Trying to be as open to the questions as you are to the answers? That's about the most spiritual thing I can think of. If you're in the mood, here are some “spiritual thoughts” to feed your curiosity and awe for the great gift this whole thing called LIFE is.

“What is truly a part of our spiritual path is that which brings us alive. If gardening brings us alive, that is part of our path, if it is music, if it is conversation… We must follow what brings us alive.” – David Steindl Rast

I like to relate spirituality to a calm reverence for being alive. What a gift that I’m here at all, as I am, with the capacity to wonder at things which I may never understand. Seriously, what a gift!

Your being here is a miracle.

Now, before you take any of these spiritual thoughts to heart, remember that I’m a human being. I think I know some things, but who knows? I'm just trying to listen to what speaks to me, and express it with words that could never encapsulate the whole.

From the Heart: Spiritual Thoughts on Embracing (and Enjoying) the Mysteries

1. Spirituality can help us respect other opinions, even if we don’t plan on adopting them. Really, it’s a spiritual practice to balance having beliefs while acknowledging that they can’t tell the whole story of who we are.

2. There’s something going on that I can’t sense with my five senses. Somehow, I know it permeates everything.

3. Being spiritual means casting nothing out. It is entirely inclusive. We are flawed yet whole, searching for freedom amid the potholes we get stuck in. We're part earth, part sky. Life is about experiencing being alive. Every feeling is worthy of taking up space.

4. The more I open my heart to others, the more my heart prospers.

5. Anything of true value in life makes us feel richer when we give it away.

6. I am tethered to others, even when I’d like to be alone. I am utterly alone because everywhere I look, there I am.

7. The more I hold on, the more strained living becomes. I suffocate when I grasp. When I need to know, I forget. I clutch and I fall awkwardly. There’s a softness, a vulnerability, to being open and peaceful. It seems weak, but it’s a glue that keeps my pieces together.

8. Have you ever felt like you’re essentially on the same page as everything in the universe? On purpose? I hope you feel that. It's saved my life.

9. The more we ignore or bash what we don’t like, the more it seeks us. That’s because it thinks we’re seeking it. The same goes for promoting what we love.

10. Your thinking is finite. Your beliefs are limited. That means you cannot be everything; you cannot know everything—not while you’re a human being.

11. The song of spirituality keeps singing, “Make way for love. Make way for love.” If you think you've loved well enough, love some more. If you think you've surrendered, surrender some more.

12. Enlightenment is spiritual freedom, but it’s practical, effective, and harmonizing. It’s like finding ourselves. Even if it happens in the blink of an eye, it’s a moment “outside of time” that tends to stay with us.

13. A spiritually-inclined perspective questions the obvious, like how separate we all are in our own bodies, our own little worlds.

14. I’ve performed alchemy before. I’ve turned bitterness into forgiveness. I’ve crafted healing from the caves of suffering. I remember trading attack for defenselessness. I’ve seen how love works its magic.

15. There are approximately seven billion ways to live in the light, for that is how many people are alive in the world. (There’s probably more ways than that, to be honest.)

16. If we tell someone else that they’re wrong, without a doubt, merely because we are right, does that “wrong” cancel out the “right” so that we’re left being the same?

“Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of their heart.” — Rumi

17. I feel as though I’m part of something much larger than myself, but that I am also That. I’m not sure how to explain this oddly familiar relationship. Then again, it takes an “other” to have a relationship.

18. If I rush past anything, I miss something. (“You can’t rush your healing,” as Trevor Hall sings.)

19. The spiritual path is what’s right in front of you.

20. I think spirituality resonates with me so much because I want to remember who I really am, but not so much that I miss out on the journey back.

21. Learning is fun, but so is not knowing. Both are necessary for curiosity.

22. Maybe, it’s all progress.

23. Maybe, we’re here together on a planet swirling around in a field of stars on purpose—here, together, on purpose.

24. “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.” – Albert Einstein

25. . It’s powerful, whatever it is.

26. It’s funny how the cure for suffering isn’t found outside of suffering but through it. It’s almost like we’re meant to be here, never “there.”

27. Sometimes, especially when I am desperately seeking proof that my brother and father are still with me, and I stay with the heart-wrenching pain, I’m met with a grace unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. Thoughts stream through me so fast that I think, “That didn’t come from me.” My tears are met with some other incredible thing, that I dare not name. (If I was to name it, I guess I would call it grace.) It’s like my brother and father are speaking not just to me, but through me. It keeps me going in a way nothing else can. It’s all the proof I could hope for, but I’m still human, so I would like more.

28. Love says, “You are never apart. You think you are, but you are never apart. That’s what love means.” Sorrow says the same thing, only in another language.

29. The sight of the stars makes me dream about the star stuff that’s inside of me. Isn’t it interesting how the same stuff can make itself look so different?

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these thoughts did you need to read today?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I'd love to know!

With love, 

Jen

P.S. Want to feel wonder instead of worry? Get my book Sleep Affirmations for peace right where you need it most... whatever time of day it is. You deserve that much. You're alive, after all.