There are times when I love to go walking around everyone else's ideas. I love plinking through the blogrolls of Religion and Spirituality here. While it may be clear what makes a "Food Blogger" post in the Food Category, it is not always so clear what draws a BlogHer to the Religion and Spirituality Category. This is delightful, and makes for a wonderfully diverse read. I have just spent hours trying to be orderly about my perusal. Happily, I have failed. It has been a wander that has made hours vanish.
I've been so impressed with the average everyday BlogHer, who in recounting her everyday events, does so with grace, talent and thoughtfulness. Women are in this category whose lives may not be anything like yours or mine -- which is wonderful. See and understand the world through the heart of a writing woman who differs from you by exploring some of the blogs below -- or by doing your own happy ramble through the category.
Lizzie at Dusty Frame, a conservative Christian, talks about the feelings she had when her husband was in prison.
When things for me were at their very worst, I remember walking through the grocery store. It felt surreal to see people living normal lives, while I walked through the store barely able to keep from sobbing.
I thought, “No one would ever know what I’m dealing with.”
It’s a reminder to me that people walk around this world every day carrying burdens that are huge. Their sobs are barely contained under a thin layer that looks like a smile–a layer that looks like “normal”. No one can tell what they’re dealing with.That’s why we need to be on the lookout for opportunities to serve and minister. How do you know that the person you show kindness to or speak a blessing to isn’t a person who desperately needs it at that moment?
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Nancy at Affirming Spirit talks about ghow she believes the way we think about God or a Higher Power shapes our lives.
Ultimately, how we see our connection to God or Divine Source or the Quantum Matrix is an indicator of how our life experiences will play out. If we feel we are at the mercy of the higher power in our life, we often feel helpless, fearful, and that we have no control over our daily experiences. We’ll feel that someone else always had full control and we must tolerate whatever comes to pass. Folks who feel this way have thoughts and prayers that resemble begging (please, please, puleeeeeeeeez!!!), tend to be fearful that they won’t be heard (by others and by their higher power), and rarely expect their needs to be met by anyone—let alone their higher power.
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Adventures on the Journey by Idara is a very interesting blog in which she discusses the spirituality of self-empowerment.
I celebrated my birthday the other day- and as the case would be for someone like me- "monkey mind" is in full swing; surveying the landscape of my life, wondering how I have gotten from Point A to the inauguration of my fourth decade here on Earth. I am attempting to fully wrap my head around the idea that my decisions I have made have brought me to where I am today. I know this intellectually; but really knowing this and "owning it" requires a bit of backbone, and a self-empowered one at that.
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In All Considering, Katinka speaks of renunciation and has some fascinating things to say about its application. Here is a taste:
Renunciation is a strange ideal. It’s the ideal of voluntary poverty. Voluntary poverty only means something when there is riches to begin with. One admires the Buddha for wandering through what’s now Nepal and Northern India, not so much because he was poor, but because he left behind riches. If he hadn’t been rich to begin with, he’d have merely been a vagrant.
The American dream is sort of the opposite. It starts with poverty, ideally after immigration, and ends in riches, after hard work.
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Tess, at Anchors and Masts blogs about activating her artistic side later in life, and discovering new paths of awareness.
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Nina Amir loves gardening, and compares her garden with the lapse in her Jewish spiritual practice:
Like any garden that goes untended, the garden of my soul also has begun to grow weeds and the plants have begun to die. I’ve forgotten some of the lessons I once knew, and bad habits, like gophers, have begun to live there and kill off the good habits. This has happened because I’m not paying attention; I’m not focusing on keeping the garden healthy and thriving.
It’s time for me to make time to weed, till, fertilize, plant, water, prune the garden of my soul. It’s time for me to take time — make time — for the spiritual side of my life once again.
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The Bible Belt Balabusta writes about being Jewish in a part of the country where most people are not. In this entry she describes a typical dining experience with a waiter on a Sunday:
“So what church you go to?” is a conversational opener I hear quite a bit. ... This is where I am told my religion is, well, the one that “killed Christ,” that was triumphed by another religion 2,000 years ago. This is where I hear the personal stories of salvation. This is where I have been told I am going to hell. This happens a lot. At least it does to me.
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Miriam, in "Black Fire, White Fire" discusses her life in Israel as a African American woman who has converted to Judaism. Fascinating!
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Black Oaks Daughter talks about turning her life around, and making the needful physical and spiritual changes she needs to in order to accomplish that.
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Blisschick describes a recent Dave Brubeck Concert. (for those among you who by some odd quirk of horrible fate do not recognize the name -- click here.)
Dave Brubeck, a man who changed jazz and all of music, had only played the piano once in the past two months due to illness. We were lucky to see him. We may have been witnessing one of his last concerts.
As he came out, I worried. Were we to see a legend diminished? Would it feel...embarrassing?
Then his fingers touched the keys and he took us away from the material world and into the magical mystery that is music as composed and played by genius.
Far from seeing his powers diminished, I was witnessing a man fully engaged in his gift, radiating joy and generosity. A man free of his ego and immersed in Grace.
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See what I mean? From the struggle of a prisoner's wife to the discoveries of a convert to Judaism who is African American and living in Israel, women are on the move spiritually -- thinking, feeling, refining, empowering and learning. And in our wonderful collection of BlogHers, teaching us all as well. Thanks, BlogHers!
Brava!
Time's Fool is where you can also find Mata H, CE for Religion and Spirituality.
