“The best of all medicines is resting and fasting"- Benjamin Franklin

I'm at an interesting place in my life at the moment.

My spring cleaning is starting a little early this year, both internal and external. I'm determined to get to know myself better, to become a whole person again and reclaim my energy.

During emotionally stressful times it's my natural reaction to stop eating or only eat junk food, so this time around I'm doing something productive for myself. Out of this muck will bloom a lotus.

Tomorrow I start an apple cleansing fast*. It may sound a little strange, but it will be a good way to clean out my insides and introduce myself to the spiritual discipline of fasting. I'll let you know how it goes.

When you take a step back and take a breath, it's amazing to discover all the insights and opportunities that were right in front of your face. Life is good and I'm excited. :-)



*Before you get up in arms about me starving myself, this is a doctor supervised 3-day thing, no worries.

Lindsey gets a Second Life

Okay I'll admit it (because that's all I do on this blog any more) I joined Second Life. After that discussion in class during our session on Durkheim (see post), I was curious.

So I made an avatar (named Lindsey Dayafter) and set off to explore this new online world. People have apparently been making a lot of money selling items and real estate in this second world. You can hold concerts and movie screenings, get married and even go to church...which is where I come in.

My intention behind joining Second Life is to explore the spiritual life that avatars (and the people behind them) have. Today I spent some time exploring different "houses of worship", from LifeChurch.tv's building, to the Church of Satan, to a Zen meditation center and finally a Catholic monastery. The picture above is of my avatar kneeling in prayer at a chapel in the monastery. It's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to going back to the various different places of worship to check out their services and discussion groups.

But here's the question- is this real spirituality, real religious devotion? I mean, you can see quite clearly that my avatar, Lindsey Dayafter, is kneeling and praying in the Second Life world, but in all honestly I was eating lunch and watching *cringe* Maury while my she was being pious. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to people and find out what this means to them, if they do this with devotion or just for fun.

The internet is such a strange new world that absolutely fascinates me...especially when religion is involved. Hmm...do I smell a thesis topic?

----EDIT---

Apparently Lindsey Dayafter is quite the pluralist-


Meditating at a Buddhism and Yoga center (it's also a nightclub and has a stage for concerts)


Meditating at a Shinto shrine which also had a giant gold Buddha next to it


Worshiping at that Shinto shrine

(Lindsey's been busy)

I Don't Believe in Peter Pan Frankenstein or SupermanAll I Wanna Do Is...

My early birthday present from my parents this year was a bicycle.
I was really excited about going for rides and being able to get to class much easier...that was until about 11:15 today.

The Mindtaker was kind enough to accompany me on my inaugural ride, thankfully, because not too long into my ride I thought the bottom half of my body was going to forcibly remove itself from me. Okay perhaps I'm being a bit over-dramatic (Me? Never!), but I hadn't been on a bike in forever and it really REALLY hurt. I wanted to quit. We weren't even on campus yet and I wanted to give up and walk the damn thing home.

Gabriel was patient with me, (I'll admit I was acting like a five year old) and reminded me that it would get easier, that I should put the bike in a lower gear, and that I could do it. He didn't agree when I made disparaging comments about how I looked like a "dipwad" pedaling in such a low gear, and even humored my attempt at feigning bike knowledge when I told him he needed to raise his seat. We managed to make it all the way to the religious studies building and back...even surviving the descent down a steep hill directly south of my apartment complex. No brakes....next time. :-) Thanks Gabe, I couldn't have done it without you.

Supposedly you never forget how to ride a bike. I call bullshit on that one. I needed time to re-learn, to gain balance, to use muscles long forgotten.

I think my spiritual life is looking more and more the same way. It's been so long since I've legitimately practiced, actually put devotion and intention into it, that I'm scared. I try a little, here and there, but 5 minutes into it I'm about ready to give up...and I do.

I'm realizing more and more that spirituality is hard to foster (at least for me) by yourself. I need someone who can show me compassion and patience when I'm acting like a five year old. Someone who will encourage me and explore with me and not let me give up.

I used to think that everyone who followed some sort of organized religion were sheep. (Cynicism and skepticism are my vices.) But more and more it'd be nice to find someone who has a vague idea of what's going on, advice on how to get where I want to go and insights to share.

I just don't know that church is where I want to be. Even where I need to be.
Isn't there a lower gear for this whole spirituality thing?