I need your thoughts again--this time on Spirituality

[catherine]

My next chapter will be spirituality (in a very broad sense) and the role it has in a good, simple slow life.

My questions are:

1. What does "spirituality" mean to you? (Again--very broad interpretation, even if you are an atheist, you may have a sense of awe that you would think of as spiritual, or you may have a spiritual connection with nature.)
2. How does spirituality manifest itself in your life?
3. How do you exercise your spiritual muscles and/or practice your religion
4. Tell me about your spiritual journey. How were you influenced by family; at what points did you change your thinking or the way you practice?
5. Are you still seeking in any way, or are you comfortable with where you've landed?

Thank you! Your input so far has been super helpful in my writing project.

[happystuff]

Wow! Talk about a loaded set of questions! lol. I wouldn't know where to begin! And I certainly don't know where - if ever - it will end. (spirituality, that is)

Need to think about this.

[catherine]

Wow! Talk about a loaded set of questions! lol. I wouldn't know where to begin! And I certainly don't know where - if ever - it will end. (spirituality, that is)

Need to think about this.

Yes, I'd love to hear your perspectives, happystuff!

[bae]

1: For me, "spirituality" means a search for meaning and connection to something larger than myself. Something that transcends the individual, and that is enduring.

2: At present, by design, I live a calm life in a forest, and spend much of my time in the forest and along the shoreline and on the ocean. I observe and interact on a regular basis with individual animals that share this ecosystem. I have a long-standing relationship with some ravens here, who accompany me on my walks quite often. "Frank" the seagull will hop along beside me on the beach (he is an outcast who lives alone, isolated from the flock here). "Jonathan" is a completely dorky blue heron, who remains separate from the other ~2 dozen herons that dwell beside another beach, and he now lets me walk right up to him and chat. I can't even count the deer I can individually identify, many of them will stand beside me as I am clearing underbrush from around my house (for fire protection) and happily chomp away on the material I am bringing within reach for them, though I could just as easily bean them on the head with my axe and have dinner... I can identify most of the resident Orca whales here by sight, and when I am out on the water in various boats, the same handful of young ones will come over from the pod and hang out around my boat for half an hour or so - clearly they identify the boat, and enjoy playing with it.

3: See above. Mostly be remaining calm, observant, and spending as much time in nature as I can.

4: I was raised Catholic. That ended in a disaster involving two factors:

- my Father realizing he was gay, and there was no place in the Church for him
- one of our local priests being quite vile in their behaviour towards young boys in the Church, including myself. I was an altar boy... If I were not a relatively kind and forgiving person, well, there'd be a lot fewer Catholic churches around...

I escaped from Catholicism into Taoism, as, entirely by chance, I found a Chinese martial artist teaching in the park near my home in the state/city we moved to after the Catholic Thing blew up. I learned a Taoist martial art from him, and practice it daily to this very day. I found the spiritual concepts of Taoism quite soothing.

Once I moved up here to this remote forested island, I moved more into my current phase. I've sort of gotten back in touch with the pre-Christian religious practices of my northern European ancestors over the years, and if I have to tell anyone a name for my religion, I simply say "pagan". I have some various items of early Germanic religion that I use as our family "gods". It is not entirely by accident that my daughter grew up to be a professor of Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celtic studies...

5: Every day is a new adventure. I think you always have to be open to new inspiration.

[catherine]

Thank you, bae. This is great.

[iris lilies]

Bae, your father missed the obvious place for him in the Catholic Church: the priesthood.

/sarcasm

[littlebittybobby]

okay----i tell you what----my thoughts are on how to make a good dollar on putting food on the table of every man, woman, and child on the planet. yup. so, what i had in mind, was ta raise the bar in IWAH, the Meat State, acquire some farm ground wsaaaay out in the middle o' nowhere, build Gi-normous sheds capped with tin, and raise Capybaras for MEAT. (see photo). I'm talking maybe 10 or 15 thousand head o' Capybara finished and sent to slaughter per shed per year. Yup. Besides food on the table, this will provide JOBS for hard-working IWANS. Yup. Plus money in my pocket. Hope that helps you some. Yup.

2025-07-10 (2).jpg

[flowerseverywhere]

Bae, your father missed the obvious place for him in the Catholic Church: the priesthood.

/sarcasm

gay does not mean pedophile

[ToomuchStuff]

No gay and pedo are not the same things, but there is a very famous interview/debate between a gay priest and Monty Python when the life of Brian came out (the priest did not).

[iris lilies]

gay does not mean pedophile

Of course it doesn’t, but there are a lot of gay priests. They aren’t supposed to be, but they are.