Rewilding My Faith
Listen here:
Growing up, my family moved frequently throughout the United States. Rivers, creeks, mountains, seashore, lakes, farmland, desert, forests, were all among my first friends in any new place we moved. Digging, climbing, gazing, exploring, and swimming were all ways I discovered and danced with nature around me. I remember feeling playful, curious, free, expansive, strong, loving, and loved. More than landscapes or backdrops to my human family story unfolding in each place, these geographies and ecosystems were where I felt the truest sense of welcome and mutual pleasure, respect, and relationship.
Today as I remember these places, it is often the trees, waters, animals, and seasons that comes to mind first. The natural world was more than landscape, they were companions that help me understand the world and experience the Creator in special ways.
Religiously speaking, with each move, before we found our local parish for Sunday mass, being outside was where I experienced the touch of God in my heart drawing forth wonder and awe in the wild temple of creation.
Before my experience of sacramental preparation and participation in Holy Communion and Reconciliation or consciousness of my vocation that was implanted in me through my baptism; my bones, blood, skin, and breath knew communion with God and people through the Word of the wind howling in skies and whistling of birds, and the healing, cleansing powers of the ocean, and unburdening my laments beneath a tree. The sun, moon, and stars were the lights that guided my interior longings like the Paschal candle.
Before I learned about the Trinity or the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father or the Hail Mary, I learned about interconnectedness and how to praise and honor God the Creator through my relationships with the natural world. As I grew up and my formation and religious practice were brought indoors, my spirituality remained wild in the utopian horizon that draws us to itself.
Today I am knitting together my spiritual home that is a blend of Creation’s cathedral and the temples of humanity.
How has your faith and spirituality evolved over time? Reflect and listen to what emerges.
Read more like this
