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What is spirituality?
Everyone has a spiritual dimension – and for every one it's different.
Learning what is spiritual for us is an important part of human living.
Our spirituality is something to be explored; it changes, grows and unfolds throughout our life time.
It can be likened to a collage of thoughts, beliefs,
experiences, memories and practices
It can be expressed in a million ways – and for some people it
involves practising a particular religion
Spirituality is both 'special' and 'ordinary'.
Spirituality is for me a matter of experiencing myself as part of all
creation and of feeling the divine working on and through my soul -
the deepest part of my being. I link this sense of the divine with the
better part of me and such spiritual experiencing changes me for the
better however much I fall short of all that I could be. Such moments
are often tinged with a need and an acceptance of forgiveness both of
myself and of others. It is as if in those moments I remember who I
truly am but at other times mostly only acknowledge to myself the
surface me.
The net effect of these experiences over time seems to be that of
walking more softly on the earth both in how I treat the earth and its
inhabitants, as if by feeling spiritually nurtured I have less need of
other people and of possessions. This active experiencing of
spirituality comes to me not by rote or prayerful formula but by
Grace, some times alone, especially in nature although also in sacred
sites but also in acts of worship whether of my own denomination of
Quakers in other Christian settings but also in non Christian
contexts. It is sometimes available to me in a low key way when I am
working.
These moments are usually quite short lived for me but their effects
last for some time, in such moments I am truly at peace and I remember
that peace afterwards even if I do no longer feel it.
I am not that unusual in experiencing my spirituality in this way.
David Hay in his researches into religious experience suggests that
over 3/4 of us have such experiences but we do not always talk about
them. My own spiritual journey, with many years in the spiritual
desert has eventually led me to a faith group where such experiencing
is encouraged, talked about and integrated into every life.
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