Penrhys: our Pilgrimage Blog Begins!

Hi guys!
Here we are: "Blue House" - oddly - was taken, so I found the name that most of the websites on St. Anne's Well referred to as the goal. I think we can all begin to know each other in so many diverse and unique ways on this journey, and to understand each other in writing is one of the most intruging way I know of to discover things about yourself and others. In the "old days," people had to write each other to communicate over even small distances, and when they did, and they were interesting people (as all of you are), a whole genre of literature arose from these writings. It is odd, but we tend to be able to say more through this medium, than we do face to face. Maybe it because no one is there to to interrupt!!! Seriously, it will be a very meaningful way especially for me, when the only link I will have with you will be this blog while I am in Japan.

So, let's begin with a interesting question to start us all off on this aspect of the journey. People aways speak of 'spirtuality' as though we all share this common understanding of what that term means. And recently, it has been used in such nefarious and sometimes nauseating ways to promote some creepy political or ideological agenda. So much so, that I personally get my guard up when someone uses the term in this way. I get suspicious of their motives. Yet, I think that the 'spiritual' moments I have had were some of the most memorable and key points in my life. OK, OK... So here is what I am asking, share - if you will - a moment of what you understand as spirituality that you have experienced.

I will start: this happened to me when I was in my twenties and working in theater. We would go skinny-dipping at night after the show was over in Lake Winnepasakee in New Hampshire, where we (Bob and I) were working in a summer stock theater. Becuase I am a chubby sort of person, I float. I mean, I can literally lay on top of the water. Bob, being skinny, sinks like a rock. Anyway, one night, it was a full moon and so bright that you could see way across the lake. I am laying "on" the water, buck-naked, and with my ears below the waterline. When that happens, you can hear only the sounds of your own body. Especially your breathing. So, I was laying there, alone, listening to myself breathe, looking up at the immense starry sky and suddenly felt as though I was breathing in the entire universe: and further, that I was literally exchanging breathe with the whole of creation. I can't explain really, how this felt, but I knew this to be a spiritual moment that I alone was experiencing. I stayed that way, breathing with the universe until I pruned up and my friends yelled at me to come in. But I still try to re-capture that eperience everytime I swim at night (but no longer naked - too old).

Now you...