The Spiritual Rebel's Rant!

I began my spiritual journey over 40 years ago. A little girl in England, longing to understand the mysteries of the cosmos...

This was long before there was a new age, metaphysical, organic, green, yogic, self-help movement where “being spiritual” would become more like a fashion statement, a hobby- something to check in the things I like box. A lifetime before it would coalesce into trendy commercialism, an enterprise, a me me me path with a phony sounding vernacular.

Back in the day, that Magical Pandora’s box, down the rabbit hole - into outer space journey that describes the mystical path, the search for the Divine, the awakening of Higher Consciousness, had incredibly little to do with what we could “manifest”, it wasn’t about what we could get, it was about something, well, deeper.

I’m in rare form today as I sit drinking my standard mocha with the whip, in an over air conditioned Malibu Starbucks reflecting on all that bothers me about our community lately– I do that a lot—reflect.

Look, it’s a beautiful thing for me to witness the shifting of the masses. The fact that spirituality has become the new mainstream means that we are headed in the right direction– and thank God for that.

It’s just that this watered down, sugary sweet and “holier than you” façade of being spiritual because it’s hip to, makes me cringe as it plays itself out in a variety of increasingly annoying, insincere and competitive ways.

Take Face Book for example and the oh so holy and oh so dull “tooting my own horn cause I am so enlightened” posts like—“I am living in gratitude today for the oneness of the light and the blessings all around me in the now and the in the heart of my being in spirit of the peace and the truth of the oneness of the light…. or one of the horrors I recently read, “ Ready, aim, higher!!!!” Spare me.

For the love of God, what is wrong our tribe anymore? All this spiritual correctness is so whitewashed, generic, tired and ultimately boring.

No flavor, spice or personality. I like that in a person, a personality.

Can we all please get over ourselves right now, Please!

And another thing that bares pointing out—since I’m apparently on a roll here…

We can affirm (till the cows not only come home but leave to go on a vacation again!) but if our affirmation and Spirit’s plan (also known as our Destiny) don’t line up, then sorry mate, we’re out of luck because there is one law that reigns supreme above all others— and that would be all others. THY WILL BE DONE. And even if we have watched The Secret 20 times in a row taking notes, even if we did set our highest intentions while sitting in the seven sacred pools after our green tea colonic cleanse, even if we “ just know that we deserve it”— (and you’ll probably hate me for this) but if it isn’t in the cards doll—no matter what you do, It still isn’t going to happen.

Heck, we wouldn’t even be given our next breath if it were not for the Will and the Grace of God.

This spiritual egotism, pride and arrogance is missing the whole point. We all need some humility and we need it fast.

And, I’m really begging now, will all the “Count your blessings, watch everything you say, raw food police” please stop your babbling.

Quite frankly, who asked ya? I’ll decide what to count how I choose to speak and what to eat-- thanks very much.

Study the lives of all the great saints, and you see that most of them suffered terribly emotional pain in their longing for the Divine. They were downright depressed, miserable. People, they were indeed (shudder to imagine) feeling just a tad bit negative.

Somehow that makes me feel better. A whole lot better. Because lo and behold! I also suffer and sometimes a lot. And blinding news flash here--- so do we all because we are in fact Human. Humans feel. And we are beautiful within all that feeling. Radiantly, magnificently, beautiful.

Since when, I ask myself, did being real, become “un spiritual?” and when did sadness become less holy than joy?

Yet these days we are told over and over in a never ending variety of ways that we are somehow being “spiritually incorrect” if we do anything other than follow some generically prescribed “happy no matter what façade”.

I see so many masks being worn, so many costumes so many disguises. And all this sad fake “positivity” has resulted in a lot of folk feeling very, very much alone we have not been a truthful lot at all. And it is tragic.

And that’s where I seem to rush in. For whatever reason (and I am sure this could be analyzed ad nauseum) I feel that I have no other choice than to somehow do my part in balancing all this goody two shoes/ Pollyanna idea of what a spiritual seeker is supposed to walk and talk like, out.

Patrice’s version of, “Spirituality for the rest of us.”

I’ll admit it. I’ve always been a bit of a radical, the gal who feels the need to bring the ridiculously obvious Elephant in the living room to light, to call the emperor out as naked, when he is so clearly is. I am the one in the post office that rolls her eyes at the scene when the service is ridiculously slow, who sends food back in a restaurant when it sucks and oh yeah, who speaks up in a meeting, if no one else does (and they rarely do) even if it is yucky, even if it will make me unpopular or make things slightly uncomfortable for a moment until the unnamed emotionally charged collective Zit bursts and everyone finally gets to breathe again.

Frankly, I wouldn’t feel the need to do it so often or so intensely if more of my brothers and sisters on the path, would just take up the baton and run with it. I wait, no truly, I wait, often until the last possible second, silently praying to all that I hold Holy to see if just this one time, someone will thrill me, let me rest this one out, and speak the heck up!

And sometimes, to my utter delight, they do.

My everyday heroes are those brave and wondrous and therefore interesting to me people that have a voice. An authentic one. That they dare to use. Those who bless us all with their willingness to tell us the truths of their lives. Even the ugly parts, especially the ugly parts. Whether their voice is heard in a book, a film or at the deli.

Spiritual heroes have canojes.

They are generous of spirit. They share their honesty, therefore their souls. That’s what heroes do—they share.

They don’t answer; “I’m fine and you?” When they’re sad or scared or lonely and they are the truest spiritual teachers that exist.

They’ll never be criticized for not “walking their talk” because their talk is for real. Nor will they ever come crashing down from Grace because they never put themselves on any self-imposed pedestal to begin with.

You see, ultimately, all we can ever really offer our fellow travelers upon this confusing, brilliant, spinning planet, is our truth, all of it. Who we are, what we stand for, what we really believe and yes, what we FEEL as we dance or stumble through our lives.

There is a sublime quote from The Buddha that spells it out so well, " There are three things that can’t be hidden for long: the sun, the moon, and the Truth."

In the end, being real, matters.

just love,

Patrice