( thank you, Bud Wilson)

I'm wrote my story in hopes that it will inspire others to share their story. I don't know if there is a "book" in everyone but I know for certain there is a story in there. I encourage you to share your story of overcoming some of life's challenges. Someone needs to hear what you have to say. They are waiting!

The divine is the sea. All religions are rivers leading to the sea. Some rivers wind a great deal. Why not go to the sea directly?

                                  ~ Mother Meera

"MY UNDERSTANDING FAMILY LETS ME BE ME"

         Every culture in the world has certain norms that govern everything from personal relationships to religious practices and political views. These norms shift depending on the times and places in which we live; however we are always expected to conform to them. Those who do not often find themselves subject to a painful, even paralyzing, stigma.

       There are two of these nonconforming groups who I have found to be particularly stigmatized: those suffering from mental illness and those who consider themselves “Spiritual But Not Religious” (SBNR). I know about both of these by personal experience. I am a person who lives with depression and lives a spiritual life unattached from organized religion. Despite the fact that a growing number, nearly 20%, of Americans are identifying themselves as SBNR, they are consistently branded as heretics and “non-believers”.    

       How can this be? Religious texts and leaders proclaim that God/Source/the Creator loves us all unconditionally, yet it seems that this message is often followed up with—you guessed it—conditions! We either don’t believe enough or the right way, and that’s why we’re not getting what we want in this life and why we won’t end up in heaven in the next.

       The real issue, I contend, is the continued practice of viewing those who differ from us as “other”. It’s an exclusivity game—we belong, you don’t. Christ’s mission on earth was to help us understand that we are all of the same Source energy. We are all loved just as we are, and all entitled to heaven, just as we are. Yet (and I am not pointing the finger at anyone in particular), instead of embracing people across the spectrum of spiritual beliefs, we allow norms to divide us. On the largest scale, this leads to conflicts between the world’s three major religions; on a smaller scale, it leads to the stigmatization of people who do not follow the rules.  

       We must push back against stigmas—that is a given. In the meantime, however, we also must seek out and cultivate what I call the “understanding family”. This is a group of people who accept, love and support us no matter what. It can be the family we are born into or the one we make for ourselves, but they are critical to our mental, spiritual and even physical wellbeing.

       Many of us take this support system for granted, especially when our lives are going well. It consists of our spouses, parents, friends or religious community. However, it is when we suddenly find ourselves on the fringes of society that we must sometimes seek out a new family built on common interests or struggles. They are the people who will let us know that we are not alone. They are often our only refuge from the world at large. Most importantly, they are the ones who will help us combat the most damaging stigma of all—the one we assign to ourselves.  

My spiritual life brings me ineffable experiences of the Presence. In 1983, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a " heaven on earth experience" found me! My religious life did not afford me such spiritual experiences as that. Today, I talk to many folk about God. They want to experience something spiritual not simply believe something religious.

~ S.L. Brannon on DBSA Life Unlimited web site http://bit.ly/1kEBzlZ

Having a relationship with the Divine is as natural as our breathing. In fact, it is a relationship that requires simply that we "keep breathing". That's all.

Certain ones want to complicate that fact. They insist that other humans must be placed between them and God, introducing them to God, as it were. We call that hierarchy, religion. And that type of relationship is called a religious life. Something simple is made complicated.

Mankind also likes to complicate everyday relationships as well. I say, let's keep it simple, human relations and relations with the Divine, . . .  and find simple happiness in the process. 

Below is a post by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

In regard to the church sign below:

The feelings of fear, shame, and guilt are the fuel and mind's prison of organized religion, as evidenced here. Another major tool of control is a "belief in lack", i.e. God does not have enough Grace to cover all souls, God's forgiveness is not immediate and all-at-once forgiving of all "sins" for all time, etc.

Those of us who know God to be The God Without Any Limits of Grace need to "find our voices" and speak up for the Grace we know to be true. Today, we are needed in preserving the freedom to believe as WE choose.

To speak up or not to speak up is the question? . . . we choose or we loose.