Faith is a word many of us first heard or associated in a religious context. Maybe going to Sunday school was how we learned to practice our faith, giving way in our anxiety to a believe we hold firm will deliver us the hest outcome or what is meant to be.
As a comfortably spiritual, yet not religious person in the traditional or organized denominational sense – faith has taken on a greater role of trust in my life than it ever has before. Trust not in a narrative nor a set of tenets, but in myself and the gifts bestowed upon me by the universe I continue to hone and grow. It’s absolutely rooted in gratitude for experiences, gifts and talents alike. Faith has grown stronger into a foundation that uncertainty isn’t to be feared or beared through pain and suffering. It is the raw layers peeling back to (with love) dig deep and feel confident in facing and embracing each moment.
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. – Alan Watts
Faith is now in my mind not a possession rooted in ritual, but instead a daily practice of acknowledgment of self. To know where you are, the gifts you hold and trusting that you will know when to call on them in the moment. That being said to continue to pursue personal growth and the unveiling of the truest self while grasping tightly to faith of religion or static nature seems to be destined to a provide nothing but a feeling of stuckness. I’m not attacking or undermining the faith of others in this thought, I am simply presenting an idea that may allow true faith to grow without anxiety of being enough for someone else, the world (society) or a religion (diety).
To trust the process and to trust one’s self is the true faith I strive for now. To know that I will continue to grow and I trust my intuition, ability, intelligence and soul. In a moment may I know that I have the tools to embrace, endure, overcome, achieve, learn and trust in the experience.