who cares?......spirituality

The one thing I can't stand are the people who put religion in your face!!

What makes them so much better than the person they're 'evangelizing' to? What makes them so 'righteous'? And the person they're speaking to so 'inferior'?

You ever hear the saying: There's 2 things you never bring up at a meeting or a party 1) Politics 2) Religion. Why is that?

I'm an Irish Catholic born and raised. I went to Catholic Elementary school as a kid, took a quick pit-stop at public schools when we moved to Massachusetts, and then back into an all-boys Catholic High School. There wasn't too much Catholicism going on in college (until I guilted myself into going to mass my senior year.....Irish Catholic guilt, what can I say?) and after college it's become more and more apart of my life. Well, it is my life, and actually always has been. Let me explain.

But before I do...let me just say that: I am not perfect, I make mistakes all the time, some people like me, some people dislike me, I am driven, I can be lazy, I eat healthy, I also eat pizza and ice cream, I exercise, I take days off, I like to take showers, sometimes I don't, I have courage, I have been hurt, I am determined, I am limited, I am a human.

Now that we have that out of the way, did you notice that 50% of those sounded cool, and the other 50% made me seem not cool? (depends on who you're asking.)

Well, you see, my goal is to be 100% cool. Who likes to be lazy, not shower, and take days off? (all of us!), but eventually if that's all we did, we would probably smell pretty bad and be drastically overweight.

Now back to you. Because this is about you.

Religion guides my spirituality. Does that make sense? Religion guides my spirituality. I am made in 3 parts: 1) Physical - flesh, blood, bone, etc. 2) Thoughts and actions combined with emotions and relationships. 3) My soul.

My spirituality is the life-line/the highway that connects all of these 3 (what the hell is Dave talking about??). Follow-me on this. When living on earth, you can't just have 1-part. You need all 3 to live, however there's no guarantees. If you let one dominate who you are, the other two will die. Each of these is like a muscle. If you don't work at it, they die. That goes for your soul, too (or relationships, work, etc, etc). There's plenty of people who have literally died, and don't even have #2 anymore...they're just flesh and bone. Isn't that sad? Do you want to be that person? Think about this for a second. If the whole 'muscle' theory isn't true: if you don't use it, you lose it, then why is the fitness and healthcare industry one of the biggest in our country? Go flex your muscles in the mirror right now (you know you want to, or maybe not)...are they big or small? Why? Well, you either workout a lot, and they are big/defined, or you don't, and you dread taking your shirt off at the beach. We're all in there somewhere on that scale.

What makes someone fit? Well, that's easy: exercise, rest, diet. They work at it, it becomes apart of their life.

Alright, off of working out. Do you see how all 3 are vital to being who you're fully suppose to be? 1) Physical - flesh, blood, bone, etc. 2) Thoughts and actions combined with emotions and relationships. 3) My/your soul. Let's take that a step further. My spirituality grows/strengthens my faith. My faith is in Jesus. Maybe for you it's Buddha, or your Pet Rock, however having a belief in something bigger than yourself is required for your soul (if you don't care about your soul, disregard this statement...I'm guessing you do, though). Have you ever thought about that? I mean, it's one of the most thought-about things throughout humankind, and deep down (I believe it's our souls, maybe you think something else, and that's ok), we yearn to know, we need to know, however sometimes we let our logic/reason disclaim any possibility that something greater exists than 'THE AMAZING HUMAN BEING - ROOOAARR!!". C'mon, you ever thought about this? Is there a God, is there not a God?

Okay, let's not confuse things. If you answered yes to the previous question, guess what, so did people of other religions (no way, I don't believe you Dave). Yep, maybe a Jewish person just answered yes. Maybe an Atheist just answered yes. Maybe a Catholic just answered yes. Maybe a Muslim just answered yes. At the end of the day, who cares? We're all on the path to find similar answers to our similar burning questions, regardless of religion. This is where faith comes in.....

Not every question has an answer. But for me, my faith answers the unanswered, and allows my spirituality to grow - Jesus de-clogs my spiritual pipes (speaking of which, I used a plunger on our sink the other day! what the...) - along with my other 2 parts to allow me to be fully alive (in him) and free flowing. Does this just happen? No, I work at it everyday. This includes prayer, reflection, humility (knowing where I can be better - again, de-clog it!) It's apart of who I am. That's the level of commitment I have towards deepening my faith, which in turn deepens my spirituality, which in turn deepens my physical being, which in turns makes my thoughts, actions and relationships: healthier, alive, and stronger. My relationship with God is far deeper than just de-clogging 'my spiritual pipes', it's a 2-way street, but for the sake of this piece, I hope it gets the point across. It is so very much more than that, and that cannot be written...only experienced...on a sunny day, or through time, work and commitment.

You see, this is about bringing YOU peace. It's about bringing YOU meaning. It's about enriching YOUR life, or in this case, MY life. Call it selfish. That's ok, because in living this way, you're fully alive. You're doing well.

Spirituality is the glue that makes us human. You can walk by someone and feel their energy, can't you? When you're in love, you just know it, right? Last time I checked, I wasn't walking around with some physical energy gauge on my Android that said "Good Energy/Bad Energy" every time someone walked by. This is built within you....and yes, it's invisible (I think, I've never seen it.) But in all seriousness, the deeper your spirituality, the more you're able to live in connection with yourself, your soul, and the others/world around you. How cool and liberating is that?? I think it is, that's one of the reasons it matters so much to me.

It allows you to understand yourself, your purpose, your meaning. Do these 3 things matter to you: yourself, purpose and meaning? I'm guessing 1A, 1B, 1C in regards to most important things in your life.

Start nurturing them, get to know them (yourself, purpose and meaning - spirituality). It doesn't happen overnight, and I am still working my ass off everyday to know them, but it's worth the effort. It's worth the time....if your way of doing it is through religion, cool...if not, just as cool. This is about you, knowing yourself, having peace within yourself, and heightening your purpose and meaning.

 That's spirituality.