Amy Batchelor has a good post on her blog today with an excerpt from Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. Amy says that she doesn’t like talking about spirituality over dinner with overtly spiritual people; I’m just the opposite. I love talking about spirituality, especially with spiritual people! During conversations like these, I start with this premise: “[Even though] I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why – which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive” (Jon Krakauer).
The excerpt from Plan B is:
I asked a friend of mine who practices a spiritual path called Diamond Heart to explain the name, because I instinctively know that both Sam [her son] and I have, or are, diamond hearts. My friend said our hearts are like diamonds because they have the capacity to express divine light, which is love; we not only are portals for this love, but are made of it. She said we are made of light, our hearts faceted and shining, and I believe this, to a point: I disagree with her saying we are beings of light wrapped in bodies that merely seem dense and ponderous, yet actually are made of atoms and molecules, with infinite space and light between them. It must be easy for her to believe this, as she is thin, and does not have children. But I can meet her halfway: I think we are diamond hearts, wrapped in meatballs.
I would call my path Diamond Meatball: people would comfort and uplift one another by saying, “There’s a diamond in there somewhere.”
Still, on better days, I see us as light in containers, like those pierced tin lanterns that always rust, that let the candlelight shine out in beautiful snowflake patterns. (p. 160)