Transformation

The topic of tonight's Classic Moms class was transformation. Those of you who are taking Classic Moms with me will understand why I was inspired to post tonight. Those of you who aren't in the class, well, why the heck aren't you in it? Classic Moms from Abigail Adams Academy absolutely rocks! Well, your loss. Try to enjoy the blog post anyway.

Andrea introduced us to the idea of how truths transform us. How when we learn a new truth it takes us on a path and in the end we grow from it. There were middle steps, but I'm going into it here. You should have been in the class, you missed out. As she was talking I realized that I recently did learn a new truth, and wanted to share it. Caveat for those of you who aren't in the class, this was a spiritual related truth. What I learned is a truth to me, it may not be to you. I don't intend to try to try to make you believe the same things I do, we all have our own beliefs and we must be study within them and be true to them. (Those of you who study TJed with Andrea already know that.)

Background, last week I was out of town at a conference for work. One evening I had dinner with a co-worker who in the course of our wandering, non-work related conversations, said that she believes that there is only one God and that God presents himself (edited by me to include herself and/or itself) to each individual in the way that the individual can best understand and perceive him/her/it/etc. A light bulb came on in my head and after years of not being able to reconcile my own spiritual beliefs it made sense. Years of thinking and reading and wondering and it finally became clear to me over steak and salmon (we eat well when the company sends us out of town and picks up the check) who/what god is. I now know who my spiritual being is.

Even farther back, background: I was raised both in the United Church of Christ and with Native American spiritual beliefs. I could never get the two ideas to gel in my head because of the commandment about worshiping only one God. At home I was taught that there was not only the Great Spirit but other spirits watching over us and helping us find our way. It all makes sense now. There is just one God. But God presents him/her/itself (I haven't figured that part out yet) to me both as the Great Spirit and as my spirit guide and as other spirits. I don't have to completely throw Christianity out the window, I just have to accept both as the truth.

Okay, at this point let me remind you that I'm not saying that my truth has any grain of truth to you. I encourage you to have your own beliefs, I respect your beliefs, I will even fight for your right to believe what is true for you. I just will not stand for anyone to disparage my truth. (And for my new Classic Mom friends, I am addressing this to the blog spammers. My friends and blog buddies wouldn't leave nasty comments, whether they agree or disagree with me. That's why they are so cool. Freakmom, who often talks about herself in the third person, does not tolerate nasty comments from idiots with nothing better to do than wander cyberspace interfering in other people's blogs. Don't make me get out my spam swatter and smack you.)

Back to my new found truth. I learned tonight that my journey isn't over now that I know the answer. I have accepted it, but I must also work hard and grow from it. Perhaps that will be part of my classic moms path this year in learning who I will become.

Thank you for listening to my new truth and for respecting it. I have a long way to go, but gosh I feel like I've made huge strides already.