Nurture Your Spirituality

One of the most 'rewarding' times in my life was a school term in secondary school. I must have been about 12 or 13 and I really hated school.

It was the first time I had ever been away from home and I was finding it hard to cope with looking after myself, studying to be an A student and dodging the wrath of the older students who seemed to make it their life's work to be as mean as possible to their juniors.

This school term I refer to, I had decided to become a fully committed christian. Born-again, spirit filled and speaking in tongues. It was the 'in-thing' then and scores of students could be seen clutching bibles in addition to their text-books everywhere they went.

One of the maxims I took to heart that school term was, "In all things, give thanks". And I did.

When I was doing hard manual labor cutting grass and/or washing the dormitory toilets, I gave thanks.

When I was being wailed upon by the House Captain with a leather belt for not cleaning the toilet properly, I gave thanks.

When I missed lunch because I was recleaning the toilet, I gave thanks.

When I broke my pair of glasses rushing to the dining room for supper because I was so damn hungry, I gave thanks.

I gave thanks and believed God was watching over me and whatever happened was all part of the Master plan. And that term seemed to fly past. I was always at peace and nothing seemed to rattle me. When good things DID happen to me, it was validation that God had just been testing me previously to make sure that I was worthy of the really good things that did happen to me.

I think I hit puberty the term after that and started noticing which girls in my class had grown boobs and spirituality went out the window.

But the point is that, spirituality is a key aspect of happiness. Tests after tests have shown that people who proclaim to belong to some religion or the other have been polled as being "more satisfied" with their lot in life.

I am not as... spiritual... as I would like to be. I have travelled too much, seen too much and have become a bit too cynical that I doubt I can ever recapture the peace and tranquility of that school term again.

I envy those truly devout religious people. Of whatever belief. Although I do not share those beliefs, the anchor religion gives to these individuals is a great reason not to outlaw religion as a whole. And although religion has killed more people than it has saved, an atheist society would be a very empty society and I think religion does have a part to play in the balance of the perfect society.

I seek peace and spirituality these days in the comfort of my solitary walks in the Albert Park of downtown Auckland. Where I invariably pray Christian prayers to a Christian God even knowing fully well that a lot of so-called christians I wouldn't invite to my house also claim to pray to this same God.

Spirituality can be found in many different places, the patterns of the leaves falling from a majestic tree in the park; the grasp of a little child's hand on your index finger; the laugh of an elderly couple who are obviously still in love.

Where is Your Spirituality?