A few years back, I penned a blog on the spirituality of Facebook. At the time I believed that peoples’ posts represented their recognition that everyday events matter and that God is present in our day to day adventures. I affirmed that Facebook could be an opportunity to deepen our spiritual lives if we saw it as a way of making each day a holy adventure and every encounter an opportunity for blessing. 

A Navajo blessing petitions, “In beauty may I walk” and with “Beauty all around me, may I walk.” Life is beautiful in its amazing variety and wild abundance, and spirituality involves amazement at fierce landscapes and constantly changing seascapes. 

In a well-known gospel story, a woman with a flow of blood comes to Jesus, speaking an affirmation “if I but touch him, I will be healed.” (Mark 5:21-34) For at least twelve years, she had suffered from what was likely a gynecological ailment that not only made her life miserable, but led to her being judged as a social outcast, religiously unclean, and likely responsible for her health situation.

The words “interspiritual” or “interspirituality” have become popular among certain commentators on contemporary spiritual movements. Reflective of today’s spiritual pluralism, the terms reflect the practices of persons who are rooted in a particular religious tradition, and whose spiritual lives are also enriched by practices from other faith traditions.

For several weeks I saw him in the distance as I took my sunrise walk on the Cape Cod beach I frequent. He resolutely walked the beach with metal detector in hand. I often wondered why he bothered. It was October, tourist season was over, and he couldn't retrieve more than a handful of coins or maybe an occasionally a lost watch or cheap piece of costume jewelry in the course of his hunting. Yet, he came back day after day, just as I came back daily for my contemplative prayer walk.