At Search Institute’s Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Conference in November 2008, we offered a whole conference track on spiritual development. At one of those learning sessions, a group of youth and adults began by answering the question above. And here is what they said:
Spirituality to Me Is:
Mysterious, intangible, accessible to everyone but through many different portals and practices—-connect to experiences of awe and wonder, wholeness and connectedness—-and the effort to live in harmony with the truths that are revealed to me.
The being in one; being connected with your god-—in my case, The God!!-—
but also being connected with nature, and knowing what it’s all about.
My way of meeting that which is greater than I am, my ultimate concern, and my faith focus, both internally and externally.
Union with all of life—-in love, compassion, and understanding.
Other as self. Complete joy in the universe.
Communal experience of the set apart and the ordinary
Inward look, self-reflective, that which makes you “tick”
Having the passion within oneself; the act of believing in one’s passion and striving; an aura from within which encourages the gumption to do something.
The soul and sense of purpose/use for it. Trusting not your instincts but the sense of right and wrong from birth, because you’ve been given this life-giving soul by some greater power.
