My Holistic Approach to Blogging

Welcome to my brand new blog, Spiritual Wanderings.  I have always believed that as beings composed of mind, body and spirit we need to keep a nurturing balance between the three. It occurred to me that my Nuts and Bolts blog feeds your mind, either by making you laugh or making you think, depending on the content. My Back to the Garden blog discusses ways to feed your body using nutritious foods from the garden. But what about your spirit, how do we nurture that component?

What is spirituality? Spirituality means different things to everyone. Some tie it to religious beliefs, others to philosophical theories and others to their mere existence and views on life.  Wikipedia (whatever happened to Webster’s?) describes it as “an  inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being.”   

For me spirituality encompasses all of these components. My religious beliefs play a major part but so do the philosophies I’ve encountered as well as my life experiences. My objective for this blog is expressed in the title Spiritual Wanderings. The topics will vary, they will be whatever happens to “wander” into my mind (sounds a little scary, doesn’t it). Basically, I will pose a question and give you my musings on it.  Your part will be to reply with your thoughts, comments and questions. Together we can spark some lively discussions. However, we must all keep a positive perspective and respect each other’s beliefs and opinions.

In this initial posting I’ll provide a little pertinent background on myself. My religious background is Roman Catholic, born & raised, 12 years Catholic school, graduated from St. Joseph’s University (after a 15 year hiatus from the church) and completed graduate studies at St. Charles Seminary. My hiatus was from the church not from God.  I tend to think of it as my desert wandering period, searching but not sure for what. While at St. Joe’s, I took a class called Church in Crisis. One of the assignments was to write our   spiritual journey. As I wrote, a lot of things started to seem clearer to me and I eventually realized, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that there’s no place like home. What I needed was in my own backyard. So with great joy I returned to the Church where I have served as lector, Eucharistic minister, religious education instructor (high school students, adults seeking initiation to the faith & Baptism preparation classes for parents of infants).

As for philosophy, I can take it in small doses.  Too much gives me a headache! It interests me but I need small chunks at a time to digest. In college I took a Philosophy of Art class.  I figured that since my husband is an artist it would be fun discussing the different pieces explored in the curriculum.  By the end of the course I didn’t want to look at another work of art.  Velvet Elvis’ and poker playing dogs were good enough for me!

How do you define spirituality and where has your spiritual path led you? I look forward to hearing from you as we journey together in this blog.