Patricia Lynn Reilly Child of Life I am a space the Universe fashioned to feel its own grandeur. I am an individualized expression of WOW. I believe in MYSTERY...that we receive only glimpses, inklings, intuitions of the Source from which we come and to which we return. This Source is far deeper, wider, and richer than any name or image I use to refer to it. In this season of life I use images like “The Wholeness of Which I am a Part,” The Source From Which I Unfold,” “The Womb From Which I was Thrust.” I hold these names and images loosely. They are approximations. Fingers pointing. Mystery cannot be confined. I believe in ONENESS. I am made of the same WOW-ness as the night sky, as the irises in the garden, as the egrets wandering the lake. I am made of same WOW-ness as my sister’s paintings, Mary Oliver’s poems, the dying body of my friend Karen. Each is a space the Universe fashioned to feel its own grandeur. Each is an individualized expression of WOW. I believe in the BODY, intelligent, purposeful, and responsive to my choices, to my breath, to my touch; full of energy, movement, and sound. I believe in running and jumping, climbing and exploring, crying, moaning, and screaming. I believe in the senses, alive and attune to the world around me, naturally curious about the sight, sound, taste, feel, and smell of things. No separation exists between my mind and body. They are one within me. I believe in ORDINARY LIFE, here and now, this moment. Every experience is filled with wonder and awe. It is enough to gaze at the redness of an apple; to watch the water flow over the rocks in a stream; to listen to the rain dance; to count the asparagus on my plate. Ordinary life is my teacher, healer, challenge, and delight.  From abstraction to fleshiness. From platforms and positions to vulnerability. From word to touch to sacred messiness, to life here and now, till death do us part. I believe in CHANGE. Because all is "seasonal, not harsh,"* I choose to hold onto nothing, yet participate in everything. I notice what is and bless it, as it shifts and changes in a moment. What is born will die. What dies nourishes life in its many forms. I honor life and death, coming and going, holding on and letting go, joy and sorrow, reunion and separation. They are all essential elements in the circle of life. I believe in the FITNESS OF THINGS AS THEY ARE. In the words of Alan Watts: "Enlightenment appears as a vivid and overwhelming certainty that the universe, precisely as it is at this moment, as a whole and in every one of its parts, is so completely right as to need no explanation or justification beyond what it simply is. The mind is so wonderstruck at the self-evident and self-sufficient fitness of things, including what would ordinarily be thought the very worst, that it cannot express the perfection and beauty of the experience. The central core of this experience of life seems to be the conviction, or insight, that the immediate now, whatever its nature, is the goal and fulfillment of all living." Written by Patricia Lynn Reilly Excerpt: The Non-Believer's Guide to Spirituality Phrase "seasonal, not harsh" inspired by May Sarton. Patricia inspires, celebrates, and supports creativity by providing project consultations and inspirational workshops. Patricia’s published writings include four books of non-fiction and Words Made Flesh, an anthology of her poetry and prose.

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