Ode to Spirituality

June 28, 2011

What is spirituality?

Is it about believing in God?

Is it what leads us to the love of our lives after decades of searching?

Is it what makes it possible for a 43-year-old woman to have a healthy baby?

Is it what helps us heal from loss?

Is it what connects strangers to each other week after week in churches, mosques, synagogues, mandirs, and Buddhist shrines?

Is it what gives writers the skill to make others cry, laugh, and wonder?

Is it what gives musicians the courage to express each note with passion?

Is it what gives artists the imagination to paint a work as ethereal as a Monet?

Is it something that can be taught?

Photo by Linda K. Wertheimer

Is it what gives us peace as we paddle on a pristine river and a heron flies overhead?

Is it found in even the youngest children?

Is it this definition from the Collins English dictionary? “Spirituality: The state or quality of being dedicated to God, religion, or spiritual things or values, especially as contrasted with material or temporal ones.”

Or, is it the explanation for things we cannot explain?