My spirituality has always wavered or come around in waves. Here one moment and gone the next, especially in hard times.
I’m not even going to talk about the hard times of the world this year. We’re all in it together. I think the worst thing about experiencing global hard times is the fact that we’re all also experiencing personal hard times… in a very isolating and scary way. We’re in it together and yet we can never really know what our neighbor or friend or loved one is going through within themselves.
Through my own personal hard times combined with global hard times, I realized I wanted an anchor. Something to help me from being tossed around on every wave. I wanted faith in something, faith in myself, faith in the universe. I started thinking about my own personal beliefs and the relationship I wanted to have with them. I started dedicating time to be in silence, to be in nature, to listen, to notice, to photograph.
Spirituality is such a personal journey for everyone. I’ve gone through so many levels of it. Times of belief and times of complete atheism. I feel like it is something you have to want in your life. It’s a choice you make. And it’s something that has to be developed from within with focus and dedication. Just because people tell you to believe one way, or in one thing, it will never mean it’s the right path for you. Realizing that I could decide my own path, decide in my own faith, decide to believe in myself and decide what I want to believe about the universe has helped me keep going through everything.
I hope during these hard times everyone else is finding their anchor, whatever that may be.
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Beautiful post, Jenny.
May we all have anchors… xo
This is so beautiful. It is a comfort to see these words – to acknowledge that in the midst of worldwide struggle, there also exists personal struggle. It can be hard to express personal grief for fear of seeming insensitive to what seems to be a larger issue, and yet, no person’s pain should be minimized. Finding a path through grief is a personal journey . . . where faith and prayer are often at the heart of healing, regardless of whether we pray into our belief or our disbelief. These images tell a story that I often feel.