[freya]

This is a great passage -- one of my favorites. I often say that, when it came to trying to find a spiritual connection, being as smart as I am is what made me really stupid.

Because my intellect is so powerful and because I have been able to use and rely on it so much in so many situations -- and rightly so -- I somehow fell into the very dangerous (and totally arrogant and stupid) trap of assuming that, if there was a Higher Power / God / Nature / Goddess / The Source / The Force / The Energy of the Universe / The Divine / Existence / whatever-you-want-to-call-IT , then I would obviously understand IT and IT's plans for, not only me, but pretty much the rest of the world as well....So, if things were going on in the world that I didn't understand and couldn't explain and that didn't seem "right" to me, then, obviously, there was no HP.

DUMB, DUMB, DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!

For me, "getting" the fact that anything that I as a human being with a human intellect could actually understand could not possibly be adequate to qualitfy as any kind of Higher Power was a major epiphany....and a major step toward my becoming "right-sized."

And I also really appreciate the fact that this passage recognizes and respects that reason/intelligence/intellect can be of use and support in making that spiritual connection, even though it cannot get us all the way there. Sometimes there is such a reactionary, downright anti-intellectual "tone" to some 12 Step speaking and thinking...and that's just as stupid and silly as thinking intellect alone can do it all. Intellect and the abilty to think and reason well is a gift from HP just like any other gift....we, as the one's who have been given the gift, need to value and respect it and be ble to use when and where it's helpful and appropriate, just as we need to learn to develop and use other tools/gifts in ways and for purposes that it is not.

freya