Essay: Life As Spiritual Adventure

Feeling loved—and feeling love for what you are doing and the people in your life—sends you bouncing out of bed in the morning, eager to greet another day, happy to see people, ready to accomplish great things.

When we don't have what love brings—companionship, family, meaningful service through our work, connection to community, a place in which we fit and that we love—we experience a kind of insanity. We experience disconnectedness and alienation, boredom, anxiety and depression.

We see this so often with couples who have spent a lifetime together. When one dies, it is common for the other to follow within weeks or months.

Pharmaceutical companies would have us believe that all we need is a pill to heal our emotional pain. In fact, they are counting on the tens of millions of people who feel disconnected, alienated, bored, anxious and depressed to seek out their pills. It will mean billions in revenues for them.

But, pill or no—can we be completely sane without being completely empowered? When we look around and see the chaos in the world around us, it can be easy to get caught up in the kind of fear, despair, anger, depression and confusion that tends to make us feel small, powerless and "out of it."

In my experience, sanity comes with giving our highest service; with experiencing that niche in which we fit, a niche in which we give and do because we want to. Because giving and doing—in whatever context we are in—feels good and makes sense to us.

When we know we are in the right place, with the right people, life feels good.

When WE KNOW WE MATTER and feel needed and wanted—when we feel appreciated and loved precisely for who we are and the things we love to do—that is sanity. And, when we are both needed and appreciated, we are empowered to do even more good.

So the niche which each of us longs for is that place from which we are able to give the best of who and what we are.

It is not selfish to yearn for such fulfillment. It is yearning born of God.

Therefore, it's my hope that the essays on this site will help you consider and clarify what you need to feel empowered and happy, and the prayers will help you attain it.

For an empowered, happy life is a gift not just to the one experiencing it, but to the world. An empowered, happy and compassionate person lives as an example to others that they, too, can overcome limitations and find joy.

Yet - and especially during economic downturns - it's easy to think badly of those who have more, and to paint them with the same brush as we paint economic criminals.

However, hating people with money is the surest way to keep money from us, even to the point that life can get very hard. So, dearest friend, I ask a favor of you—never begrudge people their happiness or money. Instead, tell yourself that if they can have a fulfilling life, so can you. Then intend to have it. For we do not give our best service through draining duty or misery.

On the contrary, we give our best service when we are enthused.We are kindest when we feel loved and appreciated. And we are happiest when we are doing what we love.