Slip Sliding Away

I've gotten off track.
Over the past month (maybe longer) I have really neglected to nurture and care for my contemplative time. I'm not sure how that happened. I just let it slip away.

Perhaps it would be more correct to say that I have let my meditative time slip away. I have spent plenty of time contemplating while listening to nature or smoking a cigar. I have not, however, been purposefully meditative for some time. Purposeful meditation has a way of helping to connect me to the universe around me. It connects me to God and all of God's creation. It keeps me centered, balanced, peaceful.

Many different faith practices work in the same way. Daily dedicated prayer time is a way of doing a similar connection to God. Some people use a personal kind of prayer time while others practice as a part of a ritual community prayer. Some (like me) are less about praying and more about just seeking a spiritual connection to the Creator, as well as to the creation. 

I picked up my mala yesterday. Maybe that is what clued me into the missing meditative time. It's a little weird because I don't typically use my mala beads during my meditation. They do, however, serve as a reminder that I am spiritually connected to the people and the world around me. I think that many Christians have a difficult time with this belief that we are all connected. Christians have been conditioned to believe that the Christ is only in other Christians and so we do not have a spiritual connection to non-believers. I no longer find that to be true. I find God (The Universal Christ) in all of creation. For so very long I limited the scope of Christ to the physical person of Jesus. Today I believe the scope and power of God through the identity of The Christ is much greater than Jesus of American Christianity. 
I'm going to spend some time reconnecting to that today.

How do you connect to God?
                                      the Universe?
                                      the people around you?

John