Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live." Henry Van Dyke

Can you believe it? It's been one whole year since the debut of the Elijah Experience on ECW.com. Being that this is a new year, it would probably be fitting for me to start off with addressing folks and their New Year's Resolutions. Instead, I'll just have you refer back to the very first Experience in the archives for that.

A lot of people have been asking one important question this year: Where's Elijah Burke!? Well, allow me to assure you all that YOUR Host of Hosts is indeed alive and well as of this writing. But a couple of weeks ago, my response could've been a lil' different.

As I was flying home to Jacksonville, Fla., I had a connecting flight in the ATL. Well, that connection almost didn't make it. As the plane was heading in to land, it picked up speed. The plane then veered to the right and made a sharp left turn while in the nosedive position. I could hear an alarm going off in the cockpit, "Warning!!! Warning!!!" YOUR Guiding Light was sitting up at the very front left window side and I was seeing nothing but green grass. "This doesn't look like a runway to me," I said to myself. The plane was still nose-diving down left toward an open field. A quick thought of flight 93 crossed my mind.

Being that I was previously awaken by the stewardess, I was a little out of it until this lady sitting across from me yelled frantically, "Oh My God, what's going on?" My heart took an extra hard pounce at the shriek of the woman's cry. But there I was, head resting against the window, looking at the field toward which we appeared to be heading and I was singing an old gospel favorite in my head, which I was just listening to on my iPod. No fear, no panic and no regrets.

All of a sudden the plane pulled up and we were heading back up into the air. Soon after, the pilot informed us that we were going in for landing. However, another plane remained on the runway, which caused the aforementioned. By that time, I had no feeling from my thighs down. I don't know why, but if I had to guess I would say that I was about to give up the ghost, which was comforting to know. (You'll have to think about that one.) But as for right now, I'm still here and there's much work to be done and carried out by YOUR Black Pope, here on earth and in all of WWE.

I know that this is not your typical Experience, but if I can leave you with one or three pieces of advice, it's this: When your day of judgment comes or appears to have come, make sure that you have No Fear, No Panic and No Regrets!

So what's next for Elijah? Well, let's just say that the only thing for sure when it comes to The Experienced One is that there's nothing 4-UP Sure!!

Need Enlightenment? Reach out to your Guiding Light at [email protected]

http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/superstars/elijahburke/eexperiencearchive/elijahexperience011108