We are Faith filled...

The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me? ... It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person to exist without a religion than without a heart.
(Leo Tolstoy, 1879)

I recently submitted a request to be listed on the blog for families on the road called...Families on the Road. The policy for the blog is that you must be on the road, or within four months of launch, to be listed. I did not list a launch date because I have NO idea when we will get going!! I desperately want to be there RIGHT NOW! Definitely before 4 months time...everyday I wake up and realize that all the dreams I had that night of being on the road were just dreams, I feel a drop in my spirit...a bit of disappointment. The blog has rejected my request, at this time, because I simply don't meet the requirements for inclusion...yet.
I considered putting a date that is four months out on the form. I am not as confident as I would like to be that we will get the show on the road by then. I told a friend that I wish, at times like this, that I believed in God...so I could confidently say "its in God's hands now," and not fear that, without my constant pushing, the dream will die. We (my husband and I) don't believe in God. That is to say that we don't believe in the God of the Bible. Or the God of the Qu'ran, or Greek Gods, Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Roman, or others. We do have a deep spiritual desire to believe in a higher power, but we do not label it...or at least we try not to limit it to the personification that has resulted in the various "Gods". If we were to name our higher power, it would be named "the energy that permeates the universe and all that is"...we often refer to it as "the universe." We also do not "pray" per se. I rarely ask the universe for anything, because I believe that I am in the service of the universe, not the other way around. On occasion, however, I have so desperately wanted something that I have bargained with the universe. Last year (October 24, 2009) I was admitted to the hospital after an emergency room trip revealed that I was slowly bleeding to death as a necrotic mass grew within my uterus. For several months prior to the ER visit (I am not fond of doctors) I became increasingly aware that something was not right within me. At the time, I smoked cigarettes. One day, in mid September, I made a "deal" with the universe. I promised to never smoke again, if the universe would let me live. I have not smoked since. The mass was removed on 10/30/2009 and the pathology revealed no cancer! I lived, and still do! And I will never smoke again.
Many people will say that my "universe" and their God are the same. I think in many ways they are. The distinction, in my mind, is that I do not think we do all we do for a single entity...for God. I believe that the universe is exactly what it implies...all the energy that can be known to man...including man. So when I bargain with the universe I am asking that every human, plant, moving stream, flowing volcano, animal and breeze...everything that is of energy...to find me worthy of the bargain and to see that the bargain is beneficial
to all!

Our Faith is in the universe, and ALL its energy...including you.