This week in church, we talked about spirituality.
I don't remember if this quote is direct from the pastor, someone else, or a crappy paraphrase, but here's what I wrote down: "spirituality is what we do with our loneliness, unrest, and thirst."
The first thing this reminded me of is the Louis C.K. bit where he talks about the fact that we all, deep down inside, have a sense of emptiness and being all alone in the world. (The whole video is good, but the relevant part starts around 1:15.)
Right? Okay, so we all have a deep emptiness somewhere inside. Or maybe not all of us, maybe just those of us who are too aware or too sensitive or too naturally inclined towards depression. I don't know. Regardless, I know the feeling he's talking about.
So spirituality is whatever we do with that feeling.
If that's the case, then my spiritual practice primarily consists of Netflix, reading, Reddit, and social media/my cell phone. (Confession: I put reading second in the list to feel better about myself, but really it should be last considering how I actually use my time.)
Oh, actually no. That's not my spiritual practice. The primary way I avoid feeling lonely and sad is by being so busy I don't have time to see it and collecting more friends than I have time for. (There's safety in numbers!)
Wait, but there's another problem with that statement. It's not a spiritual practice. Practice implies at least some level of intentionality. Most of the time I am not intentional about filling the holes in my heart. I default to distractions and avoidance.
When I am intentional about feeling whole I do "properly" spiritual things like pray, meditate, do yoga, journal, or just actually experience my feelings. And honestly? Those things work a lot better than the distractions.
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