From all the studying and seeking and praying, I have learned that the more I learn, the less I know about spirituality. I evolve to a point where I think I know something, then I learn something else, and I evolve again and again. This is the spiral of spiritual evolution. My beliefs will be somewhat different tomorrow than they are today. Spirituality, while having an underlying foundation, is a moving target.
Answers come in dreams.
I’ve had unexplainable experiences that lead me to believe in the mysteries of the unseen. It’s my own personal experiences that nourish my spirituality, rather than theology.
I received a photo one day while out in my flower garden with my camera, a heart in the center of a morning glory.
I’ve created music that I have no idea where it came from, or memory of the process in the three hours I spent doing it. I came out from under my headphones not knowing what time it was, having traveled elsewhere while still in my chair, led by spirit.
When I think of spirituality, I see nature, our plant and creature kin, the sky, water and landscapes. I think of the many worlds that make up our world. I think of gardening, that miracle of abundance that gives back so much more than I give to it. I think of the mini-miracles in an ordinary day, like the play of shadows in the winter or the dawn chorus of spring.
When I separate the wheat from the chaff, all that I’ve studied and learned, my fundamental beliefs come from my own personal experiences. That spiritual zap of energy when I discover that heart in the center of the morning glory, the lost hours while composing a song with my flutes, and the connections with others, human and non-human, that nourish my life. Time spent creating is the key.
—Diane Wheeler Dunn