Spirituality
Just because I don’t really identify with any religion does not mean that I do not feel spiritually connected to the world around me. On Sundays, when most other families in my community would attend church, my parents and I would walk around in our local nature preserve. This tradition always inspired a feeling of spirituality that I could never hope to explain. Because we tended to visit the nature preserve on Sunday mornings while my friends were in worship services, the trails at the nature preserve have always seemed to be a sacred place. I have always viewed the beauty and authority of nature as evidence of some kind of higher power. I always feel renewed after walking around outside just as people of other faiths feel renewed after attending a religious service. I do not consider my feeling of connection to nature as a “religion” with rituals or practices. Instead, I just take my experiences in the natural world as evidence for some kind of greater force in the universe. The nature center in the nature preserve also offered interpretive bird programs on Sunday mornings and so these became part of the tradition. Memories of the nature preserve are a huge part of my childhood and young adulthood. This place gave me a chance to talk to my parents and renew my love for the world around me.
I created a visual rhetoric piece that symbolizes my attachment to the world around me. I chose to make a small poster because it visually displayed my love of nature and the idea of nature as spirituality. I filled the space around the spirituality definition with images of nature that I have taken myself. Those places left me awestruck and renewed my connection with the world around me. At the top of the poster, I placed images that symbolized places of worship for many different faiths. I thought it was important to include these images because I wanted to share my version of spirituality while still showing that others exist. I placed an emphasis on the definition of spirituality and clarify what I meant when I described my spiritual feelings toward nature. As we discussed in class, the concept of spirituality can have many different interpretations. My story of religion has no real basis in a specific faith but is a central part of my life nonetheless.
Just because I don’t really identify with any religion does not mean that I do not feel spiritually connected to the world around me. On Sundays, when most other families in my community would attend church, my parents and I would walk around in our local nature preserve. This tradition always inspired a feeling of spirituality that I could never hope to explain. Because we tended to visit the nature preserve on Sunday mornings while my friends were in worship services, the trails at the nature preserve have always seemed to be a sacred place. I have always viewed the beauty and authority of nature as evidence of some kind of higher power. I always feel renewed after walking around outside just as people of other faiths feel renewed after attending a religious service. I do not consider my feeling of connection to nature as a “religion” with rituals or practices. Instead, I just take my experiences in the natural world as evidence for some kind of greater force in the universe. The nature center in the nature preserve also offered interpretive bird programs on Sunday mornings and so these became part of the tradition. Memories of the nature preserve are a huge part of my childhood and young adulthood. This place gave me a chance to talk to my parents and renew my love for the world around me.
I created a visual rhetoric piece that symbolizes my attachment to the world around me. I chose to make a small poster because it visually displayed my love of nature and the idea of nature as spirituality. I filled the space around the spirituality definition with images of nature that I have taken myself. Those places left me awestruck and renewed my connection with the world around me. At the top of the poster, I placed images that symbolized places of worship for many different faiths. I thought it was important to include these images because I wanted to share my version of spirituality while still showing that others exist. I placed an emphasis on the definition of spirituality and clarify what I meant when I described my spiritual feelings toward nature. As we discussed in class, the concept of spirituality can have many different interpretations. My story of religion has no real basis in a specific faith but is a central part of my life nonetheless.