I don’t often speak about my faith. I bring it in to conversation from time to time as a side note and it is always extremely “other party polite” but is never direct or fully subjective. When I do braze it into conversation, not only am I careful of what other parties may be feeling on the subject of faith, but I state my thoughts in a “matter of fact” point so despite what other party’s religious beliefs are, they still can relate to my view. On a day where I am coming off of a spell of illness, have a complete loss of focus and a supreme lack of belief in myself, I feel it is a great moment for a self-check on what I believe. By reminding myself of my beliefs, I gain a starting point as how to look at the obstacles as well as the celebrations that are happening and continue to happen.
A few weeks ago, when I was at a much worse mental state, a close friend of mine reminded me that now is the time to be patient and see what the universe is saying. She of course was completely correct and days later I knew why everything was so topsy-turvy. This is something that she and I have to continuously repeat to each other, sometimes on a daily basis. Patience is so important in everything we do yet unfortunately, we are a society that is continuously growing more and more impatient. Patience gives us time to think, time to digest and time to truly see situations as the whole picture they are. Sometimes patience is tested and needed just for waiting for your morning coffee, and sometimes it is a life-long struggle to truly be in a place where we are comfortable. For me, one of my greatest strains of patience has been getting to this place where I know that I want to do everything possible to make the place we live to be better than ever; A place where acceptance, innovation and human connection can flourish. Only patience allows us to get to a place where we know and understand our circumstances.
I believe in patience so severely, that it is probably the most common thing to come out of my mouth. Patience is something known and controllable yet I also believe in the unknown in which we cannot control. I believe that there is an infinite power that we are still completely clueless about. This comes in many forms such as god, the universe, Buddha, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Allah, Isis, or Gaia. This infinite power can only explain the unique harmony that the universe plays through, as well as the treacherous circumstances we continuously find ourselves in all the while, having a unique coincidental routine and irony come in and out of our lives. This great force is not itself a coincidence but something I believe is there and may never be understood or known. I don’t know if when I die I will meet my creator but hope to do so. I am, however, eternally grateful every day that I am here to experience being alive while continuing to believe in the greater goodness of this infinite power I cannot yet understand.
Believing in an unknown infinite power is frightening, so there needs to be something to comfort that fear. Through my conversations and observations in the past five years, I have seen the growing need for human connection. With the technological revolution, we have become more involved and informed in each other’s lives but we are still missing that face to face connection. With the global interface of correspondence that we have access to, we have an obligation to strengthen those relationships not only in our physical address communities, but in all the communities that we find ourselves involved in. We will never know what this greater force is that conducts us, but we do have one another whom have the same needs to answer the great questions like why are we here? How did we get here? What is the meaning of life? Is organic truly organic? We have one another and therefore we need to find communion with one another in any way we can. Communion can be church, over a beer, a campfire, a walk, over coffee, on a boat or in the car on a trip. While communing, any topics of discussion can be incorporated; Love, faith, politics, fashion, sex, food, family, the sky color, music, power tools, hunting. It is completely about being with another person and enjoying that unknown beast that connects all of us. Despite our lack of understanding of an infinite power, I believe we need to be globally responsible for one another. This can only be done through human connection.
Last week I woke up at my normal crack of dawn time and just wasn’t “feeling it” so I stopped making coffee and crawled back into bed. About an hour later there was a knock at my door and when I jumped up and ran to the door I saw that it was my friend Holly and her two youngest children, both under the age of three. I was so raged at why she was just stopping by at such an early hour. Extremely upset, I still went to the door with a smile on my face, said come in and asked if she wanted some coffee. Ten years ago, there would have been no anger in me because it was still common to have people just stop by. Especially with us, as well as other friends, it was extremely common to just stop by in the morning for coffee. I was patient and let my anger on this morning pass because I knew I really needed to sit and visit. Remember the term visit? Just sit and visit? Well, that is what we did when Holly came by; I put on a pot of coffee, made a little snack for the boys and we just sat there and visited. With patience to get through my anger, I had that communion that I needed and saw that the universe had a plan for me that day. That plan was to be late for work because I needed that proper beginning to my day before work. That visit with an old friend was exactly what I needed to be stopped and enjoy the moment.
I write this for you to read not to learn from my experience and not to force my beliefs on anyone, but to encourage you to think about what you believe in. Knowing what we believe is a great part in knowing ourselves. For me, going back to these beliefs helped me to take action on the next step of my life. Not only, as I mentioned before, is it a beginning point, but it is also a way to hold myself accountable and help me to keep my integrity. When the day ends, we can only be as good as who we are and what level of integrity we have. Knowing my beliefs helps to keep that in check.
