Spirituality FAQs

A few months ago, one of my childhood friends reached out to ask if I would connect with their college-age daughter, who had an assignment to interview someone with different spiritual beliefs than them.

Having grown up with a very prescribed, fundamentalist religious belief system that I departed from 25 or so years ago, I spent the last three decades investigating, questioning, learning, unlearning, expanding. Sometimes feeling lost and without ground. But as I went deeper, I always felt MORE. More pain at seeing the truth of history and current systems, more joy at the vastness of existence and the miracles all around us, more alive understanding the eternal connections we carry within us, and more expansive as I released myself from the tight grip of religious fundamentalism.

The interview was a beautiful opportunity to realize that after 30 years, I feel like I have finally reached a point (unfixed, ever-changing) where I can articulate a response to this question: What do you believe?

Here's how I answered what I’m now calling my Spirituality FAQs :)

Q: How would you describe your personal religion and/or spirituality?

My spirituality encompasses my worldview, values, beliefs and every part of my being and daily life. 

In short, I would describe myself as an animist and an abolitionist.

Here is what these ways of being mean to me. (These are not academic definitions, and my understanding is incomplete and still in progress!)

a. ANIMISM: Animism is a way of life that honors the Spirit in everything. This is an ancient way of being and believing across most—if not all—cultures when you go back far enough. This includes all of my European lineages, even though I have to go very far back. Pre-human supremacy, pre-patriarchy, pre-Christianity, pre-colonization and pre-white supremacy. I have to go hundreds of years back—for some of my lineages thousands of years. It is the Original Way, when my ancestors lived in intimate, reciprocal relationship with the Earth, the Cosmos, and all of Creation. It is very much alive within many Indigenous cultures today who have resisted severance for hundreds of years.

I believe that everything is imbued with the alive, Pure Energy of a Source that is greater than us. I also believe the universe is an interconnected and interdependent web of life. In order for future generations to survive and thrive, we must center mutual care for all of creation and humanity. We must care for the Earth—a Living Being, one Body with many parts, who every day shows us that regeneration and rebirth is possible. Who provides food, shelter, medicine, beauty, miracles, adventure, and the very air we breathe (i.e. the trees and oceans take in the carbon dioxide we put out and convert it into oxygen that we need to survive—what a miracle!) We are all a part of the same web of life—what happens to one part of this web impacts all parts of this web.

b. ABOLITION: For me abolition is connected to animism because it means we need to dismantle the false/toxic programming of individualism and separateness. Abolition means that we are responsible to take radical action to care for the Earth and people’s physical/mental/emotional/spiritual needs within our local and global communities. (“Radical simply means ‘grasping things at the root.’” – Angela Davis)

I cannot truly care for my body-mind-spirit without also caring for my loved ones, my community, the global community, the Earth, and all beings. And to really care, I need to also understand and address the systems in place that harm people and the Earth. Abolition guides me to understand and dismantle—at the root—the unjust, harmful, violent systems that exploit, extract, dominate, and crush life; systems that disproportionately harm marginalized people and groups along (human-created) lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, and more. Importantly, abolition is about collectively imagining, building, and investing in new systems of care that nurture and sustain life, that provide for people’s needs (physical/mental/emotional/spiritual), and that respect and steward the Earth.

Q: What are some non-negotiables for you?

a. Practice keeping an open heart and open mind--life is a journey of learning and evolving; as humans we will never have all the answers or full understanding.

b. Learn from and center the voices and lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, trans people, and other people most harmed by the violent systems in place.

c. Commune with and build a reciprocal relationship with the Earth and the Cosmos.

d. Practice daily release of ego and false sense of separateness.

e. Witness and take responsibility to address the suffering of others.

f. Be ok with asking and exploring questions that may not have easy—or any—answers.

g. Be willing to change my mind when I get new information, even when it is scary or unsettling or upends something I thought was true/concrete.

h. Everything and everyone are interconnected and interdependent, which means we have a responsibility to care for each other and all living beings.

i. Cultivate and show love, compassion, patience, and curiosity toward others—this is not easy! It takes practice, courage, and self-awareness. It also sometimes requires healthy boundaries. 

j. Everything is political. Especially spirituality, which has been weaponized over thousands of years until the present day to wield unconscionable violence and horror by conquerors, crusaders, and colonizers.  

