Open Minded

This may be a little controversial statement but I hope people have tolerance towards my point of view. I believe in the same way that guns don't kill people, religion is not a bad thing, what People do with guns and what extremist points of view do with religion is what is harmful for human kind. The worst part about it is the fact that both weapons and religion have proved their damaging use throughout history and yet people continue to be extremist about both.

Hugging a sequoia tree

When I was a kid, my mom decided she would "sell me into" the idea of meditation that she has been doing for 20 plus years. She sat me down and said I could HEAR, yeah HEAR silence; as a child that was an impossibility, an oxymoron, so as a kid that had to know everything I accepted in a challenging manner. She made me close my eyes, breathe in and out slowly, told me to think about a happy place, about a happy moment, or just focus on my breathing to be able to clear my mind off of loads and loads of thoughts I could and did have... OF COURSE it did not work, I was a hyper active child remember?! All I could hear was her voice, and all I could think of was about watching TV next or about going to my grandparents house. But what I did not know or realize was my moms happiness when I asked "can I go now?". You see, she saw something, she felt me concentrate for 1 minute out of the 10 that I meditated... And that showed her the future in that weird mother-way that we don't know how but they are always right.

After that ONE time that I tried it, I started to realize that I liked silence, that going to church did not make me feel "closer to God" as my family and other religious people I knew promised. Silence, on the other hand, made me feel something, I do not know if it was God or what, but I felt something at least compared to nothing. I asked my grandpa about it (as I always did about things I did not know) and he said everyone finds God where they WANT to, for him church, for me silence, for someone else walking or singing or dancing... And the only way to know that you found spirituality is when you stop asking yourself and others about it. 

Spirituality excites me, faith excites me, the thought of people questioning their very logic and reason and following their inner belief is, honestly, beautiful and confusing at the same time. One of the experiences I have given myself the chance to be a part of is to ask people who practice different religions to allow me to get to know their spirituality: jews, muslims and buddhists are the only other I have personally been able to be a part of. 

The experiences have been all amazing and I will probably tell you guys more about it in a different entry. For now, don't forget to check out the podcast every week on thursdays and keep up with me on social media @dvd19931

P.S. Here's a picture of my awesome mom with a buddhist monk friend of hers.