PeteT:

Certainly you would think your stepfather would have gotten some kind of message from that besides
pause & then keep doing what I'm doing.

Well, perps can be crafty, but they are also foolish. To put it nicely.

I'm glad you were protected that night, I'm sorry your abuse continued, and I'm glad you have come thru it a survivor.

Victor

Hello jer and all!

Your question is certainly a good one. There is a big difference between religion and spirituality--although, all religions have a spirituality. Religion is about creed, cult, (worship) and code ( a set of rules meant to assist one in their journey to God.)

Spirituality, for me has been a connection between the God I do believe in and very much love, and myself. God speaks to me, I bellieve, in music, plays, sunrises and sunsets, in various happenings in the course of a day, or week. The beauty of flowers and bushes, the ladnscape, all speak to my heart and give me peace and joy. My beautiful Lake Michigan speaks powerfully to me of so many things at different times. So do infants, even crying ones with smelly diapers, the laughs of little children, the decency of so many good teens these days. I feel as though a spirit of love, joy, peace and strength is all around me and I just need to plug into it.

An 18 year old friend of mine died 8 days ago. I felt overwhelmed with grief. But the huge funeral he had and the hundreds of teens that came and cried and hugged each other were a bit of beauty among great sorrow..

God does help me and watches over me more and more. I wondered where he was when I was suffering. But I think maybe it is because he was there helping me that I am even alive today.

Spirituality does impact my life a lot. I get comfort out of meditating about the things that happened to Jesus on the way to the cross--somehow that makes me feel very much loved. My spirituality has given me a more peaceful and sensitive outlook on people and events. I am not the awful crabby man I used to be. There are a lot of ways my spirituality give me an idea of how to think, act, and respond to daily living.

jer, I am so saddened at the way you were abvsed by the man you should have been able to trust the most. I have no idea how you learn to trust and experience yourself as both loved and loveable. But you are a pillar here and I think you know that you have hundreds of men here who admire you and who would protect you with their own lives. I hope that you can rejoice in that.

Your brother,

Bob

Bob
I find my spirituality in these, and similar, things -

And I can appreciate to a degree how they connect you to your chosen God or Religion.
But I'm one of these atheists that's often looked through the Church doors and thought about what I see, and I remain an atheist.

The connection I get from these lind of spiritual inspirations is a connection with life, with those around me, and I feel my strongest connection with those others who also appreciate these connections. Whether they are religious or not, my instinct leads me towards people who display appreciation and understanding of lifes pleasures, however simple they might be.

If we appreciate the pleasures fully then the horrors seem less, or at least the occasional respite from the horrors seems better.

Dave

way cool and thanks for the replies ya'll. it's all food for thought as i find my way in the dark it seems. willingness to try other ways... hmmm, i suppose i gotta be willing.

sometimes i feel like i'm open to new ways of being, thinking about life, about myself. and sometimes i'm not.

yeah, being able to enjoy a recent warm sunny day... it can be sublime when one knows the frozen depths of hell.

as i've posted elsewhere tonight, i'll be coming back to this thread when i have more energy and have digested these posts.

yo

jer