 Spiritual: July 06, 2005 Issue [#459] |
 
Spiritual
This week: Edited by: Erika  
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Welcome to the Spiritual Newsletter!
spiritual
adj.
1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.
2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.
3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.
4. Of, or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.
5. Relating to, or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.
YOUR EDITORS:
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Ms Kimmie 
Puditat
& me, Erika .
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GUEST EDITOR FOR THIS WEEK
scherpenisse
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Seven years ago, my parents' marriage fell apart, and so did our family. My mother was devastated. She spent the next couple of years trying to find happiness again. She moved to another city, went to school again and got a new job. She reconnected with some of her oldest friends and made a couple of new ones. She learned to live on her own again. Recently, I asked her if she still mourned for the kind of life and future that she lost, and she said she didn't. "Everything happens for a reason", she said.
In our every day lives, we usually don't see destiny at work. If you arrive at the grocery store just after it closes, you certainly won't say that it was your fate to arrive late. You will blame yourself for not hurrying enough, will blame public transportation for the delay, will blame your work for keeping you late, or will just blame that old scapegoat: bad luck.
But what if you stand outside the grocery store and start talking to the person who closes up the store, and you two end up getting married? Suddenly, what was bad luck is magically transformed into fate, the power or agency thought to predetermine events. Destiny brought them together, people will say - or at least some people. Others will say you two ran into each other by pure chance.
So what is it: chance or destiny? Are we here for a reason, or are we just rolling from one chance encounter to the next?
Let's suppose there are two worlds: one ruled by chance, one ruled by destiny. Let's call the first world Luck, and the second world Lot.
Suppose you are walking around the world called Luck. You happen upon a wallet in the street. It belongs to a Mr Stephen King. He happens to be a famous writer. "What luck!" you say to yourself. "What a way to get to know this person! I can call him up with the perfect excuse, namely that I found the wallet he lost, and a) get his autograph b) get to know him better." So, you find his publisher or you find a number in his wallet that you can contact him at, and you find his number. Maybe you talk to him and get to bring his wallet around to his summer house in Maine. Maybe not. It's all a roll of the dice.
Now, suppose this same thing happened to you on the world of Lot. You find this same wallet. The same things occur to you, of course: "I can call him up and get to know him and get his autograph." But since this is the world where fate reigns, finding the wallet sets an entire chain of events into motion. You might get to know Stephen King personally, or not. But all sorts of things might flow from that one thing, things that might help you further your career (you are inspired by King to write a novel), find the love of your life (you stop on the way at a diner and meet the person you will fall madly in love with) or get you a new job (you happen to read the want-ads in a local
newspaper that you would have otherwise never have read). In the world of destiny, finding this wallet has a profound influence on the rest of your life.
Which world is the one we inhabit? The one that's filled with lucky breaks, bad patches and happenstance? Or the one containing fortune, karma and fate? It is an unanswerable question - we can't know. And perhaps it's not the right question to ask. Perhaps the question should be: which world would you
want to live in?
See - for me, the trouble with the world of Luck is, that the moment your lucky break is over, that's where it ends. The world of Luck lives for the now, this very moment, unconsidering of past or future. Chance is for today. It does not look ahead. For me, it's the world of Lot that has potential. At every curve, you have the opportunity to ask yourself the age-old question: where am I going? Where do I want to go? Destiny, unlike Chance, does look ahead. It looks at the circumstances of our lives and tells us: "This is what I've given you to work with. What next?" Chance is random. Destiny has a purpose.
Whether it's the choices you make that determine your fate, or some greater force that decides if your hopes and dreams will be fulfilled or if they are, in the words of the famous song, merely dust in the wind - destiny is a path towards the next great event in your life. That's just the way I like it. I like for there to be a meaning to life, so that I'm able to speculate about where my life is leading me to. Chance does not give me that same opportunity to stay eternally curious about tomorrow.
I believe that the idea of destiny is a conscious choice you make. If you believe that chance is the determining force in your life, then you believe that your life is made up of random events that you can only try to make the best of. Every bad thing that happens to you will be considered something you need to fight against. If, on the other hand, you make the choice to see everything that happens to you as a purposeful event, you will see even the roughest times in your life as meaningful. You might not accept these bad times, but you will see the possibility of learning from them.
Personally, like my mother, I like to think that everything happens for a reason. I believe that every stroke of luck can be turned into a nudge from fate. Every person we meet can become one of those people we were destined to come across. If you make that choice to let fate rule your world, to always see the bigger picture even in the smallest thing you do, or hear, or see... then you will see destiny at work all around you. And a beautiful sight it is.
scherpenisse
The items I choose for this section are ones that I have found to be interesting or thoughtful. I do not choose these items based on grammar, spelling, item type, genre (as long as "spiritual" is one of the three listed), or my personal beliefs. Enjoy. 
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I welcome any comments... don't be shy!
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scherpenisse: Excellent newsletter! It's so interesting to see what everyone's thoughts are on their own 'search for God', and to see how the way they were raised influenced that search. Great job!
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Rewa  : Is there anyone out there who have heard or seen things that are obviously not physical? I have and would love to hear from others who have the "gift" of super-sensitivity as well. Just so that I know I'm not alone!
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