"What is it you REALLY believe?" a friend asked in her weekly e-mail. She posted the question two days ago and I am still pondering the thought. What does it mean to believe? Does belief come from within oneself, or from others? Does belief exclude doubt or does it include the choice to believe despite doubt?
Then there is that question of "Really." For me, "really" places the responsibility for belief on my shoulders. But does "really" exclude the acceptance of belief received from others and accepted as true. Does "really" require that we start from scratch to determine what it is we believe.
Are any of our thoughts really our own? Think of it, from the time you are a child, others are telling you what is true, what is right. They even tell you who you are, or who you ought to be. But, do you know who you "really" are?
Truth is, I'm not sure who I am but I'm trying to find out. And this partially "found" person can say right now, based on my own experience and on the experience gleaned from others and tested against this experience that I believe:
In gratitude. That Life is gift. That all that happens within Life is gift. That gift includes that which we might label good and/or bad because both are part of the journey toward Self-discovery. Self-discovery is good. Self-discovery means openness to Life and Life is that divine creative force I call God.
My friend sends me weekly questions like these. They are called "On the Waterline." If you are interested in receiving such questions just send an e-mail to mhyatt@boreal.org.
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About Me
- Beryl Singleton Bissell
- Beryl is the author of The Scent of God: A Memoir published by Counterpoint NY in 2006 and A View of the Lake published by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. in 2001. She’s been living on Lake Superior for seventeen wonderful years, and spent 10 years writing two popular columns for the Cook County News Herald: Newcomer Notes and Putting Down Roots. Beryl is past president of the Schroeder Area Historical Society and a long-time chair of its Oral History and Marketing committees. She is a past board member of the Violence Prevention Center in Grand Marais and committee member for the Grand Marais Art Colony’s first ever annual North Shore Reader and Writers Festival. She’s been published in the Sun Magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Lake Superior Magazine, and The Trenton Times and in the anthologies, Surviving Ophelia published by Perseus Publications in 2001 and The New Writer's Handbook, Vol. 2, published by Scarletta Press in 2008 and was named Best of Minnesota Writers by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She is currently working on her third memoir: the sequel to The Scent of God.
4 comments:
I am a man who knows nothing for sure, well maybe a few things. anyway, the other night walking laps at the gym I saw my pale skin, and imagined myself gardening in my front yard as the sun shined upon me. I've been meaning to blog about this.. you keep it percolating.
And I've been meaning to blog an answer to the same question, but it bogged down. I've picked it up twice now. It must not be time yet.
A thought-provoking post. Thank you.
But what were you doing swimming outside in this weather today (your Twitter post)?
Aha. I didn't make the "where" of that swim obvious, did I. It was here in Florida, temperature 54 degrees. I've yet to attempt the polar bear plunge in Duluth.
What a thought-provoking question - sometimes it's good to have those mind-jolting ones thrust at you...
You might think after over half a century, I'd have more of myself and my belief system figured out, but I'm still charting my topography, after all these years...
I know I do believe in Love - not just the romantic sort or familial kind, but for lack of a better descriptor, agape love, as well...that the Creative Force of the Universe, that I think of as God, is Loving - and that Love can transform us, and lift us up...I believe (but sometimes only half-believe), a number of other things, while doubting and wondering about even more things...
Though there are moments when I find it possible to hold in my heart any number of seemingly impossibly contradictory beliefs, so that it boggles my mind to attempt to articulate them coherently to others...
Thank you for prodding me to ponder those beliefs for a bit, even if I can't quite articulate them.
Perhaps that's why I like drawing even more than writing - pictures being more or less, worth a thousand words or so...Possibly less, in the current economy ;)
Glad to hear you've been enjoying drawing too!
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