I got this idea for a blog while listening to a "Finding Your Spiritual Path" web cast (I've linked to the transcript; the download is a available free in iTunes in the Oprah Soul Series collection). I heard Elizabeth Lesser say the following:
I think of our inner life, our soul, as something we come into life with. It's shining, in our hearts. It's always there with us. But as we go through life, this light, which is in the lantern of who we are, our body and our psyche are this lantern around our soul light, gets covered with layers of soot, layers of conditioning. Let's say you had a really difficult childhood and you're this beautiful light that you came into the world with, the stress of your childhood, the anger you might have built up, the fear, the mistrust, it begins to dull the natural light that is inside of us. So when we say we go on a spiritual path, we're not going somewhere else. We're not going to get something we don't already have. We have to find a way to clean the sides of our lantern.
The four years that have passed since my then 60-year-old mom had a stroke and almost died have been the most difficult, heartbreaking time of my life, but also a period of intense personal growth. Not just for me, but my entire family. I have come to terms with the best and the worst in myself and others. I see that our common struggle is to keep going and yet embrace the unstable, ever changing life we are given. To find the silver lining. Most of all I hope that this is a gesture of gratitude. A means of finding our way in a challenging yet beautiful world.
