Perspectives

It wasn't until about ten years ago that I took this phrase seriously and applied it to my life, and when an ending in anything comes about I now look forward to the "new beginning." It also was a time I decided that I would worry about things that I really have no control over, let come what may.

Usually when I think of rhythm and movement I think of dancing and music. But I am reminded that it can be something more mundane, too. I have a lot of trees in my front yard and when it's rainy or stormy, a lot of the leaves end up on my covered front porch.  While sweeping the leaves off of it, I always remember how when I was a little girl, visiting my grandmother's house in Asheville, all the ladies in all the houses on her street would go out every morning (maybe not in winter but in spring, summer, and fall anyway) and sweep their porches. It was part of their daily ritual, kind of like they were fixing up their house to be welcoming and clean and neighborly for anyone who might drop in that day. The houses on that street are close together, so the women would talk to each other, too, some of them related to one another, some just long-time friends. It was a close-knit and comfortable, happy neighborhood, and the daily rituals that went on around there made me feel secure (by the way those houses are in a neighborhood that has been newly revitalized and remodeled - I wonder if their new owners will ever experience that same sense of closeness that existed a long time ago).

Let me say first that I don't really pray any more, not in the traditional meaning of the word, not begging or pleading; I don't believe there's a human-like God "up there" to pray to. I do say “thank you” to the Universe sometimes. And when I feel kind of desperate I have even “flung a prayer” out to the Universe without any real expectations, more of an affirmation, a thinking out loud. I do believe in God, maybe not exactly like Thomas Paine did, but I think God "is" the energy that runs through the universe, that connects us with each other and our world, that births us, nourishes us, houses us, and takes us in at our death as a different part of itself, the "I am," the beingness.  

I consider myself to be a fairly spiritual Deist, but I have always considered my spirituality to be a private matter. I have not talked about it or displayed it. For me, spirituality is a personal issue. I don’t believe that it can apply to others; that is, while others can be individually spiritual as well, my spirituality does not affect them, and theirs does not affect me. My spirituality is mine and mine alone.

I awoke to the sound of my oldest son getting ready to leave for work. 5 am. Not being able to fall back to sleep, I decided to get up and start the baking of my Grandmother's coffeecake recipe. Each time I bake this bread, there is a lot of time for reflection. Coming to mind was a passage from a book that I recently read, "The Prophet" (more of a spiritual book than anything else) and how I have always identified with it even before ever reading the book. I have always thought that when you cook for you loved ones or anybody else for that matter, you should do it from the heart and because you want to, not because you have to. In this way, it seems that all turns out well.
Here's the passage: "For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine."
Then I thought how this simple passage of thought could be applied to any number of ways in how we live, interact and treat people in our daily lives.

Welcome to a new Renaissance, a rebirth of spiritual reasoning. Just as the Renaissance represented a cultural reawakening for Europe, we are experiencing a rebirth of the spirit in the Communication Age. Ours is a humanist revival, a celebration of our humanity as we watch the influence of centuries of organized religion wane in the civilized world. Science is in the ascendency. We invite reason and rationality to hold us firmly in their grip. We are reexamining our relationship with God. While in many ways mankind is more secular, interest in religion has not really diminished. Many of us still believe in God, but not the God of Abraham. Welcome to the Age of Unified Deism.

In pre-digital times, people used to keep photographs in albums. As I was growing up, the albums were a dreaded part of the routine whenever anyone came home to visit. I remember cringing as Mum unfurled the pages with the most embarrassing, sometimes even downright ugly representations of me as a child. Of course, mixed in with them were quaint similes of innocence, poignant reminders of lost youth and long forgotten friendships and symbols of the rites of passage indicating the inexorable march of time and the inevitable erasure of infantile purity.

We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear dark and frowning.

When I hear Atheists under major attack, not for disbelieving in God, but for opposing religion or promoting their views, some instinct inside of me jumps to their defense. Today is the first time, however, when I have felt that I am truly siding with Atheism in the ongoing war for the hearts and minds of humanity.