’t about pretending you’re fine. It’s about noticing when a thought is pulling you DOWN into despair, into loops, into collapse, then instead consciously reaching for something even slightly truer, slightly lighter.

“I can’t survive this” can shift to “I am surviving this, right now, breath by breath.”

“I miss them so much” can sit beside “I am so grateful I got to love them.”

And when you’re truly in your soul, in gratitude, it turns into: “Thank you for this sacred work. I am so grateful I get to learn how to be with them in a new way now.”

You don’t have to leap from devastation to joy. You just have to move one thought higher.

Trusting Your Body

Harley taught me this, to move toward what feels lighter, away from what feels heavier. I started asking, does this thought let me breathe? Does it allow my shoulders to drop? Do I feel a sigh of relief?

If your thoughts are making you tighten or tense up, if your chest constricts, if your jaw clenches, if your whole body says NO… replace it with thoughts that assist the love field you’re building. Your body knows the difference between what connects you and what separates you. Just notice. Be present. What helps your body soften?

The Power of Gratitude (Even When It Hurts)

Gratitude doesn’t mean you’re okay with the loss. It means you’re choosing to hold the love alongside the grief, rather than letting the grief swallow the love whole. And here’s a practice within the practice—one that changed everything for me:

Turn “was” into “is.”

Notice what happens when you shift “I’m grateful this love was real” to “I’m grateful this love is real.”

Feel that? That tiny word carries your beloved out of the past and into this moment, which is exactly where they are. Love doesn’t end. It changes form. And when we speak of it in the present tense, we’re telling the truth more accurately than grief usually lets us. This isn’t denial. It’s a more honest map of where your beloved actually lives—in the present, in spirit, in the love that is so strong it chooses to continue.

Dreamspace

Dreamspace is where I first learned to meet Harley in full presence. He has appeared in dreams so vivid, so unmistakably him, that I woke knowing I had genuinely been with him. Your beloved can reach you here with far less interference. Ask them to come. Set the intention before sleep. Then let the binary mind rest and meet them where they actually live.

The logical binary mind — the one that can only see either/or, the one that cannot perceive that your beloved is gone and still with you — creates the static that separates you. But at the edges of sleep, that mind is half-loosened from its defenses. The either/or softens. And here, the mind becomes a doorway rather than a barrier.

Bedtime & Morning Rituals

The edges of sleep became sacred during grief as these times the logical mind is least active. The mind itself isn't the enemy. The looping thoughts are. It's the logical binary mind, the one that can only see either/or, the one that cannot perceive that your beloved is gone and still with you, that creates the static. But at the edges of sleep, that binary mind is half-loosened from its defenses. Here, the mind becomes a doorway rather than a barrier. Which is why the practices that follow aren't about silencing your mind. They're about returning it to rest, so you can meet in presence — the natural state of the field where your beloved lives. I started building small rituals at both ends of the day:

Morning: A few grounding words before the day could rush in. “I am held. I am whole. I’m in communication with Harley. I allow myself to soften into our shared love.”

Bedtime: A release, handing the weight over to the Source Intelligence we are both connected to. This became my dreamspace preparation time. Often I used frequency technologies to settle my nerves, using music, binaural beats, or the particular medicine of a cat’s purr. Sound bypasses the thinking mind. It goes straight to the nervous system, straight to the body that has been holding so much. Let it do that work.

What I Reached For That Always Worked: Resources

• Purr Therapy:

  Cat purrs vibrate at 25-50 Hz — a frequency scientifically documented to promote bone healing, nervous system regulation, and stress reduction. Nothing is more soothing than the comforting vibration of a cat’s purr. When Harley wasn’t there, this is what I missed most. Thankfully I stumbled onto a free site that allows you to customize the frequency of a cat’s purr — and it became the only thing that let me sleep. It kept that healing frequency alive in my body when I needed it most. https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/catPurrNoiseGenerator.php

• EFT Tapping for Grief : Tapping moves and clears out energetic loops. I did this almost daily in the early months. It gave the grief somewhere to GO instead of just sitting in my chest crushing me. A completely free and very effective way to feel the relief almost instantly.

  EFT Tapping for Grief — Watch on YouTube →

• Visualizations — Guided imagery for peace, reunion, and release. I’ll add my personal favorites soon, but even just YouTube searches for “pet loss meditation” or “reunion visualization” helped when I needed to feel Harley close.

• Journaling — Writing is very therapeutic. Many say writing by hand is better than typing. It was easier for me to type. Do what works better for you. It’s the act itself that is so therapeutic. Some days I just wrote “I miss you” or “I love you” fifty times. That counted.

• Bach’s Rescue Remedy — Flower essences for acute emotional distress are an excellent soothing balm. It’s available on Amazon. Search Bach Rescue Remedy. I kept this in my pocket and used it before anything that felt overwhelming—vet visits, seeing photos, talking about him. It took the edge off just enough to let me function. It’s also good for cats (use the vegetable glycerine-based.)

• NDE & SDE Videos with Pets — YouTube searches for near-death and shared-death experiences involving animals. These let me know Harley and all my beloved pets were still very much alive and well, just in another frequency. Hearing other people’s experiences made me feel less alone—and less crazy.

• Biofield & Frequency Technologies — I’ve used frequency technologies designed to support biofield balance for years. When grief kept destabilizing my field, these helped me find ground again. If you’re curious what I use, feel free to email me.

• Comfort Food & Essential Oils — Nourishing the physical body is part of the grief work. Don’t skip this. I created comfort food bowls and burned rose oil candles every night. Small, simple things that said to my body: “You’re still here. You still matter.”

• Memorializing — Creating a sacred space, a ritual, a living tribute. Grief needs somewhere to go, give it somewhere beautiful. I built a small altar with Harley’s photo, and different items that reminded me of him. It gave me a place to BE with him when the rest of the world kept moving.

• Walking in Nature — This might be one of the most important tools I use to this day. Nothing helps clear out anxiety and regulate the nervous system better than a stroll in nature. Feel your beloved walking with you and see the world fresh and alive through their eyes. Know they are walking with you. Let nature soften and heal your heart.

If You Can’t Do Any of This Yet

If you’re still on the floor and this all sounds impossible? Stay there as long as you need. The signs will wait. The practices will wait. Your beloved will wait.

Harley waited for me.

And when you’re ready, whenever that is for you... there’s a whole world of continuing bond waiting to be experienced.

Harley didn’t just teach me how to love. He taught me how to feel deeply, to reside in my heart. How to feel him, his energy, with my whole body. How to trust my body as the intelligence. How to choose, even in the middle of breaking, the thought that opens rather than closes. That’s the gift I’m still unwrapping. And he’s still here, handing it to me every day, so I can hand it to you.

With love,

Jasmine & Harley

Until Next Time...

Free Guide:
7 Signs Your Cat Is Still With You
(and how to trust what you feel)
Email Jasmine@JasmineandHarley.com to receive yours 💫

Stay Connected
JasmineandHarley.com (launching soon)
Substack: JasmineandHarley.Substack.com
Instagram: instagram.com/jasmineandharleyfieldnotes
TikTok: tiktok.com/@jasmineandharley11
YouTube: youtube.com/@jasmineandharley
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-sterling-a1776a59
Email: Jasmine@JasmineandHarley.com 🌀

© 2026 Jasmine Sterling | Soul Braid™ Framework | All Rights Reserved
This content is for personal reflection and educational purposes only. Not intended as medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice.