Describing spirituality Spiritualit

Describing spirituality Spirituality may be described as the web of relationships that gives coherence to our lives. Religious belief may or may not be part of that web. Often we only become aware of strands in the web when they are stretched or broken, as happens with a life-changing event like a diagnosis of serious illness in ourselves or in someone we love.Lartey describes this web of relationships as “levels of a system”. Spirituality, he says, involves relationships with places and things, with ourselves, with significant others, with groups and communities, with transcendence. For each of us, these relationships form a unique pattern, and each of us needs that pattern to be largely intact in order to feel secure, or whole. Some of us feel most whole in particular places or when surrounded by particular things or by people we love; some of us feel whole when, through prayer, ritual or silent waiting, we find ourselves close to God. Our web of key relationships defines who we are, and when those relationships are disrupted, we feel vulnerable. Klass has suggested that “a good way to begin thinking about spiritual life . . . is to look for those moments when we feel most deeply connected to our world, when we feel least isolated inside our usual ego boundaries. We feel a part of something larger than ourselves, and the rest of the world makes sense.”