This I believe...

I'm not a religious woman. Never really have been. Oh, I sort of dabbled in this or that belief system over the years. But none of them really took. The thing that I took away from the organized religions was an understanding of that powerful sense of community; of belonging. But I never bought into the whole idea of eternal punishment or eternal reward. And the concept of a God with a capital G minding all of our business made no sense to me whatsoever.

It was the pagan spirituality that really caught my fancy more than anything else. Pagans of just about every stripe believe in the notion that if you're no good to yourself, you can't possibly be any good to anyone else. Oh, and never ever be self-serving. Sounds contradictory, I know, but if you've experienced it, you know what I'm talking about. But even those beliefs didn't really work for me in the end. Too much posturing, not enough doing. I'll still do the odd ritual in order to find my balance at times, but my heart's not there for the long haul.

But there are a few things that I have taken with me from my travels, which I find at times like these, are useful to keep repeating to myself:

1. The Golden Rule never fails. It's not even so much because of the "doing" unto others, but rather the process of thinking to one's self how another person would feel in the situation. At least, that's how it is for me.
2. Karma - it always catches up to you eventually. I especially forget this one sometimes because it always seems to take ages for the hurt or help people have caused to come back around to them, but then it comes pouring out all of a sudden, and all is right with the world. Even when it zings me.
3. Everything happens for a reason. I don't know why, it just does. I don't necessarily believe in fate or destiny, but sometimes your subconscience sort of tugs you in one direction or another, and sometimes those directions are painful, but we go and head that way anyway only to find that our little Jiminy wasn't as off the mark as we might have thought, despite any cuts and bruises we might have gotten along the way.

Anyway, perhaps if I write these things down I'll be less likely to forget them. And, maybe, if you are reading this and you see me forgetting, someone will be there to remind me. If we all take care of our little corners of the universe, everything will be fine. Just fine.