I didn't realize it, but as early as 3 years old I was already spiritually aware. Well, sort of. You see, I don't remember being psychic in any way, and I certainly don't remember reading books like The Power of Now or watching spiritual movies like Peaceful Warrior. I didn't feel some grand connection to the oneness of the Universe, and I certainly wasn't aware of any out of body experiences.

One thing I did grasp though, was the power of the mind and spirit. I remember a recurring nightmare in which a bat would chase and scare the living daylights out of me! Every night. Over, and over, and over. When I told my Catholic mother of this, she told me I had the power to control my dreams. The ironic thing is, even after having all these terrifying dreams, I actually believed her.

Mind you, this was a bat with a wingspan as wide as my body was tall, and its body at least three times larger. It was especially frightening to a child my age. The dream came again, and again the bat chased me just like before... only this time I remembered my mother's words of wisdom. Before I knew it, I was riding this bat the same way that Atreyu from "The Neverending Story" rides Falcor. In that moment, I felt true freedom. A freedom that was revealed to me at the age of three through an introductory understanding of the power of intention.

I never had that nightmare again.

I did, however, gain the realization that I could influence my world. This came to be much clearer to me the following year when I turned 4. You see, my family would go to church every week. I didn't understand, and I certainly didn't like being there, but I had to go. I grasped the idea that there was a "God" who listened to our prayers and answered them, but frankly he just didn't interest me all that much.

What did interest me though, was another entity from above: the Universe. Nightly, I would gaze up in awe and childlike wonder at the constellations, the Moon, the Milky Way, and the shooting stars of the Perseids. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was looking at God through a child's eyes. I also didn't realize that would be my first experience in the true power of intention.

Every night I would pray. Not to God, as my two older brothers and I had been taught in church and by my mother, but rather, I would pray to the stars. I have no idea why I asked for what I did, but I was passionate and diligent about it. It didn't matter if we were at home or in the car, I would find the stars and pray for Siamese twin sisters.

Yes, you heard me right: Siamese.

Of course, at that age I didn't realize what Siamese meant. I just thought I was asking for two sisters at the same time. I can only imagine the combination of adoration and heartbreak my parents felt as they had already decided not to have any more children, yet watched their 4 year old son so intent on such a beautiful dream.

Months passed with no answer. It is said that prayer is talking to God, and meditation is listening for the answer, but at that age I knew none of that. For a young child, that could be quite distressing to ask over and over and receive no response. Not for me though, and for months and months I continued to pray to the stars for my Siamese twin sisters. I had an unending source of confidence and faith that the stars were listening.

And they were.

After several months, my parents informed me that I would have a Gemini sister to share the world with. As I look back on my life, I realize that at 4 years old I was taught the powerful lesson of intention and that the Universe is always listening, even if we can't hear its response. To this day, when I look up at the stars at night, I whisper inside myself:

Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight. Wish I may. Wish I might. Have this wish I wish tonight...

I just got today's "Warrior of the Light" column from Paulo Coelho. It was rather fascinating because he polled his friends, colleagues, etc about what "Normal" was. Here's a few "Normal" (i.e. insane) highlights from the list:

• #2) Making rules for war (Geneva Convention)
• #14) Waking up with a hysterical alarm clock at the bedside
• #26) When you enter an elevator, looking straight at the door and pretending you are the only person inside, however crowded it may be.
• #40) Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.

And my personal favorite of his... and the inspiration for sharing this list here:

#47) Thinking that your religion is the sole proprietor of the absolute truth, the most important, the best, and that the other human beings in this immense planet who believe in any other manifestation of God are condemned to the fires of hell.

(Did I mention that Paulo Coelho strongly identifies with his Christian religious background... yet still finds the wisdom not to judge others who don't share the same?)

Anyway, glad I don't wake up with an alarm clock on most days, nor watch TV (we don't have cable). But I'm very tempted next time I'm in an elevator to just start talking no matter how crowded it is.

This reminds me of a funny skit I saw (maybe Saturday Night Life?) where a man walks into a crowded elevator and *doesn't* turn around... instead he just faces everybody and stays that way until getting off the elevator. That was pretty funny :)

At Portland Airport, there's a long corridor that goes from the terminal underground to long term parking. It's a long corridor, and anybody in it is obviously either coming home or leaving.  And because it's a long corridor, and people typically don't talk to strangers or look at them, it can be an uncomfortable walk.

