I have always loved the earth. I feel at my best when I am out among the trees, soaking in their life through the sunlight filtering down through their leaves in a green glow. I am at peace by mountain streams, and my heart swells when I hear birdsong or see the rising full moon. As I grew up, I was taught that I should appreciate nature, but be sure not to worship it, because only God was worthy of worship. It seemed that some people were uncomfortable with the thought of worshipping among the trees or by a lake, unless it was an organized activity.
This never set well with me. I felt that I was as close to God through the delicate beauty of a flower as in a church service, frequently much more so. I struggled with the many rules, the imposed guilt from birth on, the intolerance for others living their lives. For a time I fought within myself and tried to live a "right life" by that path, but as I went through darker times in my life, I felt less and less in tune with that way of thinking.
As I listened to more people around me, I found that not everyone felt the same way in their understanding of the universe. Not everyone fit into any one religion, or any religion at all. Many religions seemed to share threads of morality or mythologies. For a time I rejected all religions, all beliefs, and any higher power. I believed in logic and rationality. I believed in science.
I found that this belief did not answer the needs in my soul, the yearning for something more, something in which to truly believe. I still believe in logic and science, but I also believe just as Hamlet,
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
--Hamlet, I.v.186-87
Since that time, I have searched for something that would resonate within me. Something that would allow for my need to direct myself without so many rules and regulations, something that would allow deep respect and kinship with nature, rather than a misplaced dominion over it. Something that answers my I feel something greater than myself around me. Something that would allow me to take joy in all that is around me, and let that joy infuse my life.
I may have found that something in the nature religions. I can't say that all paths resonate, or that all within a single path resonates...but that is part of the draw. I am not called to follow all tenets of an institutional religion, but to listen to what calls inside me. I am still working to understand and follow that call, but this is one path of several that is calling to me. May I one day find assurance of the path, if there is just one. If not, may I follow the path of learning and acceptance.