"Vortex at Cathedral Rock, Sedona, Arizona" (c) 2010 Stu Jenks
Those of you who have read my essays over the years may think I’m a very Woo Woo kind of guy. Sometimes I talk to trees and I hear their voices. On occasion, I feel the presence of dead relatives and even hear them speak. I’ve had spontaneous visions of past lives. I pray often throughout the day and quiet my mind through short yet powerful meditations. My visits into the nocturnal desert shake my core in a Godly-sort-of-way. But I’m not nearly as Woo Woo as you might think.
I don’t believe that I’m special in God’s eyes. I don’t magically believe that through my spiritual practices, harm will flee from me and light will always come. I’m just awake enough to avoid The Bad Guys. I don’t believe there is any Secret to prosperity. I believe success is a combination of hard work, good luck, what part of the planet you were born on, and what race, class and sex you happen to be. I don’t believe that I’m one of the Chosen Ones. I believe my closeness to God comes from my heart journeying into an often poor and despairing world, giving as I can, but not from any sense of religious entitlement from having sat on the lap of God or from a condescending pity for those less fortunate. It just feels good to give. I don’t believe that praying in a cathedral or making a stack of stones will cure me of cancer, cause my mother to not die a painful death, or bring back a past lover I still miss. I believe that Life is a wonderful, painful thing, and that prayer is about me getting right with The World, not God doing right by me.
At one time, I thought God was a gumball machine: I put in the coin of prayer; I get back what I want. Those beliefs seem so much like those of a scared child now. I’m not in Spiritual High School yet (I’m still too much of a know-it-all.), but I do feel like I’m currently enrolled in God’s Middle School.
But what does make me more Woo Woo than most is that I do believe if you go to a place, anyplace, be it a church in a square or a stream near a mountain, and you come with strong and focused intent to be closer to God, to Humans, and to All There Is, you will find a power of Love and Light there beyond what you would expect. You will be spiritually surprised. But it comes from the intent, not the place. Revelations can visit any of us at any time, whether we are surrounded by centuries-old stained glass at Notre Dame in Paris, or the weeks-old stench of piss and grease in the alley behind my favorite grill in Tucson.
It’s about intent. Your desire to Give. Your willingness to Love. Your ability to Forgive.
So stack your river stones high, metaphysicians of Sedona. Let the Woo Woo out. But know what you will most likely receive will be the knowledge that you are OK just the way you are. And from this new found wisdom, hopefully you will return to your loved ones in the village, bringing a grounded spiritual practice of Giving, Loving, and Forgiving.
Chances are very slim that God/Goddess/All-There-Is will give you a million bucks.
You’ll just feel like a million bucks.
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