#26 Religion v Spirituality

Sorry to have skipped out, but I needed a break.  Tomorrow starts NaNoWriMo and I will be incommunicado for the month of November as always.  So I thought I might bust these last few blog entries out today.

I have addressed my spiritual beliefs out here often enough.  I don't see any reason to belabor them.  But what I am going to write about for say, 5 minutes, is my opinion about religion v spirituality.  Did you see that word - OPINION?  Yeah, means I think this way, but no one else has to. 

Religion for me is more about identity and having a box to check on the form.  It's about a set of beliefs and a group of people who espouse those beliefs.  Spirituality for me is about choices.  The choice to live your life a certain way.  A way where every step you take on the planet is in line with and reflects those beliefs whatever they are.  Yours can be absolutely different than mine.  And as long as you don't want to make me believe what you believe, or otherwise impinge on my footsteps then have at it. 

I won't go to war for these beliefs.  I won't even argue them.  They are not law.  They evolve and change - a lot.  I borrow shamelessly from thinkers and traditions I like.  So what do I believe?

I believe we have a big brain.  We chould use it.  In fact, using it is sexy - me-owww

I believe that we are meant to be omnivorous.  Our guts are not that of either a carnivore or a vegetarian, but of an opportunistic omnivore.  That said, I believe that whatever we put into our mouths should be as clean and additive free as possible. 

I believe in recycling......everything.  Repurposing and not buying this that are overly packaged.  No matter how much I might want it. 

I believe that you and I, your dog, that rock, the sky everything I can see and many things I can't are connected intimately.  I could go into the physics of it, but really it's much more fun to discover on your own.

I believe I talk to God aka the Goddess aka Allah aka Yahweh aka Wakan Tanka aka Vishnu aka Odin aka......

I also believe I talk to my ancestors both near and remote.  I call them my peeps.

I believe the energy of our world can be flowed toward healing or toward injury.  Our choice. 

I believe words are our greatest gift to each other.  Use good words.  And use ALL the words you know dammit!!

I believe in strong coffee and beautiful chocolate in equal measure depending on my mood and the time of day. 

I believe in forgiveness - not because it's the 'right' thing to do, but because when you rock forgiveness it just FEELS GOOD!

I believe in my intuition - that it will tell me where to put my feet and how to move.  If I listen to that, why would  I listen to anyone who tells me that I am less than amazing?  Or that I don't know what I am doing? 

And my intuition tells me my 5 minutes is up.......sigh.....even though I had lots more I believes to say.