What Happened??

I spend a lot of time in Kentucky. Lately, I’ve been helping one of the nursing professors with her pet project: the pilot of a Parish Nursing Journal. Who knew I’d end up in Kentucky earnestly trying to disseminate religious materials for someone I respect?  I even found myself brainstorming ways I could promote the journal on my winter Oceania trip.

I had actually moved myself out of the atheist category quite a while ago and idled into the agnostic pigeonhole. But that’s not good enough anymore. Because I sort of believe in everything except for the one-god-deal. The other night I told Mike that I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in ghosts. I explained that actual old guys and gals I personally knew are looking out for me. I arrived in my ghost theory when I could find no other explanation for the fact that I’m still alive. Also, thinking about my own personal ghost crew makes me happy. I believe in believing in something. Frustration and anger kept me from the comforts of spirituality in the past, but I think I’ve worked past that now.

Truth be told, I not only research things of a spiritual nature for my job as a graduate assistant. My life’s work is taking on a spiritual theme. I’ve spent this semester narrowing down a topic for my dissertation and I hatched a topic I’m really happy with. I’m going to study yoga and addiction. I want to see if adding a regular yoga practice to a traditional recovery program improves anxiety and lengthens sobriety time.

In preparation I’ve been accomplishing a long-term unrequited goal: establishing a consistent yoga practice of my own. I’m taking yoga classes at least four times a week, dreaming up my addiction yoga class sequences, and practicing my yoga teaching skills on my husband at home. And yoga is giving me all the benefits I had sought: increasing my sense of calm, decreasing my heart rate and anxiety, helping me fall asleep fast, improving my flexibility and enhancing my personal sense of spirituality.

So, aside from having a personal ghost crew, what is my spirituality? I define spirituality as the ability to find and weave extraterrestrial meaning and power into our earthly lives. My form of spirituality can be sponsored by ghosts, Persephone, trees, music, and sweat. All that said, I recognize that spirituality is different for everyone, and I respect and appreciate that fact.

This post is dedicated to my ghost crew who worked overtime this weekend sparing my dog Bill Scrapps from the tires of a Jeep Cherokee.