Sunday 12 November 2006

Uplifting?

A while ago I spoke to a chaplain who has worked in a psychiatric hospital for many years. We were debating the idea that people in poor mental health may be also experiencing a spiritual crisis. I don't feel sufficiently knowledgeable to debate this here and now with you. However he said something that I felt was very profound. He told me about the etymology of the word spirit; In that it comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning "breath". In this context he was suggesting that spirituality is something basic and fundamental to life. He also said that in order to start answering my question about what spirituality is than I should simply ask myself "What lifts my spirits?". This felt like quite a trivial question until I started to think about it. So, that's what I'm going to do.

Each day from now on I plan to post something on this blog that has lifted my spirit. It may be an experience, a thought, a picture, a news story a sentence in a book... I hope that in doing so I'll get an idea of where to start defining this nebulous concept.

I hope you enjoy these posts and find them similarly uplifting. I'll start later tonight.