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Practical faith
Forget about the magic and miracles, just stay, breath, and get as comfortable as you can.
There are days when I feel the spirit of God moving within me, nights when I hear my guides and ancestors speaking to me. Then, there are days when I feel like God, guides, ancestors, Buddha, Jesus and all the other denizens of the spiritual realm are about as real as the Easter Bunny. And that’s OK. I feel wonderful when I’m brimming with faith and see magic in all of life. But I’m also learning to accept the days when I do not believe, the days when I have zero trust and confidence that God or the universe has got my back.
I grew up Catholic but refused the sacrament of confirmation (where you receive the Holy Spirit and commit to Christian life) at fourteen. My mom told me it was one of the saddest days of her life. Now that I’m entering the second half of life, I understand why this saddened her. She knew: life is difficult and faith is useful in helping a person hang on when the going gets rough. For many, faith — complete, blind trust (in religion, in ghosts, UFOs, or simply that a loved one will come home at the end of the day) is the only way we can access hope in hopeless situations.
In my teens, I was into “Fate” magazine, Ouija boards, fairies, crystals, Wicca, Tarot cards and divination. Later in life, I explored New Ageism, Buddhism, Sufism, Hinduism, Tantric…
