Living on the Other Side

Many of us have been on a spiritual path since before we can remember.  Born into a Roman Catholic family, I was baptized and began my early spiritual training before I could talk or walk.  At the age of 14 I had completed 8 years of Catholic school and attended Mass six days a week for that entire time.  Hmmm....that equates to something like 1,928 days of church.

Somewhere during the middle school years I began questioning..first it was some of the doctrine.  Then, it was why we couldn't experience God outside of church.  You know, why did we have to go to church?  If God was everywhere, wouldn't he know if we spent an hour with him...say, from bed?

Those of you familiar with Vatican II, which ran from 1962 to 1965, may remember those days when many church rules were changed or completely eliminated.  The celebrant turned to face the people, meat was no longer forbidden on Fridays, and we were, startlingly allowed to actually touch the host during the sacrament of Communion.

These changes brought other things to the surface that I had been taught over the years.  Like, why would babies be born in countries where they could not be introduced to God and baptized into the Church so they could go to heaven?

Several years ago, my friend Roberta reminded me how we had raised the ire of our local pastor one day when we decided to knock on his door and ask him?  As she recalls it, he became red-faced and could barely keep spittle from flying out of his mouth as he raised his voice and, essentially, ran us out of his house.  I don't actually remember this but I'm sure it was something we would have done.

After moving out of my parents' home in the mid-70's I found myself on another path exploring Eastern religions, yoga and meditation.  I studied runes and the Tao.  I attended programs with Tibetan monks who chanted and read philosophy.  As I approached my 21st birthday I remember experiences that opened me up to learning about chakras and my own intuitive nature.

In the late 80's I volunteered at the Houston Center for Attitudinal Healing and taught workshops on perception, emotions, and finding meaning and purpose in life.  I attended a 10-day

Vipassana meditation in western Massachusetts where we took a vow of silence for the duration.  In 1989 I had a spiritual  death and re-birth experience from which I emerged a different person.

During the 90's I began training as a holistic nurse and became certified in 2000 just as my marriage was ending.  I taught workshops on holistic nursing and began coaching others who found themselves navigating transitions in life and dealing with spiritual awakening.  I continued to work in the hospital part time and began to see health challenges as episodes of emerging consciousness.

As the years progressed I began to wonder why there was so little information available on living life beyond the point of first awakening.  Most of the literature, even today, seems to be about getting people to begin to reflect and search for meaning in life and getting past the struggle of unconscious living.  Very little seems to speak to life on the other side of awakening.

Somewhere in the past ten years, I grew weary of the external voices of authority that dictate things I already practice.  What of a life that is sourced from a deep sense of connectedness to all things?  Is it too 'crazy' to write from the center of our soul?  To share with others our experiences of a life by Design?

What would happen if we all lived from our truest self.  If we shared that self with one another?  Would we find our tribe?  Our soul mates?  Our community?

Could we unify our focus and shift our energy to a higher state of being?

Could we allow life to create by Design?

I wonder...