Do you have a spot where you have collected special trinkets? Do you have a spot where you pray or meditate or just think, where you have some sacred objects gathered? Do you collect things on walks .:. pine cones, rocks, a shell, some worn glass, a reflector light from a bike, a worn and scuffed Luke Skywalker action figure .:. bring them home and put them on a shelf or on a windowsill, together with other collected detritus and treasures?
I do. I have always had a fascination for collecting little "things" and I love to see the things other people collect and "arrange", whether for personal prayer, or personal amusement, or personal remembrances, or just because like a small child, or a beautiful ebony crow, we are distracted, beguiled and amused with shiny, precious, unusual, beautiful, pocket worthy objects.
I did not grow up in a deeply religious or worshipful family. My mother and my grandparents are Unitarian .:. on the the very philosophical, theoretical, humanitarian edge of Unitarianisim .:. not a lot of talk about God. Talk and thought about ideas, and feelings reigned. Energy put towards how we treat each other, what things we could do more for each other, and other beliefs that would probably be considered more Humanitarian than Spiritual in thought and motivation were the central ground of anything that could be thought of as spiritual. My mother's religion is her garden, my grandmother's was probably also her garden and her artwork, and my grandfather worshipped in his wood shop.
So, like many many others I have come to my own relationship with my own spirituality in a very hodge podge, step by step, and step away kind of fashion. God. Hmmm. Still don't feel cozy with the word or the image. Spirit. I can get much closer to that word, it has some curves and some mystery that I feel more comfortable with.
An alter: not something I think about in the context of a church, but more in the sense of what I value, what I gather, what things in my life fill me, ground me, bring me warmth and joy and remind me of my own humanity and relationship to a larger world.
Do you have any altars in your home? What kinds of things do you keep there? Do you have a designated mediation or prayer spot where you keep sacred and personal objects? What are your sacred objects?
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