My physical body isn't seen in church on Sunday, but my mind and heart and soul are constantly trudging the spiritual path. Notice I say "spiritual" and not "religious." Religion is man-made. Spirituality is the inner self reaching out for, finding, and getting personally acquainted with our Creator.
My retirement days are spent in hours of contemplation, study, and deep thinking, and writing. My inborn curiosity drives me sometimes to distraction, and I think I should put a hood over my head and call myself a monk. My contemplations and reading and searching carry heavy weight, but they also lighten my heart and afford me peace of mind. That's spirituality.
I've been blessed by veering off my parental religious path and learning about other spiritual thinking and practices. If we don't know something about other spiritual paths, how do we know we're on the right one? Just because someone told us so, doesn't make it so.
Yesterday I went downstairs to the bookshelf where I keep the books I won't part with. On the top shelf was the "Encyclopedia of Spirituality," information and inspiration to transform your life. Right there I found my afternoon entertainment, and I did one of my back to front scans of its pages. Why I always look at a book from the back to front is something I've not understood about myself. It's one of the things that identify me, I guess. It comes naturally.
My readers know that I love quotations. When I come across words that were written by a person of influence, it punctuates the fact that I'm not the only one who thinks that way. Quotations are powerful thought magnets, and they have the ability to stick with us.
"I looked for Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there.
I went to Hindu temples and shrines -- but nothing.
I visited the Ka'aba in Mecca, I did not find Him.
Finally, I peered into my own heart.
There, and nowhere else, was His home."
-Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Sufi
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