You can see the other person from nearly 100 yards away trying to not look at you.  Usually people stare at the ground, look at their cell phone, or try any other myriad of ways to avoid making any sort of uncomfortable contact with people walking in the corridor.

I've decided to change my tune.

Today when I was walking down the corridor to get ready for my flight, I saw a usual suspect a pretty good distance away. I immediately looked at him with a warm smile and said,

"Welcome home"

After that, we had about a 10 second conversation as we were continuing to walk towards each other, and then past each other.  There was no discomfort, and I could tell he appreciated the gesture.  I did too.  It's nice to be able to connect with total strangers in a kind, common way... even if it is for just a moment.

So next time you find yourself in a social situation where the "correct" action is silence and ignoring the other person (an elevator is a great example), consider taking the courageous action - consider making an attempt to connect with the other person not as a stranger, but rather, as a fellow human... perhaps even a long-lost friend.

After all, in a manner of speaking we're all long-lost friends just looking to find one another again...

I don't have a specific set-aside time each day that I do this, nor do I specifically allocate time (say 10 minutes) each day for reflection.

Instead, every moment of every day is an opportunity for reflection. Sometimes I am consciously aware of this, and sometimes the moment passes me by without reflection.  Still, whenever I notice something interesting or curious about my experience, I pause and reflect.

I seem to reflect, inquire, and be curious more often than I was in my past. Things are changing, and it's kinda nice...

At present time, I don't follow a specific religion. I was raised Catholic and went to church each week, and I was confirmed in my teens.  However, it was always because my parents made me do it.

As I got older, I began to see some of the flaws with religion.  Specifically, that most religions I've encountered have a basic body of knowledge that they require followers to acknowledge as "Truth."  The reason I see this as flawed is because it doesn't give each individual an opportunity to discover what Truth means for them as individuals. 

It is roughly equivalent to always slapping a kid's hand when they try to steal cookies from the cookie jar and saying "Bad boy!"  But what happens when the parents go out?  The old adage rings true, "While the cat's away, the mouse will play."  The child will go and dig into the cookie jar and take a cookie (if they're not thinking ahead about thins such as leaving trails or their parents counting cookies).

However, if that child is raised in an environment where they are allowed to discover, perhaps, the woes of eating too many cookies at once... or they are on such a healthy diet that even eating a few cookies adversely affects them, then that child will learn from natural consequence.  The result is that no matter who is looking, or not, the child will act in accordance with the Truth they have discovered through their experience.

Although that's an overly simplistic example, and probably has a few logic holes in it, the purpose of it is still pretty solid - to demonstrate that when we adopt Truths from others, rather than discovering our own Truth, we are disempowering ourselves and ultimately not taking ownership of our experience.

That's some insight into why I don't have a current religion.  I'm not opposed to religion, though it may sound that way. I feel it's a very helpful tool in a person's spiritual development, and when approached with an open mind, religion can be another gateway for people to discover the Truth... but only so long as they are not adopting the beliefs of the religion as Truth, and instead using the religions beliefs as a guide and opportunity to explore their own individual Truths.

What religion would I choose, if I had to pick one?  I don't know if one would truly call "Unitarian Universalist" and "Unity" religions... but to be fair I haven't looked deeply into them either.  I have recently been learning about Sufism and am enjoying it very much.  It doesn't appear to be as dogmatic as other religions, but that's just my understanding on the surface.  I may be wrong abuot that as well.

However, the fact that it focuses much on learning how to live in the world... to truly be an active participant in life, is something I like. I like the fact that it doesn't try to dictate a lot of what people "should" do... at least so long as they are acting in accordance with the basic tenets of Sufism and Islam - tenets which basically boil down to "Be compassionate and truthful."  (yes, I'm vastly oversimplifying for sake of trying to keep this blog post below the length of a novel).

One person I heard recently quoted that "any time we mistake a belief as Truth, then we are being religious."  In that sense, I understand.  When we have to believe something, it means we don't actually know.  That's fine to have beliefs, and they're often helpful, but only so far as we don't take them too seriously - that we don't assume they are Truth.

Oh, I could go on... it's actually difficult to stop typing. But I shall stop here for now - perhaps more on another time, or in response to any comments :)

Actually it happened to me just this week - my website broke!  And it broke just when I was getting ready to update the site with new stories and send out my newsletter! 

I actually ended up sharing my story in the newsletter... so rather than re-write everything again, here's a link to my newsletter archive: