A Guide for Spiritual Living: Hundreds of Suggestions for Finding, Refinding, Refining, Redefining and Reinventing Your Own Personal Spiritual Path

Copyright © 2012 by Rev. George L. McLaird.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-0996-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-0997-5 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012906091

iUniverse rev. date: 07/24/2012

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Contrasting Religion and Spiritual Living

Chapter 3 Suggestions for Activities

Chapter 4 Suggestions for Contemplation: Finding, Refinding, Refining, Redefining, or Reinventing Your Own Personal Spiritual Path.

Chapter 5 Suggestions for Self-Nourishing

Chapter 6 Suggestions for Addicts and Those Suffering from Bad Habits

Appendix

To every person seeking to enhance his or herself by spiritualizing every aspect of their life.

To those I’ve worked with who have experienced being overwhelmed by substance abuse or chemical dependency.

To those in recovery.

To my colleagues who are dedicated to recovery for each client.

Come to the edge,

He said.

We will fall,

They said.

Come to the edge,

He said.

We will fall,

They said.

Come to the edge,

He said a third time.

They did.

He pushed them and they flew.

—Guillaume Apollinaire

Acknowledgments

Sonnee Weedn, PhD, recommended me as a spiritual counselor at two residential drug and alcohol treatment centers and has provided countless pieces of wisdom and advice when I found myself in over my head when counseling.

Dr. Steven Fugaro detected my heart attack while I described my symptoms over the telephone. Also, I am grateful to him for encouraging me to attend Total Arteriosclerosis Management (TAM) and for his ongoing friendship and medical care.

Thanks to Dr. Mark Wexman and the entire TAM team.

Perry Litchfield, Roland Williams, Bryan Bowen, Bill Lampl, William Morrison, Ryan Cooper and Tyler Knight hired me and gave me carte blanche to teach my spiritual living classes as I wished.

Christian O’Donnell is now with Caron. Every time I’ve asked him for a referral, he has always given wonderful suggestions.

The members of the Sausalito Presbyterian Church provided time and funds for continuing education, which broadened my spiritual experiences and insights.

Thanks also to the following: Kareen Carter for editing; Kare Anderson for numerous positive suggestions;

Anjanette Petty-Kountz for cover art and line drawings;

Robin Sinclair for technical help; the team at iUniverse; Ellen Thomas for getting things in order and helping to find grammatical errors in this manuscript;

Jan Gauthier, photographer and Ann Mahony for great advice and direction.

To my wife, Linda, who tactfully reminds me of my workaholism when she sees I’m obsessing on some project, such as writing this guide.

Preface

Iwas ordained in 1968 and have served four churches, the last being the Sausalito Presbyterian Church, where I was the pastor for twenty-six years. At this writing, I am in my eleventh year of retirement from parish ministry.

I began making this list of suggestions and teaching these ideas as a parish pastor in 1972. The original list contained practices people around the world, both religious and nonreligious, found nourishing to their spirit, mind and body.

This guide began by using my original list of spiritual practices and expanding them. I used these as talking points when I became a spiritual teacher and counselor eight years ago at a residential drug and alcohol recovery program, Bayside Marin Recovery Center.

I have now served as a spiritual counselor and teacher at three other recovery centers. Mayflower Recovery Center in San Rafael, California, sadly, is no longer offering services. Currently, I teach spiritual living at The Alta Mira Recovery Center in Sausalito, California, and Mountain View Recovery in San Rafael, California.

The spiritual practices listed in this guide are examples of healthy self-loving, self-caring and self-soothing.

My definition of spiritual includes anything that promotes or enhances your spirit, mind and body; healthy relationships with others; and your environment. Ethical behavior and service to others are essential ingredients in the practice of authentic and healthy spirituality.

Ceremonies took place across world on October 31, 2011, to celebrate the arrival of the estimated seven billionth person on earth. To commemorate that day, I wrote a poem.

7 Billion

Welcome, seven billionth person, whoever you are

Every one of us is on a spiritual journey

Even those who don’t know it

Admit it or even deny it

Those who choose the life

Of kidnapper, rapist, or torturer

Seem to not be on any spiritual path

But the psychopath is simply on a dark and dreary one

Gaining lessons through giving and receiving pain

There are other ways

The ways of light, lightness, laughter and service to others

Choose your path carefully

Is every person on earth really on a spiritual journey? I think so. No matter what your situation or station may be, at some level you yearn or seek the big three: health, wealth and happiness.

Some claim, at our core, we humans already have these intact, but our outer physical shell mesmerizes and deceives us into believing these are only achievable by a very few.

No matter what name you use to identify your pursuit (spiritual path, spiritual journey, pilgrimage, healthy living or spiritual living), the big three are available for everyone—no matter if you self-identify as religious, secular, skeptic, agnostic, agnatheist or atheist. Should you identify as one of the last four types, you will enjoy Michael Krasny’s Spiritual Envy: An Agnostic’s Quest.

If you are involved in a faith-based community, as I have been all of my life, you will find this guide helpful as you fine-tune, tweak, revise and update your spiritual life.

If this guide were a course at a university, it would be a first-year class with a 101 designation. My purpose here is to point you in the direction you wish to go today. Each suggestion provides just enough information to get you started and will point in the direction where you can do more research, discovery and participation on your own.

When a couple contacts me about conducting their wedding (it is usually the bride), we set up an initial meeting by phone, by Skype, or in person. Among other things, I let them know they have 100 percent editorial control over every word spoken during the ceremony. Therefore, they will get the exact ceremony that they want.

While using this guide, you have 100 percent editorial control over every aspect of the spiritual path you are about to create. And it remains flexible with exchangeable parts for your entire lifetime. The spiritual path you create today will simply be the foundation for the one—or ones—you create later.

Metaphorically, this guide is a chaperone providing numerous suggestions for finding, refinding, refining, fine-tuning, redefining, or reinventing your personal and unique spiritual path. Blessings galore!

To use this guide effectively:

1. Personalize it.

This guide belongs to ________________________________________

Today’s date________________________________________________

If you find this guide, please contact me.

Address: _____________________________________

Phone number: _______________________________

E-mail address: ________________________________

Thank you!

2. Throughout this guide, there are numerous opportunities to answer questions or make personal notes. Take advantage of every opportunity. The more you do so, the more valuable this guide will become to you.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As you read these suggestions for improving your spiritual life, listen to your initial intuitive response. You might hear yourself saying the following:

•   Great suggestion. I’m going to try this.

•   I know for sure I won’t try this one.

•   I’ll give this some thought.

You will be able to structure a spiritual path that is uniquely yours by listening to your internal dialogue and voting yes or no on each suggestion.

When you have completed identifying the suggestions you will put into place, list them on the page titled My Present Spiritual Path Is. Doing so will serve as a first draft for creating your chosen spiritual path.

3. Think 360 degrees. Every aspect of life, body, mind and spirit is included in spiritual living.

Spiritual living is lighthearted and carries the intention of being as healthy as possible every day in every way.

This guide contains many affirmations that are state-of-the-art mini-prayers. They act like magnets, drawing us toward our lofty goals and they clarify what we really want. I wrote the following spiritual living affirmation following my heart attack in 1999:

Enjoy yourself while using this guide.

Rev. George L. McLaird

Mill Valley, CA 94941

2012

Chapter 1

When using this guide, please keep these words in mind:

•   Anything

•