Q: Have you believed this your entire life?

No, I have changed and evolved a lot. I grew up in a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian environment (family, school, church, everything really) and considered myself a Christian until my mid-20s.

My beliefs continue to deepen, expand, and shift as I evolve as a person. I intend to continue evolving. This is an ongoing spiritual process and path that I choose daily. 

Q: Who/what influences were most prevalent? How did you develop this view?

a. Being in real, authentic relationships with other people who come from very different religious and/or spiritual and/or cultural backgrounds than me. Hearing from them as they share their values and experiences with me and being part of their lives has helped me to open my heart and mind. It has allowed me to ask bigger questions within myself and not be afraid of the answer—or not be afraid if there wasn’t an answer.  

b. Witnessing gross injustices of the world. I grew up very privileged and sheltered—in a White Christian bubble. For example, I was 18 years old when I witnessed extreme poverty for the first time. In that moment, I wondered—why does someone have so much or so little just because of where they are born? If someone is a Christian but very poor, why are they suffering, and why isn’t God taking care of their basic needs? (toxic health/wealth gospel vibes) Why do I have a warm bed and home, when this person is sleeping in a crumbling, rat-infested shack?

I knew before fully understanding that this was not right, and that it was not because of what an individual did or did not do or what a person believes or doesn’t believe. I was changed in that moment and the unraveling began. Over the years, learning about true history and witnessing how injustices play out in communities where I lived or worked, I now understand that poverty and all other injustices and oppression are rooted in human-created programming, policies, and systems of oppression.

Over thousands of years, human supremacy led into patriarchy led into religious-supremacy led into colonization and white supremacy. All of these forms of supremacy layer on top of each other and compound the harm, injustice, and violence—the domination, conquest, exploitation, extraction, control.

 c. A love of learning and a spirit of curiosity within me. I have studied, taken classes and coursework, read many books, listened to many podcasts, worked with many organizations, lived in many communities that have opened my heart and mind. I have also taken classes from and been mentored by many amazing teachers. Teachers I have learned from, worked personally with, or are currently working with: Myranda Pretty Owl, Dr. Rosio Rosales Meza, Maria Munoz, Marika Clymer, Obsidian Smoke, Aoife Ní Lodáinn, Courtney YellowWolf Wilson, Kina Reed, Rachel Ricketts, Dr. Ayesha Khan, Alok Vaid-Menon, Ijeoma Oluo, @redhornwoman, Saul Williams, Butch Ware, and more.

d. Inexplicable and powerful spiritual experiences that have broken open the constricting box of fundamentalist religion I was born into.

Q: What do you think is the purpose of life (in general and/or yours personally)?

I believe that our original purpose as humans is to live in deep soulful connection, creative partnership, and harmonious existence with all of creation—including people, plants, animals, all beings, our local and global communities, the Earth, and the Cosmos. I believe that we all have a role and responsibility to find our way back to this purpose for the good of the collective, and for current and future generations. We are all connected, and we are all responsible for mutual care for one another and the Earth in the here and now. This requires radical care, action, and ways of being—grasping and removing the roots of injustice, and seeding and nurturing a new world rooted in the Original Ways.

Q: How do you live out your beliefs in your daily life? What practical implications does your religion/spirituality have?

I believe everything is sacred. And I believe it takes conscious practice every day to be present with our lives in each moment, to be intentional and loving in our thoughts and actions, and to seek to understand the sacredness and interconnectedness of all life. My spirituality—which encompasses my worldview, values, beliefs and every part of my being—is integral to everything in my daily life. From the intentional relationships I build in my community and the ways we work together to care for each other, to the ways that I engage in action for social justice locally and around the world, to my day job working with nonprofits, to my daily path and practice of deepening my communion with Spirit and my well and wise ancestors, to the ways that I work with the plants in my garden and share them with others, and to the ways I tend to my body, my community, my home and the land where I live. I am committed to abolition of all violent oppressive systems, reparations for Black people, Land Back for Indigenous peoples everywhere, rematriation, and remembering my deep rooted connection to Earth and Spirit so I can fullfill my role in seeding and building a new world for future generations. This is my daily prayer and purpose—my moral obligation and spiritual responsibility.