Interfaith Group

Sorry your open-ended question elicited no remarks, but it's both challenging and highly personal. I confess, after more than four decades of exploring various belief systems and practices, that nothing "works" for me as a spiritual path as much as hiking and kayaking. It can be very uplifting to be in the midst of agreeable companions singing hymns, etc.; or more often in secular settings working in groups devoted to harmonious collaboration towards worthy goals. And intermittently, I've devoted time to various solitary meditation practices. But feeling harmonious with the people around me, or with humanity as a whole, or with some cosmic emptiness-fullness-abstraction... is a pale reflection of the pure joy of feeling one with ALL LIFE in the outdoors. If someone would create the "Church of Rivers and Trails" I'd be first in line to join.

Modern life provides us with plenty of opportunities to be in the midst of other people, or to be all alone. But to deliberately put oneself in the midst of wildlife is not so easy for many of us. I can go years without visiting a church, but even a week without time on a trail, and I experience withdrawal symptoms.