A Happy Little Glimpse of the Divine (And an Awkward Little Glimpse of My Resistance)

I am not a 'religious man' as it is commonly understood. I tend to go a little blank when people start going on about "god this..." or "god that...", and then my discomfort turns to pure flight when and if they get a little pushy. I tend to not do too well in churches.

We have a little gathering that I host here at Marshall Creek, dedicated to Earth-centered spirituality, and although I have not been putting it out there much, seem to gather an intermittent few who really want to experience and learn. My single (!) visitor today and I had a great 'circle' and she left. That left me with a kind of preparation for what followed, as now alone, I took a short hike up the creek.

I reached a grove that is a bit wider than the rest, and following my instincts proceeded to the other side of it, and looked back, and around me. All of a sudden I felt the presence of what I can easily imagine others call 'god,' and the word 'god' came to mind. I was a little startled by this, and quickly changed the term to the 'divine.'

Hmmm. I am comfortable with the term 'divine', at least it doesn't have the knee-jerk reactivity in me that 'god' does, probably because I have not been nearly so encircled over my life by 'divine-fearing' righteousness as I have been by the 'god-fearing' kind. Certainly, there are expressions being bandied about such as 'divine justice' that carries forth the same insensibility as being 'god-fearing.'

However, what hit me is my own dissonance with the 'god' language, and how when I slip out of my ready resistance to all that goes with that, in through the 'back door' comes a recognition that what is divine is divine, despite the language and baggage that it brings with it.It is clearer to me today that I have to be more aware of my own resistances, and how they impede me from seeing more fully the nature of that which I truly do want to see.

Although I am equally confident that I am not going to be a 'god' or 'divine'-fearing man, ever. The divine, god, sacred, meaningful... can never be feared. Understood, yes, or at least an effort to do so. Appreciated, sought, encouraged... yes. But feared?

Not even hardly.