The Balcony

Okay, so you know I love “the spiritual experience”.  I say it this way because I really try to be open to all spiritual experiences.  I love church, I love yoga, I love song, I love prayer, I love nature, I love love…you get my point.

I’m a big believer that many, many things are holy and if we open our eyes and hearts, we will see God everywhere and in everyone.

My mom told me a story about her mother, my grandma.  My grandma was beautiful.  I mean really exquisite.  She was what you would call, “lovely”.  She held herself with grace and dignity.  She was intelligent and musical and spoke different languages.  My mom claims she was “ahead of her time”.

The story is that one time my grandma went to visit a different church because she wanted to hear the music.  She didn’t have the same music at her church and she wanted to experience a different form of prayer and worship.  She really loved it.  She was in the front row of the balcony and she was singing and dancing and waving her arms with the crowd.  She was so moved by the spirit, she was completely in the moment.  She was having a great time (maybe a little too great) and she accidentally flung herself over the balcony!  (No worries, she was okay!)

My mom told me this the other day and we were hysterically laughing.  How rare it is that we let ourselves be completely engrossed in the experience.   Picturing her at that church with her hands in the air, singing and praising and dancing is such a beautiful image.

She tried something different.  She wanted to experience God in a different way.  She was not there to watch or to judge or to measure.  She was there to participate.  She was alive.

I’m not saying we have to fling ourselves over any balconies to prove that we are spiritual but doesn’t the dancing and singing sound fun?

How are you participating?