An old high school friend said one of my articles, “Reflections on Relationships,” told him of my life-long spiritual journey. “When did I begin,” he asked. Then, with humor, he added, “I hope not in high school when I was only concerned with hormones and sports.”
That gave me a chuckle, and it also made me wonder about when my journey did begin. He’s right, I thought. It’s been a life-long journey. Even as a young child I watched the stars wondering of their mystery and the unknown love I felt protected and filled me.
There have been watershed moments, times of purposeful dedication and purposely accepting the call to my serve my higher self. There have been times of knowingly jumping off the cliff into the abyss and times of great dedication and devotion. Have I lived my life in quiet contemplation and meditation? At times, yes, but…
I believe the spiritual journey asks more of us than we think we have to give and often I have banged and barged my way through life often paying a terrible price for my foolishness. Yet at other times I’ve experienced such grace I felt I could not endure for it burned away all that was unlike itself and there is an agony in that to the human being who, by our very nature, tends to cling to the familiar while our souls cry out for the adventure.
I am quieted and awed by my adventure and the movement within it even in the moments of fear. When I most want to curl up I am pried open and forced to lay awake my arms and legs and my very being stretched wide to the limits until that terrible storm that whips across my heart is stilled, and I am at peace once more. Why then, you may ask, would any human being take such a journey, and I answer, “Because we are human and it is the human experience to remember the truth of who we are—the spiritual being having the gamut of the human adventure in all its glory and gore.
And in the end, in the end, some say, we shall all return to enfold ourselves back into the Godhead, once again become part of Prime Spirit, evolving forever, washing us all clean of pain until there is only a love so profound and perfect we only glimpse for the slightest of seconds its depth while here on Earth.
Is that then what we strive for? To reach our original home and never leave. Perhaps. But then again, perhaps we only reach there to leave again. After all, who can avoid the pull of the adventure whether it be the thrill of the open road or the unknown destination of a life around the next curve…or live…or galaxy…or next dimension.
When did I begin my spiritual journey? Have I not always been on it? Did I not come into this life already on this spiritual journey? Is this not true of all of us whether in high school where we were concerned with hormones and sports or with the mystery of the stars?