Okay, so I’ll be the first to admit that I was a pretty terrible Buddhist. I hate meditating, I hate “living in the moment,” and I really, really don’t want to have to do all this over again lifetime after lifetime. So maybe I got a little lazy.
But today is a new month, a new religion, and, I hope, a new opportunity to redeem myself—both as a blogger and as a seeker of enlightenment.
So, as of today, I’m Native American. And I’ve got to say, it doesn’t look all that promising from the research I’ve done so far.
First off, Native American religion is centered on nature. Yup, more nature crap. As you’ve probably already gathered, I’m not a big fan of the outdoors. Too much dirt, too many bugs, too many creepy crawly things in general. And with the weather we’ve been having lately—today is 95 degrees and as humid as an armpit—I doubt I’ll be changing my mind anytime soon. But I’ll do my best to be a nature lover for the next 30 days.
Of course, I also suspect I’ll have a problem with some other aspects of Native American religion. For example, there’s the whole notion that everything has a spirit.
As writer Bobby Lake-Thom explains in Spirits of the Earth, “According to traditional Native American belief systems, everything is a source of ‘power,’ and as a result it should be revered. The traditional Native American believes that each living thing in Nature has a spirit of its own, in addition to being connected to and part of the Great Spirit. That is why we pray and give thanks to the Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain, Wind, Waters, and all those that walk, crawl, fly, and swim, both seen and unseen.”
Ugh. Does that mean I have to respect and give thanks to the hideous stinkbug that scared the bejeezus out of me this morning? I think this is going to be a rough month.
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