Like a good girl, I went to church when I was young. I listened to sermons, went to Sunday school, participated in various church functions. Though there were parts of it that I found valuable, or occasionally fun, overall it was very unsatisfying. It felt very narrow (also superficial - but I think that was more about the particular church).
When I came across the Sweet Medicine Sundance path, much later in life, I was intensely, deeply astonished and grateful to have found a spiritual path that incorporated development of the physical body. It just was not part of my early religious training. Oh, sure, there was some attention to the body: prohibitions (sex, gluttony) and implicit guidelines (dress well, strive to be attractive). But within SMSD, physical health and skill development is just as important as any other aspect of self-growth.
You know the feeling of finding something that you had been seeking, whether knowingly or not? Of coming home? Finding a way to access and increase my spiritual connection through working my physical was like that. I've always been tuned in to my body, to the physical world, how things work, how they break, how to fix them, how to make them. To begin to see how that could be a facet of spirituality was a revelation.
Since that first "wow" moment, I've become more conscious of other ways, other paths, that also bring in our bodies - for example, many martial arts disciplines do this. It is one of the ways, I think, that we can remain engaged in making this life the most and the best that it can be.
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Dear Woman of the World,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posts. Ihave also found that the martial arts and other physical disciplines I have been encouraged to do through my association with the Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society have had led to many "wow moments" for me.