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I am grateful for the spiritual and mystery traditions of the world.

This one is a bit hard to put into words and I am not sure that headline really captures it. My sibling and I were not raised with a religion even though I did go to a religious school for 6 years of my education. My parents are not religious and were raised with different traditions, so they basically said, “when you are old enough, you can decide for yourselves.” This is an interesting thing because it made me aware of religion in other people’s families more acutely, specifically close friends and my grandmother. There was a framework in their lives that I didn’t have. I think this made me more open in general, and it made me curious. I also now consider this choice a gift.

In my formative years I would say I was mainly exposed to three religions passively, by being around friends or other family. From 12 to 18, I went to a religious based school. From having no formal religion to that type of environment was pretty disorienting and also added to my outsider status that I have come across so many times in my life. In college, I was exposed to different philosophies and traditions around religion, myth, story, and spirituality. And for fun after I graduated I took a graduate level world religions class. Around that same time I got more serious about my yoga practice, which also opened doors to other spiritual traditions and philosophies.

This is the long way of saying, I’ve studied a lot, and I’ve experienced a lot in this realm, and I am grateful for the exposure of all of it because it helps me to see the similarities and differences of it all and how it is used. My framework now encompasses a little bit of everything. Studies say that people generally feel more spiritual than religious these days and have a tendency to do “a la carte” spirituality. I’d say that’s about right for me too. I like to mix philosophy, spirituality, yoga, shamanic practice, energy practices, astrology, life experience, meditation and whatever I am learning in the moment in this realm to create the framework of my own spiritual tradition. One that works for me, my system, and my life, all while knowing it will all change as I continue to learn. I am grateful for all the threads of this that have crossed my path, I have learned from them all, even the ones I don’t practice or believe.