| What does your heart long for in terms of spiritual | | | | staying connected to other people who share my |
| connection with the divine, with the universe, in | | | | faith so that we can have conversations about what |
| whatever way you experience it? Do you listen to | | | | is happening for us at a deeper level. It also means |
| the call of your heart for deepening your spiritual | | | | spending time outside in nature because that is a rich |
| connection? | | | | source of spiritual connection for me! |
| Messages from the Soul | | | | Discovering Worry |
| This article is part of a series about being open to | | | | One of the things I inherited from my mother is a |
| those messages from the soul, to our heart-longings | | | | tendency to worry. Only I have managed to fake |
| and urgings and the intuitive guidance that sometimes | | | | myself out so that I do not always know I am |
| comes to us in quiet moments when we are not | | | | worrying. I have driven it underground, in a way, so I |
| asking but are just gazing at trees. Recently, I did an | | | | have this vague sense that things are not right or |
| intuitive reading for myself, and while I was idly | | | | that something's about to go wrong, but I do not |
| theorizing about its meaning, a whole seven-point | | | | know why. |
| "change your life" manifesto dropped into my head. | | | | Drawing from the Well |
| They were messages I had been hearing as little | | | | It is only when I journal or sit quietly and allow those |
| whispers that were all-too-easy to brush aside. | | | | thoughts and feelings to surface that I realize that |
| Thankfully, in my life, that never works for long and | | | | some worry is gnawing at my soul, greatly disturbing |
| the messages return, louder and more insistently until | | | | the peace I am trying to create and sustain. And that |
| I am forced to pay attention. | | | | is when I need my spirituality and faith. I need to |
| In this series, I have been sharing bits and pieces | | | | draw from the well and reassure myself that I am |
| from my own manifesto and basically, fleshing it out | | | | not alone, that I am loved and that everything is |
| as I write, in the hope that as you read it, the | | | | okay. |
| messages you need to hear will resonate with you or | | | | If I don't nurture that spiritual connection, the well |
| spring into your own mind and guide you more | | | | dries up! So for me, this part of my manifesto was a |
| deeply into your heart. | | | | reminder to make the effort to nurture it, water it, |
| Nurturing Spirituality | | | | and feed it so it is there for me when I need it. |
| For me, the message about nurturing my own | | | | In the next part of the series, I will talk about |
| spirituality is about not avoiding my feelings, | | | | honoring intuitive guidance. Meanwhile, give some |
| remembering to pray, showing up at church from | | | | thought to your own spiritual life. In what way are |
| time to time, reading inspirational material like my | | | | you being called to grow in this area? |
| latest devotionals about marriage and parenting and | | | | |