“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. “– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 20th Century mystic.
We have all heard variations of this quote. And, yet, here we are, forgetting again and again, that we are grace and dignity and goddesses in our own right. We stumble along with our body, frail and flawed, though it is, thinking body is all we really are. We forget, first, we are spirit. I do not mean to label Spirit as connotated by any religion. I am speaking universally. No one has the right to our spirit. It is ours, it is an energy that came into this world and we are an energy that fills the body shell we inhabit, and then, when we die, the body is discarded, and the energy that is our spirit, goes on.
I know about this energy because I sat holding my father’s hand as he passed. At the moment of his last breath, I felt an electrical charge leave his hand and go through me. I can only explain it as energy. It is said that creation held a certain amount of energy. When an energy force leaves, another comes to take its place. Native American philosophy speaks to such and I was taught of this. Our spirit is eternal and once created does not leave creation. There is much to think about when contemplating such.
We spend so much time worrying and fussing over body, mind, emotions and give little thought to spirit; the fourth quadrant of the Medicine Wheel. We are so living a physical body life in a physical world and the world is so fraught with so many problems, nevermind that we have raging emotions everywhere with walking a minefield of who we might insult in some way, that we get wrapped up in it all. Yes, some people go to church or read their scriptures, but sometimes that is separate from every day living, for the most part. Some use religion as a crutch and do not live as if they were sprit first. Heck, I am as guilty as everyone. But, as I age, I think I am getting it, finally. As my body wears down and causes all sorts of havoc that I could get wrapped up in body pain and forget about spirit pain I might have. I have been working the last couple of years at trying to find the spiritual way to live that does not skew out of balance. All four areas need balance: physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. All it takes is for a little, or big, drama to happen in my world and I am taken of course and get all involved in earthly matters, body matters, emotional matters and I am a medicine wheel with a flat tire thumping along trying to make things right in the physical world, emotional world.
We are not alone in this. We are globally reminded, every minute of every day, that we are earthly beings. And, through that clutter we hear some religion trying to own our soul. I was grateful to come to a sacred space where I need no middleman. I do not belong to any religion, but I do embody some of the good things that I gathered along the way from different ones. I kept what fit my soul and discarded the rest. I have developed a personal relationship with the Divine, and, yes, father and mother. (You know how kids get a “NO” from dad and they go to mother who is a soft touch? Well, I go directly to the source… a divine feminine.
Living a more spiritual life, to me, is when I am more compassionate, understanding, patient, forgiving. I recognize the connection of all things with me and me with all things. I believe we all have a spark of the divine in us and I work to nurture that in myself. I love the saying that says something about us all just walking each other home.
Here, come walk with me.
©Carol Desjarlais 4.2.23
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