RISING ABOVE YOURSELF

    
     "We are not human beings having spiritual experience....we are spiritual beings having human experience."
     I once read a story in which a man said that he had become spiritual when his father died. Up until the time in his life, he had been able to deal with everything that had happened to him as a person. But for some reason, handling his father's death had been beyond him. He couldn't seem to deal with the loss, the grief, and the overwhelming feeling that he would never be okay again. After a while he realized that since he couldn't deal with it, the only way he would be able to go on was to draw on what was beyond him: spirituality.
     Spirituality is what is beyond the individual personality. It goes by many different names and can be accessed in many different ways. Some call it the soul, some God, some Allah, some Jehovah, some the higher self, some the universe, some nature, but all these refer to something that is beyond the little isolated ego we sometimes feel ourselves to be.
     I heard a story about a woman who grew up in Texas. When she was having trouble in her life, she would visit her grandmother, who lived nearby and always had a kind word and some wisdom to pass on. One day she was complaining to her grandmother about some situation and her grandmother just turned to her, smiled sadly, and said, "Sometimes, darlin', you've just got to rise above yourself in this life." I've remembered that wise advice many times as I have faced trouble in my life. Spirituality is another way of saying, "Rise above yourself."