Personal + Spiritual Life
Navigating Purpose, Connection, and Transformation.
The main undercurrent in my life is gratitude. I have been so fortunate in so many ways. I have experienced great privilege and have also faced many challenges. Somehow even the most painful, chaotic moments ultimately produce gratitude and I strive to continue to cultivate that.
I suppose the greatest influences on my growth and development have been my family, friends, animals, travel, and a curious nature. Like a lot of people, I have had several different awakenings throughout my life. My personal journey of awareness began early on when I witnessed the complex landscape of mental health and addiction. This piqued my curiosity about the inner workings of the human mind beyond perhaps what we are taught by school, family, and society. I suppose my most fundamental transformation took place prior to and during my father's passing - at that point there was a substantial deepening in my awareness and development.
We are all beautifully imperfect, and every day is a new opportunity to learn about ourselves and each other, to give love, and create joy and peace.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Authentic Presence Statement
My purpose is to give and receive Unconditional Love & Compassion in every interaction as part of a co-learning relationship.
I do this by facilitating self-actualization & learning in myself and others - and by promoting authentic presence, health, and purpose in those around me.
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."
- Anatole France
Animals as Teachers
I believe everyone has a connection to nature in some way or another. Some people hike, some people ski, some like being in a body of water. For me, that connection has always been through animals. From early childhood my fascination with animals was evident, and I've always felt most at home near them.
Nothing causes me to feel more connected, peaceful, or centered as when I'm around animals. It's difficult to articulate exactly what horses and dogs have taught me (and continue to teach me) - mostly they've blessed me with lessons about grace, emotional fitness, energy management/chi, patience, leadership, partnership, pain, strength, loss, and unconditional love.
“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other' doesn’t make any sense.”
-
Rumi
Religion and Dogma
Growing up, my mother and grandmother exposed me to the practices of the Episcopalian and Lutheran religions. In church, I was baptized as a baby and confirmed as a teenager. This laid a good foundation as an up-close look at one version of practiced Christianity.
I have explored several religions throughout the years, but choose not to participate in organized religion. I am more of a spiritual being than a religious being. The practices of Buddhist and Hindu communities resonate with me above any others, and I have found myself anchored in them. That said, my idea of 'worship' is to put myself in nature and be around animals.
* Ganesha - the Hindu deity representing wisdom, beneficence, and overcoming obstacles - has become a friend and sort of talisman in my journey. (Professor Annabelle Nelson published a short blog about this connection here.)
- Are you spiritual, religious, or both? (Is one internally-focused and the other externally-focused? If they aren't mutually exclusive, what is the distinction?)
- Do you need to know/love/believe in (any) God to be a spiritual being?
- Do you have a "God-sized-hole" in your heart? What does that look like for you?
- We must tend to our deepest, most profound narratives. Consider these Four Spiritual/Existential Questions:
- - What does unconditional love look like to you? (How to show love or encourage compassion? Who do I give this type of love to? Everyone, or just 'my people'? Equally to the stranger at the store as to my life partner?)
- - What does relationship mean to you? (Can I be alone? Do I love myself with or without others? Do I need others? Do I deserve the love of others?)
- - How do I regard my relevance? (Am I vital? Is what I do important? To who? How do I know what is relevant?)
- - What is my purpose in this world? (What is my most meaningful connection to others? Why do I exist on this earth? Why am I still here?)
- Whatever you use to get to the affirmative for those^ four questions, might be your "God".
- Perhaps humility is a goal along our journey ... the true representation of our authentic self, neither aggrandized nor diminished.
- Can you show love without conveying it as currency? If there is a love currency, then it is not truly unconditional love.
“Step into the fire of self-discovery. This will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not.”
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"Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not." – Deepak Chopra
"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, man cannot live without a spiritual life." – Buddha
“Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who've already been there.” – Vine Deloria Jr.
"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls." – Khalil Gibran
“Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.” – Walt Whitman
“The greatest thing you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return.” – Eden Ahbez
"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." – Augustine
"To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light." - Carl Jung
“I don’t have to be anything at all. I don’t even have to be myself, because there is no such thing as not being myself. I am inescapably myself.”
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