Sunny Days and Sunday

This is the view of the mountains from our neighborhood.

It was beautiful outside today and we all enjoyed it. I went for my walk and as hordes of people went to and from church, I thought about our own decision not to attend one place of worship. We're raising Sophie with the "Buffet Style of Religion," meaning we take a bit from each religion, but don't gorge on just one belief system.

I worry that we aren't offering Sophie the idealistic views that come from some religions: that there is a better existence after death, that a higher being is always looking out for you and that there is a purpose to life that we can't fully grasp, but it gives reason to everything that happens.

Instead we offer Sophie our truth: that we would like to think there is a reunion that occurs with our loved ones after we die and we hope there is a higher being who really does love all of us no matter what, but we can't say we know these things for sure because we have not experienced them in a way that gives us certainty.

I struggle most with the bit about there being a mysterious reason for everything that happens. It seems to put people too much in the passenger seat instead of giving them the wheel to steer their own course. I play into it all the time, but if I really took the time to figure out "the reason", I'm sure a chain of real events would explain things much more sufficiently.

I have no idea how the universe works the way it does and I feel I have no right to tell my child I do. I know some things though. I know we should be kind to one another. I know we should learn as much as we can about other people, cultures and belief systems so we may enrich our own lives and judge with less ignorance and maybe someday we will even judge less. I also know there is so much magical stuff happening in the world that we can experience through our senses, that we don't need to look beyond these for more meaning in life. Am I overlooking the cause of these magical things? Maybe. Am I admitting I have no idea what lies beyond my realm of comprehension? You bet.

My hope for Sophie is that she will look at herself as having all possibilities, at the world as having all possibilities and as that which is beyond this world as also having all possibilities.