Lovely dynamic photos! I remember when I was in middle school the trees were in glorious color always around my birthday in early October. Now we don't see them change much until 2-3 wks later. The length and severity of our seasons are changing as are my spiritual seasons. I don't pay that close attention to how close I feel to the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit more often reaches out to me in some remarkable way to let me know just how close to God I am. The veil between the human world and the God world is thin but tough with me. I just live my life and continue to thank God for all the small things in my life. If I see a coin on the sidewalk, I never pass over it. I bend over, pick it up, and put it in my pocket. It gives me a speck of stretching exercise and it also reminds me how important the little stuff is. Viewing a photo you took at some phase of your spiritual life is one of those little blessings.
Your comment on the connection between spiritual seasons and nature’s seasons has gotten me thinking. It does feel like spiritual seasons for people are growing more volatile as well, no?
Can spirituality grow more volatile? Do you mean more urgent? Volatile feels angry and forceful to me, but then urgent doesn't seem right either. Heated? Intense? Tell me more of what you're thinking, please.
Its still being formed but I wonder about whether the extremes that we are seeing in the ways that religions are being practiced - fundamentalism to extreme disbelief - as well as the ways in which our socio-political practices are also going to extremes (not just in the US but everywhere - see the new presidential election in Argentina for example) is reflective of how our climate is also pushing to extremes right now. Is there an unknown and hard-to-prove connection between us as humans and what is taking place in the climate right now?
So if we are intensively working to try to remedy the extremes in the environment, are we doing similarly to remedy the extremes within ourselves as individuals and in communities?
Is all extremism "bad"? Is apathy "bad"? Moving toward balance we do away with both, but then what do we have? The environment strives toward balance. Do we humans strive toward balance unconsciously? Is that the healthiest experience we can have? I say "Yes." Balance is good, but the status-quo is bad. Does balance keep us from moving to new places? We need something to push against in order to grow. Teenagers are an exciting example of effort to throw everything off balance. Thank God they cannot run for public office yet.
Lovely dynamic photos! I remember when I was in middle school the trees were in glorious color always around my birthday in early October. Now we don't see them change much until 2-3 wks later. The length and severity of our seasons are changing as are my spiritual seasons. I don't pay that close attention to how close I feel to the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit more often reaches out to me in some remarkable way to let me know just how close to God I am. The veil between the human world and the God world is thin but tough with me. I just live my life and continue to thank God for all the small things in my life. If I see a coin on the sidewalk, I never pass over it. I bend over, pick it up, and put it in my pocket. It gives me a speck of stretching exercise and it also reminds me how important the little stuff is. Viewing a photo you took at some phase of your spiritual life is one of those little blessings.
Your comment on the connection between spiritual seasons and nature’s seasons has gotten me thinking. It does feel like spiritual seasons for people are growing more volatile as well, no?
Can spirituality grow more volatile? Do you mean more urgent? Volatile feels angry and forceful to me, but then urgent doesn't seem right either. Heated? Intense? Tell me more of what you're thinking, please.
Its still being formed but I wonder about whether the extremes that we are seeing in the ways that religions are being practiced - fundamentalism to extreme disbelief - as well as the ways in which our socio-political practices are also going to extremes (not just in the US but everywhere - see the new presidential election in Argentina for example) is reflective of how our climate is also pushing to extremes right now. Is there an unknown and hard-to-prove connection between us as humans and what is taking place in the climate right now?
So if we are intensively working to try to remedy the extremes in the environment, are we doing similarly to remedy the extremes within ourselves as individuals and in communities?
And here's an interesting reflection upon fundamentalism that I read this morning...
https://jill.substack.com/p/dont-flirt-with-fundamentalists?utm_source=%2Finbox&utm_medium=reader2
That is right on target. Extremism on the Right is much more likely to upend what we hold dear than the Left.
Is all extremism "bad"? Is apathy "bad"? Moving toward balance we do away with both, but then what do we have? The environment strives toward balance. Do we humans strive toward balance unconsciously? Is that the healthiest experience we can have? I say "Yes." Balance is good, but the status-quo is bad. Does balance keep us from moving to new places? We need something to push against in order to grow. Teenagers are an exciting example of effort to throw everything off balance. Thank God they cannot run for public office yet.