Open-Mindedness

 To paraphrase a book title from a few decades ago, “Don’t sweat the God stuff … and it’s ALL God stuff”.

In “As Bill Sees It”, Bill W. writes that “… the realm of spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive, never exclusive or forbidding …”. What a refreshing point of view! I was raised in a place of spiritual confusion and exclusion. I could never be ‘good enough’ to know God - and this was the ‘god’ who would deny, destroy, and favor the few. The job of religions was to define what the rules would be, then to demand adherence or be damned. 

My higher power was, in actuality, alcohol. It took precedence over all other pursuits. I worshipped at its altar, and made it the one whose demands I followed, to the near exclusion of my responsibilities. Carl Jung famously wrote in a letter to Bill about the need for “a spiritual experience to counter addiction to the spirits (alcoholism)”. 

My relationship with a Power greater than myself is freeing. I am part of The Whole, and I belong. We are all part of The Whole; we ALL belong. Narrow roads exist for those who want clear boundaries. For me, being open to openness, being one with the All, feeling the oneness of all life in moments of gratitude and wonder and joy - that is my connection, my understanding and not-understanding, the Home to which I return when I consciously choose awareness as well as when I’m blind to it. It Is. I Am.

“Spiritus contra spiritum” - spirit against spirit. One or the other.


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