Signal Fire

It seems that every time I'm in need of inspiration or something new to enlighten me, something perfect comes along. This time it was Martha Beck's new book The Way Of Integrity; Finding the Path to Your True Self. For those of you who don't know Martha, she is the daughter of Hugh Nibley who was a Mormon apologist and BYU professor years ago. She too was a former BYU professor and received her PHD at Harvard in Social Science, and has since left The Church. These days she is a Life Coach and writes for O Magazine. I figured that her new book might interest me since I happen to be an ex-Mormon and LOVE Oprah... and yes, it did interest me A LOT! In fact, it could be my favorite book. You know when something just resonates with you... when you read something and find that this is exactly how I think! Martha, you and I are kindred spirits! I felt this same way when I read Oprah's The Wisdom of Sundays, which consisted of many different spiritual leaders and their paths to finding joy, contentment, and peace. What I find interesting is that many of these spiritual leaders come from different spiritual backgrounds, yet what they all have in common, in my opinion, is finding true happiness and peace by being their authentic selves. 

It doesn't surprise me that Martha's book is now a favorite of mine given the fact that she writes for O Magazine. I've been an Oprah fan ever since I can remember and was a dedicated viewer of the Oprah show when it was on. I remember when Nolan was in Pilot training in Florida and I was doing online college I would watch it each day and then tell Nolan about it when he got home. My favorite part was a segment at the end called Remembering Your Spirit, where she brought on a spiritual teacher to give us guidance on how to Live Your Best Life. I connected with it so much I remember thinking that if Oprah had her own religion, I would join it! I'm sure this is why I connect to her way of teaching and the people she values as leaders. Martha, being one of them, is a genius in my opinion, and with her optimism, you can't help but want to follow the plan she presents in her book seeing the happiness she’s found. The Way of Integrity basically gives a step by step outline of how to start listening to your inner voice and getting in line with your inner values so that you can become who you were meant to be and live your best life. Martha doesn't say in the book if she believes in a deity or not, however, she's had many spiritual experiences that I completely relate to, one of them was finding herself in a state of complete peace despite the fact that her life was swirling like a tornado around her. As she explained the calm and stillness that over came her when she was at her breaking point I burst into tears because I knew that feeling. As ex-Mormons we have come to detest explaining a spiritual experience as having a strong feeling or emotion about something. I've struggled with this because I too have had spiritual experiences that I can't explain and couldn't figure out how to explain them... until now... Martha explains them perfectly. It's not a feeling or emotion, in fact, it's almost opposite of that. It's a calm and stillness... it's complete peace when everything else in your life is anything but peaceful. Martha has many other experiences I can relate to and finding my values and embracing who I am is another one. Since reading the book I've been focusing on when I am in line with my values and when I'm not. I can see I have a long way to go, however, I can also see that when I'm in line with my values and being my true self I'm the most at ease and happy... I think this is the state I was meant to live in. Throughout the book she reminds us that "We were meant to live in peace." 

I'm still not sure how all of this fits together but somehow I see a pattern in all of it... somehow there seems to be a connection with what these spiritual leaders are saying and their experiences. Maybe what all of us are experiencing is coming from the same source, it's just not what we expect it to look like because it's not what we were taught... maybe we’ve been looking at it all wrong and Gods trying to show us what's really going on… maybe that’s something we need to think about. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to follow the "Compass in my bloodstream" as I search for truth, this I know, is leading me towards the light... 

"There’s a promise that reminds me that I am not alone…"



 

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