Well, I have heard it said that this life is a spiritual journey in a physical body.
I'm sure you have heard that before as well.
Spirituality is a process of awareness and understanding that their is more than meets the eye
in this world. Something else is going on under the surface.
I'm not here to preach, and I am not very religious, but I have a belief that everything happens for a reason and we are all connected by love.
We are going somewhere and this is just a small, small, window on the ride.
The journey begins within.
I learn to forgive myself. That I am not all bad nor all good.
I am a human being, with flaws and defects, and that is ok.
Their is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and when I learn to forgive myself,
I begin to forgive you. I start to see that you are just a human being as well.
You have flaws, you are not all bad, nor all good. You are doing the best with what you've got,
whether you realize it or not.
I start to accept myself. I am not perfect, inside or out.
I start to look in the mirror, literally. I used to hate mirrors, and hated what I saw.
I despised myself. I wasn't attractive enough, thin enough, didn't have the right nose or chin.
I also saw insecurity, humiliation, weakness.
We all deal or have dealt with these feelings. We are all the same.
Slowly over a period of time, I become more spiritually fit, I do the work, walk the walk.
I pray, I meditate, I take time to consider the world away from this world that I cannot see with my eyes. I begin to make good choices, help people, be responsible.
I look in the mirror and begin to be ok with what I see. Maybe I am not so bad.
Maybe I look ok. Maybe people see more than my looks, maybe they see something deeper.
I begin to have self acceptance - that I am who I am and maybe I like this person.
Slowly, I begin to like you. You are not so ugly either. I start to see a deeper you, their is more to you
than just your hair and your face. You have so much more to offer than your looks.
You are too are only human and we are here together.
I can honestly say, as corny as it may sound, I can look in the mirror today and smile.
I can smile at you. I can listen to you and realize you have something to say and I should listen to you. You are telling my story. We have so much in common.
We have the same feelings and insecurities. We have the same hopes and desires.
We are the same.
The spiritual life is just like the physical life in many ways - you get out of it what you put into it.
When I eat right, sleep right, exercise, I feel strong and confident in my physical body.
When I take time to acknowledge my spirituality, to pray and give thanks, to meditate and listen,
I begin to receive spiritual gifts: Patience, Kindness, Understanding, Forgiveness.
The physical life gets much easier.
I am not a guru of any kind, I am just a man trying to do my best and I fall short everyday.
But I am ok with that today. I know I am trying my best and I will try harder tomorrow.
I recognize that this physical life is such a spec in time, so minuscule, it will be gone so quickly,
and the spiritual life will live on forever, I need to make peace with my spirit while I can so I can try and enjoy who I am and who you are while we are here for these brief moments in this blue world.
