Reality
Creeps In
“ Wisdom
is not gained by knowing what is right. Wisdom it gained by
practicing what is right, and then noticing what happens when that
practice succeeds and when it fails.”
Barbara
Brown Taylor
I have been wrestling for
several years with whether to stay in my house as I age, or to sell it
and buy something smaller. I've done every sort of contortion of
planning, come up with a number of possibilities for restructuring,
laid awake nights trying to figure out the money aspect. What I
haven't done is the face-to-face meeting with experienced people who
could actually give me some guidance on what would work—realtor and
banker, for instance. There is some insecurity within me that holds
me back from taking on an adult role when it comes to finances and
property. I think it has to do with being a Southern woman, one who
was never supposed to “worry her pretty little head” with such
matters. But the reality of my situation is this: I am a woman, and I
have this good house, and I need to plan for my later years right
now. Sometimes moving off square one is the most difficult task on
earth. It's high time for the maiden in me to grow up and take on all
the responsibilities of adulthood.
Living a spiritual life
is similar. It could be that we've been practicing a particular
religion for our entire lives without giving it much thought. This is
the church/temple I grew up in, and it doesn't tax me. I can just sit
my butt in a pew every Sabbath, listen to a sermon that I won't
remember five minutes later, hand over a bit of money, and “Voila!”
I've fulfilled my obligation to my Maker. If I'm in a mega-church, I
can probably go down to the Starbucks on the main floor and have a
latte afterward. Job done. Why rock the boat, right? Why start asking
all those scary questions about what my soul truly longs for? So what
if I have niggling doubts; what if there's an itch I can't seem to
scratch. I have this stable setting, I know what to expect, and I am
willing to spend this one precious life in rote behavior because it's
easier and I don't have to work at it.
See how this relates to
the realtor-banker conundrum? It's about growing-up spiritually.
It's about taking responsibility for our soul's life. And, it's about
helping humanity to evolve spiritually. We all have a role to play in
that, and when enough of us grow-up in spirit, our world will look
entirely different from the way it looks today. It's not about
practicing a religion, regardless of what that religion may be. It's
about relating honestly and deeply to one's own soul and then
noticing how life changes when we do.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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