As we experience life with our losses and life changes that take place with advancing years, some of us begin to gravitate towards or for some of is back to religion, although the traditional church may not always be as accommodating as we hoped.
If you’re like me born in the church, graduated from catholic elementary school, OK an altar boy, to through some roundabout way to graduate from a Lutheran college, it can be more of a rediscovery.
Some of us may be more influenced by the thinking of various philosophers and thinkers that deal with the different practices of spirituality to find meaning in life.
With advancing age, there are life changes as well as life losses both mental and physical, that require us having hope in order to survive. Oddly, that’s when we begin to realize what spirituality did and can do for us who believe.
For those of us who believe; Spirituality can be therapeutic. Spirituality can take the form of therapeutic interventions found in prayers, meditation and expressions of art, attending religious services and reading the bible.
All of which can lead to spiritual awareness and healing as well as renewal. With better understanding of spirituality through various resources, there may come about a more peaceful aging process.
With those of us that face the reality of our age, we learn we can’t do want we once did. I’m never playing a game of hoops again. I knew I had to give up football, than basketball than softball. Now I would be happy to just walk pain-free.
But the biggest non-physical, pain of all is that I’m not where I thought I should be by now.
Aging also raises questions about the true meaning and value of day-to-day life. Questions of what’s really important.
This is when our spirituality can expand and help us share our feelings with others. It hopefully allows us some space in which to grow, even in times of difficulty.
But Let Me state; Spirituality is unique to each of us!
Just as our bodies’ age differently, spirituality is different for each of us too. Some of us have been attending the same church or synagogue our entire lives and have their spiritual beliefs well reconciled.
Some of us have been searching for spirituality our entire lives, while others of us only begin in later life in order to help us deal with calamity, aging, or a death. Then we begin to search for the answers we need.
Many of us argue over what spirituality is; I like the thought of real spirituality actually being aware we are spirit.
Thanks,
Pablo
Passion
