 Welcome to the
Kindred Spirit Way—where we strive to discover spiritual truth...
If you're not interested in a greater and deeper
understanding of life, this page is not for you. However...
if you want to find peace, overcome depression and make the world a
better place, perhaps it is.
What's important to understand is that spiritual truth is the same for
everyone, regardless of the faith you follow...or don't follow. |
Living Today
The world today is in
the most confusing time that there has ever been. Massive
amounts of new information are discovered daily. With each new
discovery something is made obsolete. Computers have made all this
possible because they are able to compute complex formulas and correlate
data so quickly through rapid communications and a high speed interchange of files.
If email and the web haven't taken over the world, they have certainly made
it smaller and more accessible.
Our world is filled with
people of every ethnicity and religion who care more about others and about the
world than about their own welfare. Unfortunately, they are not the
ones we normally hear about. The ones we hear about are those who don't care, or (more
likely) only care about their own little world and their own religion.
Anybody who is out side of what they believe needs to change. That's
what creates terrorism.
In our world today we
are constantly bombarded by news of tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes,
hurricanes/typhoons, famines, war and global warming. All these thing
are important, but some things are changeable. For
example, we have no control over earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes/tornados
and volcanoes. But global warming we can probably head off. We even have
limited control over famines by our giving of food and money. But
often in our giving we find out later that so little of what was been given
actually arrived at its destination. Or, if it did arrive, was not
distributed, or it was confiscated (stolen), hoarded and then sold by disreputable thieves.
This tends to make us cynical and less likely to give, or to give less.
It seems that no matter
where you live, life is hard. Even in the richest of countries, life
can be unbearably miserable. It seems there's always something to drag
us down;
it's simply that the type of hardships change, depending on where you live;
instead of hunger, bad marriages make us miserable. Instead of poverty,
we hate our jobs. In the US (and probably Europe) we're miserable
while adrift in a sea of baubles and toys.
Interestingly, the more
knowledge we acquire, the more miserable we become. My mother-in-law
is in her nineties because of modern medical marvels. It takes a team
of nurses and a loving daughter to keep her going. But she's certainly not
happy and only gets small doses of joy.
Why?
Because life has lost
all meaning for her. She has to have assistance going to the bathroom,
getting bathed and getting out of bed. The only thing that brings her
joy is having company. Everyone I see in the assisted care facility
where she lives is unhappy. There is no joy at that stage in their
lives. And yet they insist on grasping for life; for hanging in there,
regardless of how miserable we are.
And we insist that they
keep living.
Why?
Because we'd feel guilty
if we didn't. It's just one of the tragedies of life brought about by
several things: we live longer; we work both harder and longer and it takes
two to make a living in order to achieve the status of the nineteen
fifties. As a result, our children suffer and we can't take care of
aging family members
At best, life is
difficult. In some areas of the world it's physically difficult.
In other areas it's mentally difficult. Some of us are strapped with
both.
Is there a solution?
Not an immediate one.
Mental distress can be overcome by developing a spiritual awareness.
That doesn't do squat, however, for hunger and the other things mentioned
above—except in this regard: those who are spiritually alive (aware) tend
to give aid, help, money and comfort, all of which make a big difference.