Floodplain....
I have actually been working on this post for six weeks. But, for many reasons, it has gotten tabled. Returning to it today, I am reminded that all of us are spiritual people, but we all experience and express our spirituality differently. The following connects with my personal contemplitive and mystical spirituality...
"Some hearts are built on a floodplain...."
I don't know why or even when I first developed an interest in geology. But, I fully embraced it at the age of twenty-one. I was required to take a science elective in college and I chose Geology. It was a class that had nothing do with my studies in music education. But, it was a class I enjoyed immensely.
There are seasons of my spiritual journey when certain songs play constantly in my heart and mind. Several songs just seem to be a narration of certain types of seasons and as I find a season unfolding, a song will get played on repeat. One such song that I have been hearing over recent weeks has turned my mind back to thoughts about things I learned in my geology class.
Butr floodplain, for me, is not only geographic and geological. For me, it is also spiritual. It is a spiritual space. I have felt inundadted and overwhelmed by the water of depression. I have also felt a sense of similar feelings but from a spiritual space called the dark night of the soul. So much of my adult life has been marked by these seasons. And, I have come out in the other side with parts of my faith and experience of the holiness of my God having had my personhood and spirituality and and ways that I connect with God and the world around me being reordered.
Every single one of us connects to the world in sipritual ways. Even those of you reading who claim no faith actually connect to the world in spiritual ways even if you woud deny that truth. The ways we each connect are various. I do plan to write more about the varied ways people connect to the worl spiritually in future posts. But, this is a somewhat self-ish post so today, I am going to somply reflect on my own spiritual connection to the world, its people, and my God.
I have a mystical and contemplative spirituality. I "feel" spiritual connection with my God, other people, and the world. It also means I deeply need spaces and time for solitude. Mystical spirituality has a longeing that seeks union with God, the world, and other people. This also means I sense deeply the absense of connection with God.
For me, having this mystical and contemplative spirituality feels very much as though my spiritual journey and path meanders along a floodplain. It shifts and widens. The path dries out. The path floods. Sometimes the flooding is overwhelming and scary. Sometimes the flood is nourishing as it sets down new nourishing sediment. I feel deeply that this fluxuation description marks how turbulent my spiritual journey of faith often is.
The floodplain is a living marked my dichotomy. There are struggles and there is deep beauty and life.
Below is the lyric video of Sara Grove's song and a video of her talking about it.
In the midst of these days, living in the floodplain is an ever-changing landscape. This is the truth of my life both in terms of the physical and geographical and in terms of my spiritual journey.
https://youtu.be/tKzWz43Sx_o
https://youtu.be/ra3lh0DCIDY
"Some hearts are built on a floodplain...."
I don't know why or even when I first developed an interest in geology. But, I fully embraced it at the age of twenty-one. I was required to take a science elective in college and I chose Geology. It was a class that had nothing do with my studies in music education. But, it was a class I enjoyed immensely.
There are seasons of my spiritual journey when certain songs play constantly in my heart and mind. Several songs just seem to be a narration of certain types of seasons and as I find a season unfolding, a song will get played on repeat. One such song that I have been hearing over recent weeks has turned my mind back to thoughts about things I learned in my geology class.
The current song is "Floodplain" by Sara Groves.
A floodplain is an area that is highly fertile land, but when the rains come they cannot inundated and overwhelmed by the water. The land can be overwhelmed with foreign objects, items from somewhere else washed there by the waters. The fertile land can be left for a time unable to produce crops. Homes and structures in a floodplain can sustain catastrophic damage.
I think there are 2 reasons why this image means so much right now. The first reason is the geographic location of my home so close to the Susquehanna River. The second is my spirituality coupled with my longtime struggles with seasons of depression.
Geographically, I keep my eyes on the skies and weather reports. I notice when the level of the river water seems to be rising. My home is in the floodplain. Luckily we are able to have flood insurance. Also, our spot along the river isn't quite as flood prone as other places I have seen along the river, but never the less, the danger is there.
Some of you might be thinking, why didn't you just purchase something somewhere else. Truly, I have heard people say that people who live in the floodplain and whose home have been flooded repeatedly should just move already. The reality of our world is often economics prevents that from being an option. Instead, what they do, and now I join their company, is just do whatever we can to protect our homes.
Butr floodplain, for me, is not only geographic and geological. For me, it is also spiritual. It is a spiritual space. I have felt inundadted and overwhelmed by the water of depression. I have also felt a sense of similar feelings but from a spiritual space called the dark night of the soul. So much of my adult life has been marked by these seasons. And, I have come out in the other side with parts of my faith and experience of the holiness of my God having had my personhood and spirituality and and ways that I connect with God and the world around me being reordered.
Every single one of us connects to the world in sipritual ways. Even those of you reading who claim no faith actually connect to the world in spiritual ways even if you woud deny that truth. The ways we each connect are various. I do plan to write more about the varied ways people connect to the worl spiritually in future posts. But, this is a somewhat self-ish post so today, I am going to somply reflect on my own spiritual connection to the world, its people, and my God.
I have a mystical and contemplative spirituality. I "feel" spiritual connection with my God, other people, and the world. It also means I deeply need spaces and time for solitude. Mystical spirituality has a longeing that seeks union with God, the world, and other people. This also means I sense deeply the absense of connection with God.
For me, having this mystical and contemplative spirituality feels very much as though my spiritual journey and path meanders along a floodplain. It shifts and widens. The path dries out. The path floods. Sometimes the flooding is overwhelming and scary. Sometimes the flood is nourishing as it sets down new nourishing sediment. I feel deeply that this fluxuation description marks how turbulent my spiritual journey of faith often is.
The floodplain is a living marked my dichotomy. There are struggles and there is deep beauty and life.
Below is the lyric video of Sara Grove's song and a video of her talking about it.
In the midst of these days, living in the floodplain is an ever-changing landscape. This is the truth of my life both in terms of the physical and geographical and in terms of my spiritual journey.
https://youtu.be/tKzWz43Sx_o
https://youtu.be/ra3lh0DCIDY
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