It’s me–I’m back!

Did you miss me?

….No?  Well, there are about a zillion other blogs out there for you to read.

No–don’t go.   Just kidding.  I love my readers.

I apologize for the long drought.  It’s been a weird month.  For one thing, I spent an inordinate amount of time writing a spiritual autobiography, a required part of the application process for the Jewish Renewal movement’s rabbinic ordination program.

Yes, I’m finally doing what everyone’s been telling me to do for ages — beginning to study for the rabbinate.  It’s a flexible program of study that will allow me to keep my full- and part-time jobs, stay in Sarasota, and still be able to follow my dreams.

So here I am, talking about spirituality yet again.  (Sensing a theme here?)  Because it turns out that a spiritual autobiography is a hard thing to write.

For one thing I had to confront my dis-belief in God while applying to a program that’s all about exploring one’s relationship with the Divine.  Fortunately “the Divine” is easier for me to relate to than “God.”

And yet…  my notion of spirituality has less to do with God/the Divine/Who-Whatever and more to do with us humans.

Which makes me think about Chuang Tzu who woke from a dream and wondered if he was Chuang Tzu who dreamt that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he’s Chuang Tzu.

Like Chuang Tzu, I find myself wondering about the paradox of my existence – am I a spiritual being who acts in the world, or through acting in the world am I spiritual?  It reminds me of the t-shirt slogan I saw recently, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Looks like I’ll be exploring this quandary — and much more — over the next few years.  I’ll keep you posted.