Gifts of the World

One of the best gifts I ever received was learning to read. The corollary gift that has brought me tens of thousands of hours of joy, excitement, intrigue, concern, inspiration, prayer, concentration, relief, awe, fear, anger, hope, and courage is my library card. The current social media gifts that bring me so much today are the blogosphere and Twitter. Today is International Literacy Day, a day to share the gift and love of reading and writing with others. I feel like every day is Literacy Day, with the gift of the world’s stories being shared one person to another, but I am also glad for the reminder of a true holiday.

 

 

Literacy is a crucial aspect of my spiritual life, and one of my major practices for whirling in life’s embrace. I read daily offices, scriptures, and wisdom classics. I spend hours with spiritual teaching stories, which so very often are filled with wise tricksters and poke fun at the stupid things we human beings do over and over again. 

 

I think about spiritual literacy a lot: being soaked in the juicy wisdom of various ages and diverse cultures and knowing intimately at least one tradition. The people I know who are truly spiritually literate have a zest for life that in turn inspires and encourages me. When I am struggling, I take a long swim in the great oceans of wisdom literature, and inevitably emerge with a brighter and better perspective.

 

Take a few moments today to share some bit of wisdom that inspires you and take another turn of the page through the wisdom works, classics and newly inspired. They are gifts of the world, for the world, just like you.

Comments

[Mimi]

Thank you thank you! This is great encouragement for me to learn about other spiritual traditions.