It is November, and I\u2019ve just about hit the halfway point of my planned journey. But, like most things in life, it isn\u2019t turning out like I expected. For instance, I\u2019ve hardly read any of the books that were on my original list, nor have I developed that meditation practice I keep talking about. And rather than finding a spiritual path that makes me feel at home and welcome, I continue to feel out of place no matter where I turn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Take, for example, mommy blogs. I\u2019m a stay-at-home mommy of a kindergartener, and it is important to me to spend time teaching my son, even though we don\u2019t homeschool. We also like to do seasonal crafts and other cool things like that, and mommy blogs are a great source for ideas. But, for some reason, it seems like the vast majority of mommy blogs are run by fiercely Christian women. Many of them aren\u2019t exceptionally vocal about their beliefs, but there is definitely a subtle undercurrent that an outsider can\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I also feel like an outsider when I\u2019m indulging in my more \u201cesoteric\u201d hobbies, like Tarot. So many people in that Tarot community are die-hard Pagans, and their beliefs also come through very strongly on their websites and through their forum posts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clearly, there isn\u2019t anything wrong with people being vocal about their spiritual beliefs. I actually find it really fascinating to see how, say, being a Christian can be working into math lessons. But, at the same time, it can also be isolating for those of us who don\u2019t share those spiritual beliefs. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud when I\u2019m interacting with the women on the mommy blogs. There seems to be an assumption that if you are posting you must be Christian too. And, I\u2019m pretty uncomfortable with that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Of course, this is my problem. There is no real segregation on the Internet. We can mix with whomever we\u2019d like, and share as much or as little about our lives as we\u2019d like. And, in actuality, I\u2019ve found a lot of the people whom I interact with to be very accepting. Even though I am an \u201coutsider\u201d, I\u2019ve been given the chance to review Christian-based parenting books and webinars, all of which I\u2019ve actually taken a lot away from.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This outsider\/insider feeling is helping my spiritual journey in some unexpected ways. First, I\u2019m learning to live with the uncomfortable feeling it causes in me, which is a tremendous feat for someone who hates to be uncomfortable. I\u2019m also learning that a lot of the boundaries between insider and outsider are just drawn inside our own heads, and that people are much more accepting than we generally think. At the start of this project, I felt a bit odd about wanting to read the Koran, the Bible, the Lotus Sutra, etc. because these aren\u2019t books of my faith, but now I more clearly realize that the outsider label I was taking on when reading these is something I am applying to myself, and that the insiders of these faiths want people to read their holy books and to interact with them with regards to their religion. All it took was some welcoming ladies from mommy blogs and Jesus-centric math worksheets to make me realize this.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Next month: I finally begin my regular meditation practice\u2026 or do I?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is November, and I\u2019ve just about hit the halfway point of my planned journey. But, like most things in life, it isn\u2019t turning out like I expected. For instance, I\u2019ve hardly read any of the books that were on my original list, nor have I developed that meditation practice I keep talking about. And rather than finding a spiritual path that makes me feel at home and welcome, I continue to feel out of place no matter where I turn. Take, for example, mommy blogs. I\u2019m a stay-at-home mommy of a kindergartener, and it is important to me to spend time teaching my son, even though we don\u2019t homeschool. We also like to do seasonal crafts and other cool things like that, and mommy blogs are a great source for ideas. But, for some reason, it seems like the vast majority of mommy blogs are run by fiercely Christian women. Many of them aren\u2019t exceptionally vocal about their beliefs, but there is definitely a subtle undercurrent that an outsider can\u2019t miss. I also feel like an outsider when I\u2019m indulging in my more \u201cesoteric\u201d hobbies, like Tarot. So many people in that Tarot community are die-hard Pagans, and their beliefs also come through very strongly on their websites and through their forum posts. Clearly, there isn\u2019t anything wrong with people being vocal about their spiritual beliefs. I actually find it really fascinating to see how, say, being a Christian can be working into math lessons. But, at the same time, it can also be isolating for those of us who don\u2019t share those spiritual beliefs. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud when I\u2019m interacting with the women on the mommy blogs. There seems to be an assumption that if you are posting you must be Christian too. And, I\u2019m pretty uncomfortable with that. Of course, this is my problem. There is no real segregation on the Internet. We can mix with whomever we\u2019d like, and share as much or as little about our lives as we\u2019d like. And, in actuality, I\u2019ve found a lot of the people whom I interact with to be very accepting. Even though I am an \u201coutsider\u201d, I\u2019ve been given the chance to review Christian-based parenting books and webinars, all of which I\u2019ve actually taken a lot away from. This outsider\/insider feeling is helping my spiritual journey in some unexpected ways. First, I\u2019m learning to live with the uncomfortable feeling it causes in me, which is a tremendous feat for someone who hates to be uncomfortable. I\u2019m also learning that a lot of the boundaries between insider and outsider are just drawn inside our own heads, and that people are much more accepting than we generally think. At the start of this project, I felt a bit odd about wanting to read the Koran, the Bible, the Lotus Sutra, etc. because these aren\u2019t books of my faith, but now I more clearly realize that the outsider label I was taking on when reading these is something I am applying to myself, and that the insiders of these faiths want people to read their holy books and to interact with them with regards to their religion. All it took was some welcoming ladies from mommy blogs and Jesus-centric math worksheets to make me realize this. Next month: I finally begin my regular meditation practice\u2026 or do I?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}