questions. It is the understanding that the world does not revolve around us but that we are just one tiny part of the glorious whole. I would not presume to tell you what or whom to believe in—that is your job to discover. Faith, like prayer, is a dialogue. It emanates from journeys and inquiries.
Finding faith isn’t something to be sanctimonious about, just like being a vegetarian doesn’t make you a better person. Just as soon as you start feeling a little bit smug and think you have done all the work and have faith all figured out, I promise you something will happen to rattle you to the core. You will be spiritually slammed into next week and knocked off your feet. If there are any rules to the game, that is rule number one. Faith is a constant and fluid challenge. The universe will never cease in testing our faith. It is part of the package, part of the plan. The harder we struggle against that, the more tests we are likely to encounter, or at least the harder they may appear to us. Finding your faith will make it just a bit more peaceful. Faith gives us more ingredients for our big ol’ humble pie—awe and acceptance.
At the beginning of her lovely book, Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott talks about her experience of finding faith:
My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew.
You will be held up and supported on your journey, sometimes in ways that might not make sense at the time. Tests of faith and courage provide us with strength for the next go-round of challenges. Roadblocks and traumas will also appear in every physical and emotional way, shape, or form. Faith asks that you whisper into the still, dark night, “Okay, I am listening. I’m pretty afraid, but I am listening.”
The initiation of movement is the leap of faith, the stepping into the fire, clutching onto an armful of fear that wonders if you might drown—enough fear to be aware—but a transcendence of that fear allows you to take the steps. We are momentarily alone and vulnerable spiritually, and this is a great challenge, but we must take this courageous flight in order to make a space for grace and transformation. It is when we must key in to our faith, not necessarily our beliefs but the essence of true faith, a knowing and at the same time not knowing. Initiation is spiritual thrill seeking in all its glory, an emotional risk taking. St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth-century theologian, writes beautifully about such experiences in high contemplation:
I entered into unknowing,
yet when I saw myself there,
without knowing where I was,
I understood great things;
I will not say what I felt
For I remained in unknowing
Transcending all know ledge
Faith is what gets us through and pushes us to the other side of the hard parts. Faith is electric and holds amazing energy if we choose to explore it. Try being the bird and sing into the darkness.
■ CONNECTION ■
Energy connects us to people and places and the universe. Connections can bring us peace and strength. Connections can reassure us that we belong somehow and somewhere. We become aware of our links to and part in the grandly textured physical and spiritual landscape. I imagine this may be one of the motivations for the surge in the number of people exploring alternative energy work like Reiki, polarity, cranial sacral, and other practices. We wonder how we fit in to the bigger picture and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. I don’t believe we need concrete answers, just glimmers and suggestions. In our technology-oriented world we are becoming more disconnected from one another and nature. We can’t be a champion of either unless we stay connected.
A person entering a room can dramatically influence the energy. Aren’t there people you know who just make you want to be around them, their energy is so warm and inviting? I will sometimes try to engage strangers with good energy in conversation, connect with them. The energy exchange feeds my spiritual curiosity and hunger and hopefully the other person’s, too. Sometimes, if I am receptive, it even brings clarity to something I’ve been struggling with. Remaining responsibly open to the good energy out there makes the universe seem full of wonder and all possibilities limitless. You may be surprised to suddenly meet someone who helps you find the answers you have been searching for. Come to expect it. There are no accidents, and people come into our lives because we have attracted them. They are here for a reason.
I am not advocating striking up conversations with absolutely everyone you encounter or forging relationships instantly. A meaningful connection can be as simple as smiling, opening your eyes, or listening. Beware of energy leeches in the world—the ones who latch on and suck you dry without replenishing your energy stores. If you allow them into your life, they will not leave until you not only ask them but believe yourself that is what you want. You won’t attract them into your life if your emotions and energy are clear and in line. Some seeker leeches don’t know that they do this, and others may be sly enough to know exactly what they are doing. All relationships in the universe are reciprocal. They may be lopsided at times, but the point is that they even out at some point. Your intuitive radar will speak to you about people as well as places, so make sure you pay attention. When you give all of yourself away to other people’s problems and energy requirements, not only is there nothing left for you, but you are hiding and denying yourself your own desires. Let your own light shine.
When we live consciously, we can recognize our own power as that given in connection with all things greater than ourselves. By being conscious in every sense and with every sense, we can create sacred space around us every day and everywhere. Creating sacred space grounds us in the present and assures us of our place in the world. Sacred spaces, the open moments, tiny cracks in the time continuum when we leave all spiritual, psychological, and sociological obstacles behind us, lower walls and invite abundance and wonder in. By recognizing and remembering joy, we create sacred spaces. Creating sacred spaces changes our relationship to the hour and the day, to ourselves, to others, and to the universe. We observe the extraordinary in the everyday and are humbled and reborn.
We create sacred space by inviting others in, letting down boundaries, and letting go of fear. Sacred space is created when we make eye contact with our fellow man and woman on the street, no longer strangers but fellow travelers we have invited into our immediate universe. It is connections between people, intimacy at its height, acknowledgment of another’s existence, bonding us together now in this time and place. Sacred space is that fleeting speck of worldly time and connection that exists between a father and daughter, as when my four-year-old niece suddenly stops walking to urgently whisper a secret into her father’s ear—fleeting in time but everlasting in spirit and connection.
AWAKENING SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS
Regina Sara Ryan describes in her fine book, The Woman Awake: Feminine Wisdom for Spiritual Life, her reaction to experiencing Janis Joplin perform for the first time, illustrating the power and glory of music from the soul:
When Janis sang the blues, she stabbed you with the suffering of humanity, and you felt your own suffering. I wept for completely selfish reasons. With each uninhibited rendering of song after song, I felt more acutely and bitterly my own inability and unwillingness to swing out, open up, “tell it like it is” in my art and work. I wept for my smallness of heart and for the thousand daily choices to make life comfortable rather than leave it somewhat raw, clumsy, open-ended and rife with possibility.
Connecting to dormant or hidden passions in our soul can give rise to great inspiration. We forget to look at what lies within and we forget how to awaken what is sleeping there. Music and dance and art are means to use to connect to parts of us that we don’t often reveal. Turn that car radio up high and sing at the top of your lungs. Dance with your partner in the kitchen before dinner tonight. Pull out photos from long ago and study the faces. Remember how you feel.
HONORING MEMORIES
Honoring memories by giving them space in your heart is another way of connecting. The tactile, the ephemeral, dreams, sounds, and aromas that transport us to other times, places, and planes of consciousness; they are the memories of those we have known, places we have been, adventures