nuwsha
Due to my less than convential views on God and religion, I am often asked how I view things like rituals, and 'experiencing god.' It's not an easy questions to answer and I fear that I am rarely able to clearly articulate myself and that I often leave the asker of the question more confused and/or more concerned for my soul than prior to thier question. That all being said, I wanted to share one of my most recent 'knowing god exists' moments.
I see 'god' as a greater spirit that connects humanity and the other beings that share the Earth; and I see religions as humanity's ways to make sense of that spirit, as well as all of the unexplainable things that happen throughout our lives. Religion helps to provide order and understanding to our often overwhelmingly confusing existence. For me, the ultimate expression of this spirit, or of god is love. That all being said, I try to see and experience this greater spirit through everyday occurances and interactions. I look for the bits of the spirit in other humans, in random occurances, and through out the glorious creation by which we are surrounded. Alright, now that you've got the background, I'll move on to the story.
I work at a day care center when I'm not busy reading or studying or whatever. The day care was as close to tutoring as I could get and still get paid with work study money, and it's been great so far. It's actually quite nice to have a break from reading and talking about religion day in and day out. And it's hard not to relax a little bit when you hang out with and chase around kids who love to give you hugs and have you read to them. Unfortunately, last week, one of my favorite kids left (we'll call him Nuwsha).
His last day was Tuesday; his family was returning to India. Luckily, I worked a few hours on Tuesday and was able to spend those hours in his room, with some other great 2 year olds. Nuwsha has never been a really cuddly kid; while he would give hugs freely, he was never one to sit in your lap or hang out around any of the teachers for too long. He'd much rather be exploring. Tuesday was different. Nuwsha spent most of my 2 hours there hanging out with me. He sat on my lap fo 10-20 minutes at a time. And when he wasn't hanging on me, he was generally sitting next to me or trying to tell me for the umpteenth time that there was a truck on the other side of the play ground fence. More than any of this there was a point when we were all playing inside and he climbed behind me, wrapped his arms around my neck, pressed his head against the side of mine and began swaying me back and forth. He was smiling and giggling all the while. I've never seen him do such a thing, though I'm sure he has. I was so touched by his overwhelming cuteness and his joyous spirit (and my own sadness at his leaving) that I began to tear up. It was almost like he knew how much I would miss him, or that he knew I'd been stressed out, or that he was even going to miss me too. I am not one to say that god was acting through Nuwsha, or that the spirit was trying to send me a message. However, Nuwsha's actions that day were a reflection of the beautiful spirit that rests within him, and were a reflection of the amazing power and gloriousness that I believe each human contains. Nuwsha was just my reminder that there is more to each of us than meets the eye and that each person is blessed in a greater spirit.
Any questions?
I see 'god' as a greater spirit that connects humanity and the other beings that share the Earth; and I see religions as humanity's ways to make sense of that spirit, as well as all of the unexplainable things that happen throughout our lives. Religion helps to provide order and understanding to our often overwhelmingly confusing existence. For me, the ultimate expression of this spirit, or of god is love. That all being said, I try to see and experience this greater spirit through everyday occurances and interactions. I look for the bits of the spirit in other humans, in random occurances, and through out the glorious creation by which we are surrounded. Alright, now that you've got the background, I'll move on to the story.
I work at a day care center when I'm not busy reading or studying or whatever. The day care was as close to tutoring as I could get and still get paid with work study money, and it's been great so far. It's actually quite nice to have a break from reading and talking about religion day in and day out. And it's hard not to relax a little bit when you hang out with and chase around kids who love to give you hugs and have you read to them. Unfortunately, last week, one of my favorite kids left (we'll call him Nuwsha).
His last day was Tuesday; his family was returning to India. Luckily, I worked a few hours on Tuesday and was able to spend those hours in his room, with some other great 2 year olds. Nuwsha has never been a really cuddly kid; while he would give hugs freely, he was never one to sit in your lap or hang out around any of the teachers for too long. He'd much rather be exploring. Tuesday was different. Nuwsha spent most of my 2 hours there hanging out with me. He sat on my lap fo 10-20 minutes at a time. And when he wasn't hanging on me, he was generally sitting next to me or trying to tell me for the umpteenth time that there was a truck on the other side of the play ground fence. More than any of this there was a point when we were all playing inside and he climbed behind me, wrapped his arms around my neck, pressed his head against the side of mine and began swaying me back and forth. He was smiling and giggling all the while. I've never seen him do such a thing, though I'm sure he has. I was so touched by his overwhelming cuteness and his joyous spirit (and my own sadness at his leaving) that I began to tear up. It was almost like he knew how much I would miss him, or that he knew I'd been stressed out, or that he was even going to miss me too. I am not one to say that god was acting through Nuwsha, or that the spirit was trying to send me a message. However, Nuwsha's actions that day were a reflection of the beautiful spirit that rests within him, and were a reflection of the amazing power and gloriousness that I believe each human contains. Nuwsha was just my reminder that there is more to each of us than meets the eye and that each person is blessed in a greater spirit.
Any questions?
posted by skirt at 12:02 AM
1 Comments:
Well, this is the closest thing you have written on your blog that had to do with an away message you had posted on AIM awhile ago...
Do I feel as though people are inherently good or bad?
I am reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I just finished a chapter where he is talking about how he has seen that parents must train their children to be good. My thought is that I do not agree. I think inherently we are good, however we quickly learn bad.
Thinking back to the kids I have interacted with and thinking about Nuwsha I have troubles believing that these little people are inherently bad. They have to be trained what actions are considered good and bad in the eyes of society, but if you only consider whether a child is mostly loving and good or hating and bad, I think they are loving and good. However as children we are influenced by the adults who surround us. As a whole I think adult actions are bad. Adults have not created a loving and good society, although that is the desired claim for the world. So inherently I think we are good, however for some reason we are inclined to give into bad.
We all start out as Nuwsha, mysteriously knowing when to give a hug to brighten someone's day and not holding that hug back. We are good. But as we grow older, we refrain from picking up the phone to say hello to brighten a friend's day. We become bad for some reason. But I think it is riidiculous to think we are inherently bad and we just happen to come acorss as sweet, loving little people as children. That idea makes no sense to me. Instead we just seem to allow bad to beat good.
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