What I believe...

In my church, it is often said that sharing your spiritual beliefs affirms and clarifies them, not just to others, but to yourself as well. With blogging friends of diverse backgrounds, I do not know if your journey is similar to or completely different from mine, but I appreciate how the blogging community allows us to share one another's experiences and life stories.

The past year has been one of opening up, both to myself and to a few close friends the many questions I have about religion. Although I come from a religious background, I find that knowing the "Sunday school" answers doesn't automatically ground me in faith and provide me a spiritual foundation. Recognizing the irony of being "religious", without always finding the "spirituality" within that religion, hasn't been a comfortable process! However, talking about it (and dancing about it!) has given me the confidence to face both my uncertainties and beliefs with greater honesty. This Easter Sunday, these are a few beliefs I stand on:

I believe deeply in spirit, that there is a spirit essence in all of us.

I believe that there are spiritual purposes to our lives.

I believe that the Divine Creator is concerned for us and aware of us.

I believe in change, that is is possible...(and possibly even necessary).

And Easter? I believe its message to me this year is that grace comes as we place ourselves in the hands of God, exactly where we are. (Thank you Dieter F. Uchtdorf, for saying, "The first step to discipleship begins, luckily enough, in the exact place where [you] stand."

I hope you find grace, growth and beauty this spring, whatever your journey.

Protecting growth

On a recent walk through a local garden, I noticed these little burlap fences. While I loved their visual impact on the garden (their color, their texture and how they redefined the space), I wasn't sure of their use. They were so fragile and so open. What could they possibly be protecting?

When I saw one of the gardeners, I asked. She explained that there are several types of heather in this garden and some are more fragile then others. These simple fabric fences surround the more delicate varieties, offering enough protection against the winter winds to prevent dessication and subsequent freezing. Clearly, the gardeners here care for each variety of plant in the garden with detailed attention to their unique needs. They make plans to ensure the growth and full beauty of all that grows there. They protect what needs protection. They nurture what needs more attention.

Could I be more like these gardeners? Could I can give a bit more attention, protection and care to what grows in my life? Can I be clearer in my intentions in choosing what I plant and how I nurture?

I can. I am.

Sacred Text

I am dancing in a new work by a modern/contemporary choreographer examining foundations in our lives. The piece draws on images from an article about the collapse of Wall Arch in Arches National Park last year, sacred text and the individual spiritual journeys of our religiously diverse cast. This is my first project explicitly connecting my spiritual life and my work as a dancer. What an interesting process!

Delicate Arch, 2004

As part of this, I am creating a short section of movement based on this statement from personal writing in rehearsal:

"I stand on what I've been taught...and I stand away from it."

I've been reflecting on what this means and why is it significant to me at this point in my life. Something about examination, heritage, tradition, finding my own way, honoring the past... What else does this statement suggest?

The surrounding landscape in Arches Nat'l Park

I would love to hear your thoughts. What images or ideas does it evoke? Is there sacred text you could share from your personal reading or religious tradition that ties into those ideas? Perhaps a meditation, a scripture, an essay, a teaching, an article or something else altogether? I would love to read them all as you are such insightful, diverse bloggers! Your comments inspire me, big or small! Hope you have an inspiring day...

Patience & Miracles

photo by Bret Arnett
"Each time I walk with Abraham and Isaac on the road to Mount Moriah, I weep, knowing that Abraham does not know that there will be an angel and a ram in the thicket at the end of the journey. We are each in the middle of our earthly path, and we don’t know the rest of our own stories. But we, as Abraham, are blessed with miracles."

Susan W. Tanner

Grace

I feel like I have been reading about so many tragedies on blogs in the past little bit, so many losses and deaths. This is a time when within my own family we are facing plenty of struggles of our own...cancer, fertility issues, custody difficulties, rheumatoid arthritis, unhealed hurt feelings....


I find myself asking, what do I have faith in in the midst of uncertain times? What guides me through my troubles? I have swung the pendulum in my ideas about faith from believing that if I have enough faith, healing will occur exactly as I want it to.....to hoping and praying that if I have enough faith I can trust that I will be ok, and even joyous, whatever the circumstances.

Whatever the circumstances...I believe that mortality, this sojourn here from birth to death, will always have thorns and thistles...things that crop up all their own, simply because we are on this planet. Yet, I also believe that we somehow knew this before coming here, knew it would be part of the experience and agreed to it wholeheartedly because this existence is about becoming, and it is these struggles that will most help us become more compassionate, more humble, more grateful, more aware of what matters most, more connected to the divine.

I believe that there IS access to divinity in our lives if we seek it.

In a recent yoga class, the focus was on grace and continuing to open our hearts to the heavens. That is my prayer today....that if I lift my heart to heaven, it will be held by grace. Please, today, lift your own heart and say a prayer for grace, grace for those you love, for yourself, for those you are grateful for, for those you know who are struggling and perhaps for me and my family. May all of us (including you!) be blessed.

Breathing out

There is a beautiful park near my apartment where I like to go walking. I particularly love the Heather Garden, with its ever-changing flowers. As I came into the garden today, a new flower caught my eye. (I love to see what I can still identify 10 years after my college botany class and spring jobs in a local nursery.) I didn't know this one...the flower looked familiar, but it didn't quite fit anything I could think of exactly. I thought to myself, "I wonder what this is. Maybe I can ask one or the gardeners or look it up online." As I turned, there was a man watching me, who, when I looked at him, said, "It's Phlox. But an unusual variety."


I found myself amazed that within moments of me breathing out my desire to know what the flower was, there was someone giving me the answer. How did he know the question in my mind? If I had never looked at him standing just across the path, I would have missed the immediately accessible answer to my question. I wonder how often the Divine is right there putting in place our answers as soon as we breathe out our requests. Perhaps we just need open our eyes to see them.


Last night I went out to dinner with a good friend. We ended up talking about the things we have felt, through spiritual ways are coming to us "in due time". After having this morning's question answered so surprisingly quickly, I found myself thinking about these other big life things I long for and have asked God for. What if the answers to these desires were equally immediate, having already been put into action...they just take longer to come to fruition? I began imagining flurries of angels preparing me with what I will need to receive those desires and succeed with them. Perhaps the way you might be assisted in preparing for a great journey.... "Here, pack this!", "Learn this", "You'll need this much later, but it's important!", "Practice this now" and "Here's your ticket" ... all with a great activity and urgency. If as soon as I said, "I want to go to Alaska," all around me people began preparing me and setting in action the trip, I wouldn't doubt the reality of the journey just because the departure date wasn't today.

Galatians 6:8: "...he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." What if I trusted the Spirit a bit more? Looking up to see how the answer is actually coming now? Would I see it? Would I feel Spirit guiding my actions? Would I sense a divine readiness to respond and guide and help, right now?


So for today, I am going to see about opening my heart up to the Spirit a bit more. Perhaps, rather than feeling like I am in a holding pattern for the things I want most, I can discover the ways the Divine provides answers and guidance right beside me to prepare me for those very things. I can trust that the answer is coming and it is coming now. And I will keep breathing out my desires to the heavens.

All the Phlox photos are from Gertrudsters flickr site under this creative license. Aren't they beautiful???