Mystical Experiences

"Everyone who is destined to have a spiritual transformation comes to the journey with a wound as big as God.  There are very few people who become advanced mystics because they simply feel happy on a Sunday afternoon."  Andrew Harvey

Being on a spiritual journey is one of the hardest adventures I have ever undertaken in my life.  Granted, the rewards have been many but getting to the rewards takes a huge amount of discipline and focus.  Many times, the urge to just give up is very strong.

As Andrew Harvey says, most of us come into the spiritual life because of the wounds, or the desperation that we are at the end of our rope and there is no where else to go.  As a last resort...God.

One of my spiritual practices has been with a written journal.  In it I have captured many of my moods, experiences, anguishes, pains of all sorts, and, many times, just conversations with God and things that I want to get out of my head.  I have realized that once I have written something down, I can forget about it.  In this process, I have gotten use to telling God all sorts of things that are bothering me, exciting me, things that I want to explore or just questions that come up. What I love about the experience, is the answers that come in new ideas, insights or concepts that allow me to explore and contemplate on a different level.  

Some of the ways I explore are with words games.  For example, I use the "what if," this happens but I use it in a positive way or what I would call an up-leveling of the issue.  What if it turns out to be the best thing I could have done?  What if this is better than anything else I could have thought of?  

Another is the "I wonder if," and take it to different conclusions.  I wonder if this could possibly be the answer that I have been looking for all these weeks?  I wonder if all of this is for my highest and best for the moment?  I wonder what else there is about this that I need to know?

What I know for sure is that when I am experiencing the deep "wound" of an issue, that writing it all out and turning it over to God does wonders for my psyche and my sense of well being.  I invite you to give it some thought and see where it takes you.  Some of my answers have sometimes felt a bit mystical.  Some magical.  Some just ordinary. 

The Start of Something New

Last night I was initiated into a Sorority Club with lots of pomp and circumstance and some well placed humor.  I was warned to wear loose clothing and to have a spot picked on my body for the formal tattoo of the Sorority emblem.  

Needless to say, I had to give some serious thought to even joining when I decided that with the humor some of them had, this was a joke on me.  It was.  No blood letting or tattooing process.  Only someone holding my hand so as not to get away and for someone "standing" for me during the process.  

There was lots of "vowing to" and listening to lots of rhetoric symbolizing the purpose of "sisterhood."  

I was presented with a ribboned pin, a yellow rose and a secret handshake.

Secret handshake? Yup! So secret, I can't even remember how to do it. I will have to practice that one at the next meeting - if I can find someone who knows how to do it.  

There is something wonderful belonging to a club where we all have something in common even though we come from different backgrounds and have different interests.  There is a common bond of knowing that we "belong" and that we are the "favorite" to a select few.  Wonder what a convention of all of us together would feel like?  Something to think about.

For now, I am glad that I am "vowed" in and that the only secret part of the organization is the handshake.  On to the community service and doing good for the masses not as "chosen."  I know that all of us are truly blessed in our lives.