Seeking Divinity

I miss church. We haven't been there since the end of the RE year in May, what with travel, childcare issues (the littles won't stay in childcare that is unstructured - little elitists), etc.

And it has rained, and rained, and rained. But I realized this morning that every morning the sun has been up, and that i have had wonderful meditation walks, and that I have developed a rapport with the deeper nature of my land, and my neighborhood. I know that the turkeys have 8 babies and that they look a lot like goslings. I know that we have several enormous woodchucks and Jakob knows where all their lodgings are (one being under our studio). I know that there is a buck that likes mushrooms and that he visits our yard in the small hours of the morning.

I hear the birds various songs, and see the pairs of mates; I know the small rodents and snakes that live in my yard (those that survive the cat, and those that don't). The cats don't like snakes. I know my first vegetable garden, with its odd assortment of non-vegetable perrenials, such as raspberries, lilac, roses, and poison ivy.

I know that hummingbird loves our honeysuckle and that I need to buy more suet for the woodpecker who hangs around me while I hang out laundry. I know that the family of the woman across the street, who passed away this winter, comes every week en masse and lovingly mows and weeds and plants the yard and maintains the house.

Church is important. But living every day in religiosity and in touch with my interdependent web is a much larger church.

Religion: Chernus says, “For these scholars, religion is primarily the overall framework a group uses to understand its world and guide its life. This overall framework shapes every moment of the group's experience. It is not something extraordinary; it does not transcend everyday life. Rather it is the constant foundation of everyday life.”