Sacred Life Sunday ~ Eclectic Mysticism

A lovely church in Santorini, Greece

It's Easter Sunday and I'm celebrating the holiday by partaking in two things I love; eating chocolate and expressing my thoughts.  I think Jesus would appreciate my ways of celebrating a day that is typically devoted to him.  Even though I've never spent an Easter Sunday in church and I don't consider myself a Christian, I'm all for honoring the life of a man whom I think was an amazing teacher and healer.

I have to admit I've always felt 'out of place' when it comes to religion.  While I was growing up, my best friend's grandmother use to preach to us about God and the Devil and would always issue a stern warning everytime she heard rock music blaring from our a.m. radio. We were surely going to "burn in hell" if we kept listening to that blasphemous noise.  I remember on more than one occasion running home crying and asking my Mom all sorts of questions to ease my fears of being "a bad girl in God's eyes."  She always did her best to assuage my concerns and to assure me that God loved me no matter what.  I believed my Mom more so than Earlene's grandmother, but for several years I couldn't help but think there was something wrong with me because 1) I wasn't a Christian and 2) I did things I considered a lot worse than listening to rock music.

Fast forward many, many years...even though I'd been exposed at an earlier age to a religious philosophy that made me feel connected to something greater than myself for probably the first time, it wasn't until I was in college that I began an exploration into my own sense of spirit.  It wasn't so much that I began questioning the existence of God.  It was more questioning my own beliefs and discovering I wasn't so much looking for answers, but wanting to find peace within myself.

Fast forward a few more years...through a series of serendipitious events I went to a church in Portland, Oregon and after attending several services, I felt like I'd found a place not only where "my peeps" were but where I could worship and honor God the way I wanted to as opposed to being told by someone else how I was supposed to.  I was a member of that church for three years and there are definitely times when I miss it, but there were two other things that happened in my life back in 2001 that changed the way I view church and religion in general.  I moved to the beach and I started to dance.

I no longer needed to sit in a quiet, high-ceilinged space with stained-glass windows listening to someone speak eloquent words to feel a connection to the sacred.  My church was now the wide-expanse of sand, sea and sky and my religion was revealed by moving my body.  For the last eight years, dancing on the beach has become my spiritual sanctuary and I'm now closer to God than I ever have been.  I am an eclectic mystic and were it a religion, it would be the perfect one for me.

Comments

[Beverly Keaton Smith]

Beautiful post Lisa. I really get where you are coming from and what you are saying...with love, Beverly

[patti]

That's just great - an eclectic mystic :) and dancing to connect with your spirit! I haven't 'really' danced in years and am usually quite self conscious. I like being physical though and generally do Yoga and walk on the beach lots too. Maybe dancing would be good for me also. Time to let go some inhibitions!

[Monique]

I'm so glad that you found a way to connect to the spirit and heartbeat of life and religion.

Growing up I always felt a little guilty about my interest in other cultures and religions (and how I REFUSED to believe that the peaceful Budists, Muslims, Hindus, Athethists, etc..would not be loved by God or make it into Heaven just because they weren't Christian). What helped me understand my own feelings--which always seemed a lot more loving and inclusive than most sermons I heard--was Joseph Campbell's book "The Power of Myth"...in which he said "The problem with most religions in our world is that people take them as prose instead of poetry"...they focus so much on the individual words that they lose sight of the meaning...

I think dance is one of the best ways to connect to the heartbeat of our world and all the people in it. Any time we can release ourselves into such joy and freedom the world can only improve!

Keep dancing!!! And say hi to the ocean for me if you would ;)

[Monique]

I'm so glad that you found a way to connect to the spirit and heartbeat of life and religion.

Growing up I always felt a little guilty about my interest in other cultures and religions (and how I REFUSED to believe that the peaceful Budists, Muslims, Hindus, Athethists, etc..would not be loved by God or make it into Heaven just because they weren't Christian). What helped me understand my own feelings--which always seemed a lot more loving and inclusive than most sermons I heard--was Joseph Campbell's book "The Power of Myth"...in which he said "The problem with most religions in our world is that people take them as prose instead of poetry"...they focus so much on the individual words that they lose sight of the meaning...

I think dance is one of the best ways to connect to the heartbeat of our world and all the people in it. Any time we can release ourselves into such joy and freedom the world can only improve!

Keep dancing!!! And say hi to the ocean for me if you would ;)