The Christian celebration of Easter Sunday… with it’s family get-together dinners and childrens’ hyperactivities are all wondeful ocassions to refresh shared family values and harvest another year of building “family memories.” For many it will be a recommitment to they religious faith and their need for spiritual guidance – as the long-awaited spring actually seems to have arrived.
But I find that as I grow older, I additionally need to reflect on my personal inner spiritual health… not so much in a “religious way” but in terms of adjusting my compass for take me closer to achieving the goals that I would like to make happen as the rotation of our “four seasons” begins anew. It’s a time to polish off the fog that has somehow accummulated on the many introspective mirrors of my mind and and perform an internal scan of “what’s working well for me” and “what needs fixing.” But, it’s a little different than making New Year’s resolutions.
Of course, this construtive pondering can be done in any quiet place, but I try to made it an Easter Sunday tradition to drive to nearby Reid State Park in Georgetown, Maine …a beautiful stretch of white sand beach with the everchanging cadence of those rhythmic lapping of the incoming waves. I dress comfortably warm and I try to arrive just as the dawn is breaking.
I must confess that although I was once a fervent “church-goer… nowadays, “God and I have frequent “God chats.” They are always non-liturgically (no repetious mumblings), very friendly sharings and often humorous two-way conversations that I find mentally nutritutional. It important (to me) to open that “2-way communication conduit” and I have found the best way for me to do that is to bring to mind the segment in the movie, Avatar, where the Pandorian walked under the radiance of the Tree of Voices (where one becomes connected to the voices of those who have died). Once mentally in that visual mindset and I draw three long slow breaths of air and declare myself “connected to my Maker. Now, at the risk of you writing me off as a complete basket case, I then begin my “God Chat.” My son, always asks, how do I hear “God’s side of the conversation, since it’s not auditable – like God speaking to Moses?” I answer by saying God will bring a responsive thought/comment into my mind – sort of like an incoming mental e-mail. “Oh, Dad… that’s just you making up a story to tell yourself what you want to hear!” “Maybe, so…but maybe not,” I respond. All I know is the exercise is immensly remediating and hugely fulfilling for me.
So, my walk along the beach is my “Easter Sunday God Chat.” Do I recommend it to you? Not necessarily, since all upward-roads lead to the “top of the mountain.” This just happens to be a road that works for me.
Happy Easter Sunday
