An Ode to Spirituality

Feeling Lighter than Air by Joy StClaire

Inspired by circulating dialogue about the apocalypse & God.

Being born into a religious family, I naturally turned to the bible and a set of religious traditions as the source of wisdom, knowledge & faith. Yet my young, curious mind continued to wander into the realm of the secular (aka literary), into the vast worlds of William Blake, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys. To my surprise, God was everywhere- all over these 'non-religious' texts- and I began to understand the true meaning of God as an omnipotent being, one who is almighty and infinite in power. Being unlimited means God is not limited to a single theory, theology or religion and having infinite power means he is not only an authority of Christianity but an authority of the entire Universe.

My God is ubiquitous and resides not only in religious texts or biblical interpretations but in all texts & interpretations. To write, read, analyze, interpret, translate & transcribe is HUMAN, to be omnipotent & omniscient is GOD. I think, because we humans are incapable of grasping the true meaning of being all-knowing & ever-present, we try to reduce and materialize God into terms that are easier to comprehend by translating him into different theories & fables which now exists in the form of various religions.

I wish this world's compulsory divisiveness would stop forcing me to limit my God to a single entity- i.e. Father of Jesus Christ, and make me choose a single religion or theory over others. Such enlightenment is based on my personal experiences and feelings rooted deeply in Christianity and I'm now ready to rise above the dogma and rhetoric to fly closer to God himself.

My God is the creator of ALL living things, the beginning and the end of ALL. I choose to worship & praise God in my own spiritual ways, and this is where God led me to after 30 years in dogmatic christianity. I can no longer be reduced to being a stereotypical Christian because Christianity nowadays is too closely related to political choices and evangelization to 'non-believers.'

I simply believe in God and God tells me to love and appreciate everything and everyone. He tells me to be grateful for every big & littles things. It's not the golden rule. It's the ultimate truth-- God's truth.

"Men are admitted into Heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions, or have no passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings. The treasures of Heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect from which all passions emanate uncurbed in their eternal glory."

- William Blake from A Vision of the Last Judgment