The pile of laundry has once again grown to over four feet and so I'm folding away with Fight Club on in the background. Watching movies makes a boring job palatable, and the folding leaves room to ruminate over the movie I've chosen.
And so, today's thoughts hover around men's spirituality. Not so very long ago I was very distressed at being a girl. Most of my friends during my senior year of high school were guys. I didn't understand other women.
I grew up and entered into a commited relationship with The Hubby and most of my guy friendships fell away. There was only so long I was willing to put up with lonliness before I realized I had to "come to terms with" my femininity. I succeeded beyond the wildest imagings of the lost young woman crying on a winter beach that I was 12 years ago.
In return though, I have lost track of masculinity, and more specifically, male spirituality. Maybe it isn't so different from the woman's spirituality I practice but I can't shake the feeling that it is a lot different.
I met a really nice guy yesterday at the reiki circle that I went to. He was a gentleman and gave each of us ladies a velvet rose. He was a real person with a slightly snarky sense of humor, which I love. But how he related to being a reiki practioner/master I just couldn't wrap my head around. What made his soul tick?
And then there's Fight Club. Is it spirituality? Could it be? If spirituality is, at least in part, about finding out about yourself and That Which Is Bigger than yourself, then by all means the points that the movie makes are spirituality. I don't know if it'd play out that way in real life, but it's fascinating to ruminate on (especially while folding laundry.)
I suppose the part of this that most applies is that spirituality needn't always be about the soft side of things. I think a lot of people lose spirituality and a sense of a higher power because they assume that its all gratitude journals, and peaceful thoughts, and the like. Life isn't all positive and a true spiritual practice, one that hopes to be lasting, needs to acknowledge the negativity, making room for it and figuring out a way to hold both the yin and the yang.
What makes your soul tick? How is it different from the opposite sex? Is it?
1 comment:
I just thought I'd comment here, Deb, even though I have no idea how to answer the question about male spirituality. I really like your questions, because they are always thought-provoking.
I'll take a guess. It seems to me as though male spirituality is more dualistic, patriarchal, and dogma and rule-based, while female spirituality seems more universal, intuitive, and connection oriented. Sometimes matriarchal. I doubt that very many men would buy into a matriarchal spirituality.
Spirituality that is female or gender-neutral makes my soul tick :)
Peace,
Olivia
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