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What Do You Believe?

posted 27th April 2010    Written by: Nicole Antoinette    CATEGORY: Nicole Antoinette, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 2, Spirituality

Should religion be a taboo topic? I don’t know, but it is.

Probably because our spiritual beliefs are so intertwined with how we understand ourselves and our world that the line between different and intolerant is wispy and translucent. This line, the line between “I don’t believe what you believe but I accept you” and “I don’t believe what you believe and therefore you’re wrong” is so fine that it often gets swept away in the heat of feeling that what we believe is not just one choice, but the choice.

And I don’t agree with that, with the taboo-ness of it all. Just like I don’t think there’s only one way to love someone, one way to succeed, one way to learn, one way to give back, one way to leave your mark on the world, I don’t think there’s a single way to connect and express your spirituality.

You know what I do believe?

I believe you’re either a good person or you’re not. And if you are, if you treat yourself with respect and you treat other people with respect and you’re kind and compassionate and understanding, if you’re honest and you’re open and you live your life on purpose, then it doesn’t matter. You can go to church (or not), to temple (or not), you can meditate (or not), feel close to God (or not), and we can all still exist together and crash into each other in big and meaningful ways.

I believe that every single person can learn something from every single other person.

I believe in the interconnectedness of it all and think that every cause has an effect and every action a reaction. I believe that you get what you put out there and I believe that there’s an enormous and vibrantly dynamic universal energy and that throughout our lives, doors won’t open for us until we’re ready to walk through them.

I believe in creating your own reality, in taking responsibility for your happiness and not being passive in the flowing current of your life. I believe that there’s a difference between fair and equal, and that things don’t need to be equal to be fair. I believe in the power of creating your own set of beliefs and then living them, really living them, each and every day. I believe we’re not just capable, but powerful, far more electrically powerful than we ever give ourselves credit for.

I believe in giving yourself the credit you deserve.

I believe it’s up to us to lay the groundwork for who we want to be, to camp out in our souls and build and rebuild until the foundation we’ve created fully supports us. I believe in introspective reflection, in celebrating when we’re right and openly admitting when we’re wrong because we, each of us, are wrong all the time.

And I believe that’s how it’s supposed to be, that being wrong and tripping up and falling into the hole is how we learn, how we’re able to test the strength of that foundation we’ve built and fill in the cracks along the way.

photo credit: kevin dooley

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