Bibles are a funny thing. Religion is such a personal inside me kind of issue, I can't imagine reading a book to get in touch and feel better. It seems to be like a cut in the side of the beauty of the unknown... to have an official undisputable book stating all the facts and retelling all the stories in the same way each time. It's like having a manual.
I cannot fathom the indelicacy of that. The crushing of butterfly wings by its dusty tomes. To me, it seems so cold and inhumane, like here: read this, don't bother me. I know that's not the way it is to those that can get in touch with the way the Bible is laid out for them, but me, I cannot fathom having an official rulebook.
For what is religion but to make your own manual, to go out there and write your own stories, parables, truths and unknowns? It's the feeling of spirit within you, moved by a thought, by an idea gracelessly thrust into your mind, to be turned into poetry by the delicate hands within you. The hands that weave thoughts and ideas into beautiful tapestries that show the workings of your mind in seven different levels all at once.
Religion isn't a fact, nor can it have a label. Religion can't be put in a box and callously dropped into a pile with other boxes of the same general category. Religion can't be taught or conditioned. It must be discovered and embraced and cherished. Religion is simply the erratic swaying of one's spirit through the valleys of life. It changes, it moves, it adapts. It's never solid; it never anchors itself down firmly. Sometimes it disappears all together. Religion, most of all, is spirituality. It's the force inside you that brings art to its finest form; it's the force that turns words into verses, sentences into prose. It's in us an all around us, never ending.
Strength in religion is only as powerful as the people behind it. The strength found in religion is only the strength put into it, amplified, unified and sweetened by the notes of the poetry in our souls, by the weaving hands, by the Muses within.
That is religion to me. The experience of life through unknowing eyes, the wandering, the rambling gait, not knowing. The soaring of a spirit through the unknown, the screech of a metaphorical hawk diving onto a truth, the fierce pride in one's beliefs. Religion is life and life cannot be found stated in a book. Love cannot be filtered through pages of copies and re-copied text...
And lastly, I would like to inform all you invisible readers that this came upon me in a fit of inspiration after getting through some anxiety attacks and an inexplicable urge for alcohol. No, I'm not asking for pity, I'll never get a weak as that, I'm simply getting you in the mindset that my musing came from. The eerie calm after the storm. The silence that comes only after so much energy has been spent. The time for thoughts and words.
I'd like to inform you all that yes, I am a Pagan, a believer that nature itself is a religion all it's own, that life is a celebration of vitality and that the connection between every object and every person can be touched upon and used to em-better the world. I'm not going to hell, I don't worship Satan, the typical Christian kill-all-death-seduction-anti-Christ evil dude; I simply don't believe in an ultimate evil. There is only human error, personal choices, and imbalances within. In the end, when all is done, there is only religion and spirit and wherever than may take you…
Also, yes I did make some changes to this, because some reviews that I got made me realize things I couldn't see before. Thank you all. Also also, this'll probably be moved to the Religion section on fictionpress eventually... and I stress eventually…
"May you all find the courage to laugh in the face of logic. Insanity is more amusing."
~Keita
