As I read the recent Prairiewoods blog Many Voices, Shared Questions (Leslie Wright, Jan. 6, 2023), I asked myself, do I identify as religious or spiritual? The answer for me was a bit of each. After all I am a Licensed Leader at my Unity Center here in Cedar Rapids, so that makes me religious, right?
However, in order to meditate, pray, teach, and support others, I reach inside to my inner divine spirit. My spiritual self supports my religious self.
For me I find that my spirit within is always connected to nature … eco-spirituality. I find that inner spirituality out pictured in all the creative projects I love, whether it is writing poetry, making soul collage cards, or sketching in my nature journal.
Each year I choose a Word for the Year like Andi Lewis in her blog of Dec. 30, 2022. Instead of finding a word to honor the outgoing year, I search for one to use as intention-setting for the coming year.
This year the word wonderment came to me. I realized that in the midst of the world’s chaos there is always wonderment … each tiny human cell goes about its work of keeping our body in balance, there is a beautiful reflected afterglow from each sunset promising renewed colors at dawn, each seed sleeping beneath the frozen ground magically knows when to awaken and begin to grow, and all the stars are always present, only to be seen when it is the darkest.
One special place of wonderment for me has always been Prairiewoods. I share here a poem I wrote in 2012 after a retreat there. It summarizes for me MY spirituality that can be found in this small patch of nature on the edge of our busy city lives. May I always be filled with wonderment to nourish my eco-spirituality soul!
This is why I’ve come to Prairiewoods time and again over the years.
THIS IS WHY I’VE COME
This is why I’ve come …
to walk the sunlit paths
senses
awakened by birdsong
sweetgrass scent
floating on the breeze
cricket tunes, locust choruses
tickle of Queen Anne’s Lace
across my fingers
… city traffic held at bay.This is why I’ve come …
to listen to
voices of angels
whispering in the wind
to meditate, to learn
energize, renew!
to share with friends
laughter, peace, and love
joyful healing paths
our inner light.This is why I’ve come …
to walk the evening woods
beside Archangel Michael’s
protective energy
my way lit only
by fireflies and stars
a kiss of summer’s breeze
across my cheek
standing bathed in moonlight
ME center of the labyrinth.This is why I’ve come …
to feel the energetic light
of Mother Earth
enfolding me,
radiating far beyond
the evening star
transporting me
to another placeThis is why I’ve come …
just this …
awakening and wonder …then
so much
more.—written following a 2012 weekend retreat at Prairiewoods, rewritten January 2023
—Janith Shoning-Griffith
image of the wonderment of spring flowers by Angie Pierce Jennings