Andrew Thursdays: Opening and Closing Doors on Spirituality

Exciting news came today. I am in the works for having my name removed from the Church. I just got a confirmation letter today, so legally I am no longer considered a member. The Church, however, will take two to three more months to process my request, which I do not understand and find very frustrating. It's exciting that the steps have finally been made on their part because I've been trying since the beginning of December. I just don't really understand how the bureaucracy of the Church can take this long.

I've been recently attending the Men's Spirituality Group (MSG) on campus, which Olivia suggested I join. It's really been great. It's been a place for honest discussion about belief. One of the guys, Thomas, a senior and the clerk of the Guilford Council of Religious Organizations (GCRO) is a really cool guy. He is an agnostic, non-christian seeking ordination in the Episcopal Church. His father, a priest and geneticist, gave a really good talk during Religious Emphasis Week. The thing that stood out to me from him was when he said that "the majority of religion is finding the language of awe." Religion is not meant to tell you what you believe but to help you be able to describe what you believe. That's what I think at least.

This past Monday, we did some guided mediation. We were told to imagine the ruins of a temple of a lost civilization and then imagine what it was like when it was prosperous. The result of that ten minute meditation was pretty powerful. I saw a circular building with no walls that had more space underground beneath it than it did above ground. It had a spring in the center which ran down the side of the passage going underground. 

It was beautiful.

Compared to the bright desert light outside of the temple, it was cool and dark. Underground the light never reached. I saw it as a refuge where animals were using the space as dens. We were told to imagine the priests and I saw them meditating with a family of coyotes. One of them had spent so much time underground that he went blind. It was such a simple lifestyle, they wore plain clothes, shaped like pillowcases, the same color as the light grey of the temple. Olivia pointed out to me later that they weren't teaching but learning.

A man came bringing an offering of a young lamb. Instead of burning it or giving it to the priests, he gave it to the family of coyotes. So instead of giving his offerings to "the gods" he was giving it to life. I knew that the reason that he was making the offering was because his pregnant wife had an infection from a crocodile biting off her hand.

It was just so simple and beautiful and perfect in the way it worked that when we were told to imagine it becoming ruins, I couldn't. I could imagine it becoming abandoned, empty, but never in ruins.

Life is sacred.

Here is my rendering of the temple, excuse my lack of skill.

Now on to Ornithology labs! I've seen so far Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, Ring-Billed Gulls, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Carolina Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Tufted Titmouse, Robins, Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers, Red-headed Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker (although not well enough to include in my field notebook), Hooded Margansers, Mallards, White-Throated Sparrows, and soon much much more! We got to see the Bald Eagles in their nest, and see the rookeries of the Great Blue Herons (surprisingly close, considering that Bald Eagles enjoy eating Great Blue Herons and the herons came later). And the place we saw all the woodpeckers had a bunch of dead trees sticking up out of the ground like finger bones. Beavers had built a dam, which flooded the trees and killed them, but later the dam was breached, leaving a bunch of dead trees perfect for woodpeckers.

At the Natural Science Center I've also been having fun. For the first time today I got to pet Wallabies! And Kisa, one of the tigers, chuffed back at me! Chuffing is like purring, but on the exhale only, because tigers can't do it on the inhale.

Journalism has been keeping me really busy. I've had a story each week, and this week I'm writing about the protests in Egypt, which is going to be the big World and Nation article. Alexandra, the World and Nation section editor, has a lot of faith in me. And my forum article on Religious Emphasis Week is coming out tomorrow.

This past Monday was not only MSG but also was the one year anniversary of when Olivia and I started dating. It's been a really happy year.  It was really nice, but unfortunately we were both kind of busy. We celebrated it last Friday though. It was fun, and we're looking forward to more years to come.

 Anyway, between Ornithology, Journalism, MSG, Quaker Leadership Scholars Program (QLSP) Friday Worship (I got invited to their retreat, but I couldn't go :( ), Volunteering at the Natural Science Center, Intro into Scientific Inquiry, Fiction Writing Workshop, and Chemistry 112 Lab TA-ing, I'm not sure how I have the small free time I do have this semester.

In Conclusion: I might overwork myself and die.