...But Not My Way

People seemed to view my last post as sad. As if I was giving up on something important. Honestly, that’s not what I was feeling when I wrote it. Mostly, I was feeling anger at what religion has wrought in our world, both now and in the past. So much strife in the Middle East, in Africa, in the Baltics, even here on our own shores can be attributed directly to clashes between faiths. What’s the point? Why do we feel we have to beat each other to death with our personal perceptions of God? Why is it SO important, above all, to belong to the group that has all the answers?

I’ve not completely thrown over the concept of spirituality. I’ve simply come to the conclusion that organized religion, for the most part, has it all wrong. There is a Creator, and we human beings are tied to It, as all creation is. Most major religions assign man dominion over the rest of creation. Perhaps that is their primary mistake. Perhaps if we realized that we are simply a part of the whole, no better nor worse than any other product of the Creator’s hand, we could understand and fulfill our purpose here, rather than constantly being the force of destruction, conflict, and death.

Religion was created, I think, as a tool to identify and refine our relationship to the Creator. But, like any tool in the hands of man, it can be, and has been, used for great good or monstrous evil. And we have a tendency to lean too heavily toward the evil… Our own lust for power—over anything, over everything—drags us down. Why can we not leave the power in the hands of the Creator where it belongs?

My dear friend Jackie, who has lately embarked upon an amazing spiritual journey of her own,  wrote this prayer for me. It is such a beautiful gift. It touched my heart in a deep and special way. Thank you, my friend!