Sep. 2—PLATTSBURGH — Christine Rotella's identifiers include executive secretary, city councilor, businesswoman, cancer survivor, and now author with her LifeRich Publishing book, "Understanding Spirituality: For Older Children, Adolescents and Other Beginners."

The Plattsburgh resident has studied spirituality for nearly 30 years and is clairsentient/claircognizant and a Usui Reiki Master Teacher/Healer.

Rotella brushed against death's wings with a 2011 breast cancer diagnosis, which led to a lumpectomy, chemo, and radiation.

"Eleven months later, I'm in the ER and it's not in the breast anymore, but it is in the lung, rib, spine, brain, and my liver was completely shot," she said.

"I remember the language precisely what they said about the liver. It was an 8 cm tumor on the surface and tumors within and without. It was a terminal diagnosis. I had Dr. Todd Whitman. He is just an amazing oncologist, compassionate, and open minded. He was just absolutely wonderful. I decided I wasn't ready to go anywhere."

Spiritual self-care

Rotella utilized essential oils, Reiki, prayer, visualization and deep thinking.

"I learned so many people have the same questions," she said.

"Who is God? Is evil real? Are angels real? All of these spiritual questions, I realized that so many people have the same questions, but when they go for answers, they're complicated. "Sometimes, you can't even follow them. It's like what? So my goal in writing this book was to keep children in mind and really beginners who have no spiritual experience in their background or anything at all. Keeping it distilled to the simplest explanations I could manage."

The divorced mother of two adult children and four grandchildren created a guide for her progeny.

"How do you explain things to kids?" she said.

"I didn't think quoting scripture was the way to go."

Nine Chapters

The nine chapters are:

—Why do I Feel Scared Sometimes?

—Who Am I?

—Who is God?

—How can I be good enough for God?

—Are Angels, Ghosts and E. T.s real?

—Does evil exist?

—Why do bad or scary things happen?

—What happens when a person dies?

—How should I pray?

The book features chapter illustrations by artist Joe Ferris and can be purchased for $18.99 softcover, $29.99 hardcover and $3.99 E-Book.

"I was thinking about the perspective from heaven that when we've accomplish whatever our goal is in this life, we determine that before we come, then we just go home for a rest," Rotella said.

"Then, we come back for a new lesson to learn, and that's how we grow our souls. I have it distilled down to these little basic concepts and used a lot of real life experiences to bring home the point."

Rotella worked on that book about a year with breaks and waves of inspiration throughout her writing process. Her goal in writing the book was to help people find peace of mind as well as whet their appetite to know more on a deeper level.

'The Golden Man'

Rotella's text includes the following supernatural occurrence:

"I want to tell you a story. I know that it is true because I know the lady that it happened to. This lady lived in the country, and her house had a very steep driveway. On the other side of the road at the end of the driveway was a deep ditch that was filled with water from melting snow and recent rainstorms. One day she was watching her 3-year-old granddaughter and decided to run some errands. After they were in the car, she realized she'd forgotten something and went back in the house for a second. That's when the car rolled backwards down the driveway and ended up in the ditch upside down. When she came back out, she was horrified to see her granddaughter still strapped into her car seat and the car was filling with water. Before she had time to act, the little girl was standing beside her all nice and dry and clean. When asked to explain what happened, the child simple said, 'It was the Golden Man, Grandma. He helped me.'"

"I get goosebumps just telling you the story," she said.

"That was told to me by the woman to whom it happened to. Those are the kinds of little things I throw in here to drive home the point."

Jesus Sightings

Raised Roman Catholic, Rotella says she has a relationship with Jesus though she has moved away from standardized religions.

"I just don't agree with so much," she said.

"I refuse to take things at face value just because I'm told it's so. I want to know my other things, my own heart, my own soul what's true.

"(Jesus) was called rabbi, and rabbi means teacher. When they say the only way to heaven is through me, he didn't mean through a door. He meant what he was trying to teach us about how to live."

Rotella actually saw Jesus Christ when she was 12.

"That was my first experience," she said.

"I was sitting on my grandmother's porch, swinging on a summer day, and he was up in the sky. I was like what?"

In her blog at www.dragonflyenergies.com, Rotella shares similar experiences.

"I've had many, many spiritual experiences while I was in treatment," she said.

"Just crazy things like I was napping, and I felt a hand grab and hold toes on one foot. That's exactly what my father used to do when I was kid. I knew it was him. It wasn't a doubt in my mind. So, I just smiled and said, 'Hi Dad!' I don't get freaked out very easily."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell