Spirituality is the substrate

I’m using my blog posts to try to better explain my business approach and philosophy. It’s a process of ongoing clarification for myself too because this is not something that is only of Wendy.

My posts are also very personal, which is a risk. To be vulnerable is to open yourself to risk. But I do believe that if you are too afraid to be someone, you will be no one. And as Alexander Hamilton says, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

We need to have the courage to express what we believe. It is a sure way to better know and locate ourselves. And will enable us to shift our perspective and change our stance, in relation to other, through openness and expanded awareness.

Two events happened this week that sparked the idea for this post.

I’ve been trying to cultivate water kefir. My gut’s been waiting in eager anticipation. But there’s no action, except for some suspicious looking mold floating on the surface. Maybe it was the sugar I used or maybe the water? Anyway, the substrate is not providing an environment conducive for the kefir to flourish.

And, while reading a friend’s Facebook post in which she shared her favourite bible verses, I realised that my exploration of spirituality through other religions, philosophies and practices had given me a greater appreciation for biblical texts. It seems ironic, doesn’t it?

It’s an achievement for me to now be able to contemplate Christianity without my toes curling back. Perhaps because I haven’t been immersed in any other religions in the same way I feel less reactive to them? The artwork above also shows how I am able to appreciate the symbol of a cross as a representation of infinite grace. It’s become quite a personal symbol for me. There’s the prominent landmark of a cross outside my living room window and I’ve studied it a few times in different light. In certain light it looks as though it stands on top of the hill a long distance behind it.

I was raised in a Christian household. Yet, we often come to know something in relation to other. When you are raised on the beliefs of others, it is natural and healthy to question them as you become your own person. And as you evolve throughout your life, it is healthy to keep questioning beliefs and practices in the light of new experiences and knowledge. Do they still ring true for us? How do we see these espoused beliefs evidenced in the world among a diversity of people?

So although I laid Christianity aside, I did not embrace atheism. I was searching to understand the broader spectrum. Yet, how could only one group be right, and all others, despite the sincerity of their beliefs and the goodness of their being, be wrong? It is a concept I cannot accept.

Love is love, kindness is kindness, respect is respect, etc.

I know that I do not know all. But I also have to live by what makes sense to me now.

And so what I have come to is this.

It is far wiser and more relevant to embrace certain values, morals, qualities and principles, wherever they be evidenced, rather than the vessel that is supposed to contain them.

What is the substrate within that vessel?

For me, the substrate is spirituality. That which is greater than ourselves. God, the almighty, divine consciousness, the great I am. People use many terms in different languages and cultures. (I’m not going to attempt to list them.)  And I believe that, in most cases, we are referencing the same source.

How feeble life would be if it rested on my narrow little shoulders; on my daily – hourly – whim; on my limited capacity for tolerance, compassion, grace, empathy and love; on my myopic vision for the future; on my incomprehension of now, and the immensity and intricacy of all that is.

And this is why my art practice can only be rooted in a spiritual substrate that nourishes and sustains it.  This is also why spiritual practice is the backbone of the courses that I offer to fellow creatives.

It is in this substrate that we will flourish.

As always, I hope to hear your opinions and experiences.