continued from my examiner column . . .All spiritual traditions ask us to take a contemplative view, to pause, radically open; to move out of our limbic system, our reactive selves and pause in appreciation for Life. All contemplate it’s meaning and our purpose. As one who has experienced the mystic oneness of it all, fully aware of the luminosity of animating light and rushing praising wind, I delight in seeing gulls soaring on downdrafts and updrafts. They appear to be playing, attuning themselves. In touch with the magnetic field of earth, the subtleties of wind and weather, the birds see beyond RGB spectrum also in UV which guides their migration.
Looking through a microscope in high school I saw life, more aptly for me, Life. It was a deeply moving experience. Water . . . molecules. I looked out the industrial windows to see clouds- water . . . molecules, floating across the sky. I touched my skin and licked my lips. Full of water. Me, a particle field, an energetic body. What is this thing we call Life? Is it not the most amazing adventure ever? ‘Ms. Rodemann,’ the teacher’s voice broke through . . . ‘we are on the periodic table.’ ‘Yes indeed,’ I thought, tears welling up in my eyes, ‘we are the periodic table'.
I meditated aloud on this spiritual journey, how life takes us so many places before a denominational candidacy committee once; about the learning that takes place through the flow of experience, relationships, nature, momentous events, ups and downs . . . what a rich collection of meaning we share with others on this plane of existence. How precious it all is. As I sat in the hallway awaiting a decision, some members of the committee ripped my written piece and sharing; the door ajar. I had told of being carried in the arms of my theologian grandfather as a fussy toddler, out for a walk under the vast, starry sky at night. He told me God had created it all . . . and, me. This God lived in my heart, animated my being and everything else that lives, and one day I would re-join God. I was loved very much and it was love that connected all our existence forever. It was all a small child needed, secure, held in loving arms. Summoned into the room, though approved, I was handed another candidates’ ‘more appropriate response’, about sharing the story of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and this fallen world, as known through (particular denomination) church's teaching.
Spirituality opens thresholds of existential awareness and gives us permission to experience the freedom of God; freedom from our agendas, labeling and entrapments. Out of one-dimensional boxes, prescribed answers. We move to the places beyond what the mind can never know but the heart perceives. The flow of experience reveals the dichotomy of nothingness that is in fact Full Awareness, Full Presence, rich and enveloping. Breathe in- it is there; breathe out-it is everywhere. Like the trust-building camp game, where each child holds its body stiff and falls back to find the fall broken by the hands of fellow campers supporting and sustaining them . . . Let Go . . . and release yourself into the ‘God-ness’ of it all.
Looking through a microscope in high school I saw life, more aptly for me, Life. It was a deeply moving experience. Water . . . molecules. I looked out the industrial windows to see clouds- water . . . molecules, floating across the sky. I touched my skin and licked my lips. Full of water. Me, a particle field, an energetic body. What is this thing we call Life? Is it not the most amazing adventure ever? ‘Ms. Rodemann,’ the teacher’s voice broke through . . . ‘we are on the periodic table.’ ‘Yes indeed,’ I thought, tears welling up in my eyes, ‘we are the periodic table'.
I meditated aloud on this spiritual journey, how life takes us so many places before a denominational candidacy committee once; about the learning that takes place through the flow of experience, relationships, nature, momentous events, ups and downs . . . what a rich collection of meaning we share with others on this plane of existence. How precious it all is. As I sat in the hallway awaiting a decision, some members of the committee ripped my written piece and sharing; the door ajar. I had told of being carried in the arms of my theologian grandfather as a fussy toddler, out for a walk under the vast, starry sky at night. He told me God had created it all . . . and, me. This God lived in my heart, animated my being and everything else that lives, and one day I would re-join God. I was loved very much and it was love that connected all our existence forever. It was all a small child needed, secure, held in loving arms. Summoned into the room, though approved, I was handed another candidates’ ‘more appropriate response’, about sharing the story of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and this fallen world, as known through (particular denomination) church's teaching.
Spirituality opens thresholds of existential awareness and gives us permission to experience the freedom of God; freedom from our agendas, labeling and entrapments. Out of one-dimensional boxes, prescribed answers. We move to the places beyond what the mind can never know but the heart perceives. The flow of experience reveals the dichotomy of nothingness that is in fact Full Awareness, Full Presence, rich and enveloping. Breathe in- it is there; breathe out-it is everywhere. Like the trust-building camp game, where each child holds its body stiff and falls back to find the fall broken by the hands of fellow campers supporting and sustaining them . . . Let Go . . . and release yourself into the ‘God-ness’ of it all.
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