What I Notice & Wonder About: Source & Spirit
Personal observations & questions to explore
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I don't question the reality of Source, Spirit, God any longer. It exists for me. What I keep wondering about is where and how it's expressed. I feel this energy in myself and in other forms of life, but maybe its expressions reach farther than I can see or understand. The more I pay attention, the more I wonder what else is connected to it and how does it show itself.
What If Life Is More Than Living?
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When I was younger, I thought the difference between living and nonliving was obvious. A person is alive. A tree is alive. A rock isn’t. Then I began wondering what “not alive” really means. Does it mean nothing is happening? Pick up a rock and hold it for a moment. It feels solid, still, maybe even ordinary. But its particles are moving. Heat can crack it; water can wear it down over time. The ground beneath us is changing, too, though most of those changes happen far too slowly for us to notice. And of course, the planets, stars and galaxies aren’t sitting still.
That vast world and our own bodies aren’t made from different kinds of stuff. The carbon, oxygen, calcium and other elements in us came from events in the Universe long before Earth had life. You’ll find those same elements in rocks, oceans and planets. I love that thought. Life, in a very real sense, grew from materials that were already here.
I’m using the phrase “dynamic matter” for matter that moves, interacts and changes, whether or not we call it alive. It’s a recognized term, though people use it in different ways. Here, I’m using it as a broad description, not to say that a rock or a planet is a living organism even thought I believe they are.
Crystals have been part of what led me to think this way. Given the right conditions, they grow as material joins their structure. Their patterns can form without anyone arranging them. The scientific terms include crystallization, self-assembly and self-organization. “Self-organizing matter” is also used in science. I’m bringing that phrase into this conversation because it helps me describe what I’m noticing.
Sometimes, after a crystal’s structure has been disturbed, new material can form and continue its pattern. I’m cautious about saying a crystal “repairs itself,” because that can sound as if it heals like a body. It doesn’t. Still, I find it fascinating that matter can form an orderly structure on its own.
Cells do something quite different. A cell takes in materials and energy, responds to its surroundings and keeps its inner processes going. Our bodies contain trillions of them, each carrying out its own work while being part of a much larger whole. That’s why science generally draws the line at the cell when defining "biological life". Even that line can be hard to pin down. Viruses challenge some definitions. Seeds and spores can stay dormant for years, then begin growing when conditions suit them. I’m not suggesting science has it wrong. I’m saying the word life opens up more questions for me.
For now, I’m using three expressions to help me think: dynamic matter, self-organizing matter and biological life. I don’t see them as rungs on a ladder. They’re simply different ways matter can move, form patterns and take part in the world around us.
And still, I find myself wondering: what is the presence I feel in living things?
Science can describe what happens inside a cell, from its chemistry and electrical signals to the way it uses genetic information. That knowledge matters to me. Still, when I look at a living being, I feel there’s more to the experience of life than a description of its processes.
This is where my spiritual understanding comes in. Some people call that presence God, Spirit, Consciousness, Light or Life Force. I use “Source Connection.” I believe something animates life that the physical parts alone don’t fully explain. That’s my belief, shaped by my own experience. You may see it differently.
Could Source be present only in biological life? I’ve also wondered whether it’s part of the Universe itself, expressing in ways we don’t yet understand. I don’t have proof to offer, and I’m not saying a planet or crystal is alive in the same way you and I are.
I’m left asking whether living and nonliving tell us all there is to know. Maybe those words answer one kind of question while leaving room for others. What do you think? Where might these questions take you?
What Makes Something Alive?
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Have you ever picked up a rock and wondered if anything was going on inside? It may feel still and quiet, but tiny bits inside it are moving. Rain and wind can change the rock, too. They work so slowly that it can take a very long time.
A crystal can grow when more tiny bits join its pattern. Isn’t that interesting? A crystal isn’t alive like you or a tree, but it can still change and grow.
Living things have tiny parts called cells. Your body has lots and lots of them. They help you grow, move and do all the things your body does. Plants and animals have cells, too.
Sometimes I look at a flower, a bird or you, and think, “Life is amazing.” I believe there is a special life energy in every living thing. I call it Source Connection. Some people call it something else. You can think about it and decide what feels true to you.
Activities:
Let’s look around: Find a rock and a leaf. What do you notice about each one? What looks different? What makes you curious?
Let’s grow a bean: Ask a grown-up to help you put a bean in a cup with a damp paper towel. Check on it each day. One morning, you may see a tiny root! What do you think helped it begin growing?
Is There More to Life Than Cells?
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When I was younger, I thought the answer was simple. People, animals and trees were alive. Rocks weren’t. Then I started wondering: does “not alive” mean nothing is happening?
A rock may look still, but tiny pieces inside it are moving. Rain and wind change it slowly, too. The stuff that makes up our bodies is also found in rocks, oceans and planets. Some of it formed in stars long before life began on Earth. Pretty amazing, right?
