2 Questions

Who are we? 
and 
Why are we here?

Those are two questions that can seriously make your head hurt when you think about them too long (at least that’s how I feel). 

We all have narratives we’ve inherited to try and help make sense of those questions for us. Narratives that root and ground us in a story larger than ourselves. 

And sometimes the longer we live (and hopefully the wiser we become),
we can begin to feel that the narratives we’ve inherited aren’t inclusive enough...

or possibly they OVERemphasize certain aspects of our lives that no longer seem important 
while UNDERemphasizing others that suddenly now matter. 

I learned a pretty religious narrative of which I am extremely thankFULL,
but as I am now approaching age 40, I realize that my narrative needs to grow and expand to better include the beauty upon which I am continually stumbling in our world...
that old narrative that served me so well just isn’t roomy enough to include that which has been UNDERemphasized and I cannot possibly ignore.

I sense so much happening around the edges and just beneath the surface of life.
I feel a divine flow inviting me forward into GOODness.
It’s something I feel on a daily basis, and I feel challenged to allow my story to stretch and change and allow for more mystery.  

Perhaps you feel something similar...
that how you answer those two nagging questions needs some adjusting...
that the narrative that frames how we live and move and breathe needs some serious alterations. 

Maybe we need a new story from which to live... one that is bigger. 

What I’ve personally discovered is that I need a narrative that doesn’t limit or restrict what I consider to be spiritual.

Spirituality seems vitally important to us as a human race as we allow it to hold the mysteries of life and existence. Yet too often we push it off to another time and another place...
another dimension...
after this world.

I think we need to make spirituality earthy rather than heavenly...
let’s make it about here and now instead of elsewhere or later. 
Let’s embrace a story that invites us to view ALL that we are and ALL that we do as spiritual.

Here’s the story I am trying to ground myself to live from nowadays: 

We find ourselves in a story unfinished... an ongoing story... one still being written. So this story is moving forward. The author has written us into this story and invited us to also write... to create sub-stories that take us toward an ending "too good not be true." In other words, this is a GOOD story, and what we have been asked to co-author is more GOODness. That is how this story goes... that is the flow of it... that motion is what undergirds our entire existence... a divine flow of GOODness. We are being carried forward into love and joy and peace. Yes, we can resist the flow and even go against it at times, but ultimately, we are all headed somewhere... and that somewhere is exactly where the author intends to take us in this story. So step forward in the story... join the flow... be fully human and embrace your true self living into the purpose that you are here to write a story with your life that is GOOD. You are a part of the most amazing story and you are here to create more GOODness. 

So when you hear spirituality, think "SKIN, SOIL, SCHOOL, SENSES, STARS, SONGS, SUNSETS, STORIES and yes, even dirty, sweaty, smelly SOCKS"... like the ones we collected off your feet last time we were together to give away. Let’s ground ourselves in story that reveals the spirituality in even socks : ) 

Until next time friends, 

May you be rescued from a narrative that isn’t big enough, inclusive enough or beautiful enough. 

May you embrace the idea that spirituality is earthy. 

And may you know that as a student, insurance agent, laborer, business owner, bar tender, mother, shoe salesman, or ____________,  the work you do is spiritual...…because you are spiritual... socks are spiritual... ALL of this is spiritual.

Go now and tap into the divine flow that stretches, fills and guides us forward into more and more GOODness. ​