It's Important to Keep Up
It's funny how some words just catch your attention. I'm watching the New Morning episode on "Walking Your Path" and wondering who I might meet in what interesting situations during the show. Then I hear them: We need "education, inspiration, and grace" to find our path and "determination and intention" to walk it. One word really stands out: education.
I consider myself a lifelong learner. It's something I came by honestly. My mother always belonged to a "study club"; she and her friends took turns preparing programs for each other on all kinds of subjects. And my father used to read the encyclopedia after dinner. He'd just open a volume at random and pretty soon, he'd be sharing some interesting tidbit he found there.
My spiritual journey has been an ongoing education. I started, as many Christians do, with the Bible, but I soon branched out to reading books about spirituality and the teachings of the world's religions. My path has taken many turns and gone into territory I never thought I'd explore when I was younger. I've loved all the detours, and I owe that to an understanding that spiritual wisdom is always coming to us afresh. We never know when we might be inspired. We could be reading a novel or a business book or the encyclopedia. That why my husband and I describe our work reviewing books as providing "resources for spiritual journeys."
When I was in high school I wrote a term paper about Vinoba Bhave, a contemporary of Gandhi's in India, who organized a land reform movement. In the 1970s, a friend had the opportunity to visit Bhave in his modest home. He was in his 80s at the time. But next to his bed was a huge stack of books, including Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock," the controversial book that predicted people would find it difficult to keep up with the incessant changes happening in the world. Noting her surprise, Bhave explained, "It's important to keep up." That's good advice for any spiritual journey.