I use dynamic matter for things that move and change, whether or not they’re alive. Crystals show us something else matter can do. When the conditions are right, tiny pieces can join in a pattern and help a crystal grow. Scientists call this self-organization. I call it self-organizing matter when I’m describing this kind of pattern. A crystal can grow, but it isn’t alive like a plant or animal.
Biological life is different. Living things are made of cells. Cells take in what they need, respond to what’s around them and keep doing their work. Your body has trillions of cells. Seeds can rest for a long time before they start growing, which makes the question of life even more interesting.
Science helps explain what happens inside cells. I also believe there is a life energy in every living thing. I call it Source Connection. Other people have different names for it. You may have your own way of thinking about it, too.
I don’t have every answer. I’m still curious about whether living and nonliving tell us everything there is to know.
What do you think?
Try It
Look closely at a rock and a leaf. What changes about each one? What stays the same?
With an adult’s help, put a bean in a clear cup with a damp paper towel. Check it each day. What happens as it begins to grow?
Spirituality Is What?
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I recently heard Gregg Braden say something about spirituality that made me think, Wait, what?
He said, “Spirituality is about understanding the relationship we have to ourselves and everything else, even to the past and future.”
That definition sounds considerably different from how spirituality is often defined today. Currently, there seems to be a belief that spirituality is something we seek, something we attain, something we become more accomplished at. There are levels and stages and degrees of enlightenment. People are more evolved or less evolved, more awake or less awake, farther along or not quite there yet. There always seems to be somewhere else to get to.
But Gregg wasn’t talking about getting anywhere. He was talking about relationship.
Relationship with ourselves. Relationship with each other. Relationship with the Earth, with the past and the future.
My curiosity always keeps me searching, especially when something makes me stop and think, Wait, what? I want to know more. I started looking at what the word spirituality actually meant and where it came from.
Spirit comes through the Latin spiritus—breath, breathing, the breath of life—from spirare, to breathe.
Wait a minute. Somewhere I remember that. Somewhere inside me I remember that.
Breath has been connected with life force for thousands of years. Greek and Hebrew both have words that carry the meanings of breath, wind and spirit. Even our everyday words still carry pieces of it. Inspiration.
Respiration. Expiration. To breathe in. To breathe out.
Maybe that’s why something in me recognized it.
Breath. Life. Spirit.
Suddenly I had an entirely different question.
What if being spiritual is simply being alive?
Before I can understand my relationship with anyone or anything, I have to be here. I have to exist. I have to take breath.
We participate in experiential relationships constantly. I’m participating in a relationship with another person when we’re sitting across a table talking. I’m participating with an animal when we’re interacting. I’m participating with the Earth, with my body, with food, with whatever is happening around me. Even if I’m sitting completely alone, I’m still participating in relationship—with my body, thoughts, memories, surroundings, sensations, sounds, my own presence.
Apparently Gregg isn’t the only one looking at spirituality this way.
Once I started digging around, I found Dr. Christina Puchalski, a physician and professor of medicine at George Washington University who founded the George Washington Institute for Spirituality & Health. She has spent decades looking at spirituality as part of whole-person health. An international consensus group she helped lead described spirituality as a dynamic and intrinsic aspect of humanity, involving our relationships with ourselves, other people, community, society, nature, and what we consider significant or sacred.
Intrinsic.
Intrinsic doesn’t mean something I have to go find. It means it’s already part of the thing itself.
Taking this a step further, I found a published systematic review in which researchers had already done some of this digging. They searched the scientific literature for articles dealing specifically with definitions of spirituality and ultimately analyzed 166 of them, looking for the ideas that kept appearing across those definitions. Connection and relationship were among the most common.
Gregg sent me toward relationship. Dr. Puchalski’s work led me toward something intrinsic to being human. The research kept leading me back to connection, and the language itself kept leading me back to breath.
That’s where something else started fitting together for me.
When I say relationship, I’m not talking only about relationships between people. I think of people, animals and plants as LivingFields, constantly interfacing and participating with one another, enriching each other through relationship and interacting with the environments we’re moving through.
I’ve been talking about LivingFields and our participation in them for a while now. I’ve been looking at
Experience as the point of being here rather than something we’re supposed to get through correctly. I’ve been looking at ourselves as participants in Experience rather than separate observers standing outside of it.
Finding relationship, participation, connection, breath and life within these definitions of spirituality doesn’t prove my philosophy is right. I don’t know that anybody gets to make that declaration.
But every once in a while I come across something that connects to something I’ve already been seeing, and I think, Okay. There’s another piece.
If LivingFields are participating with other LivingFields, then is relationship part of the Experience?
If we’re here to Experience through participation, through relationship with ourselves and everything we encounter, and if spirituality is about understanding those relationships, then are spirituality and Experience interwoven?
If Experience is the point, and relationship is how we participate in Experience, could spirituality simply be our recognition of that relationship?
© Rev. Tina M. Adkins article & image.
Contributor notice: This article was provided by Rev. Tina Adkins and reflects her own thoughts and views. The contributor retains all rights to the article; SoiltoSelfLiving does not claim ownership, and its publication here does not necessarily mean the site endorses every statement.
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