Hello to you all.
My name is Natalie and I come from a small town in the north of England which has a large and mainly peaceful Asian / Muslim community. I work with two wonderful 'westernised' muslim girls and we got chatting one night. I found that one is being 'encouraged' into an arranged marriage with an Indian cousin, and realised how little I knew about the culture and beliefs of my colleagues, and so I went searching. This is when I found P.O.D. At first I thought it was just one of many disgusting intolerrent rants by a 'W.A.S.P.' or white supremasist movement (... sorry). Until I read deeper. How wrong I was. I have since shared some snippets with my two colleagues and was amazed to find they new as little about there religion as I did about mine. This is what has brought me to you.
I was brought up as a good Catholic girl and as a child, found comfort and awe in the beautiful rituals and trappings of the Catholic Church. I always felt a great sense of peace and belonging, as if I was a part of a wonderful secret that no one else knew. As it turned out I was right, only the secret wasn't wonderful at all.
As I got older, I did what all children do. I began to ask embarassing questions. 'Mommy, where do babies come from?' , 'Daddy, what is that between your legs, and why don't I have one?' , 'Father Edwards, why do you wear a dress?'. Both my Mom amd Dad gave me honest answers, Father Edwards told me to go and read the bible, that the answer to every question I could ever had would be found there. I was 7 years old. I just about understood the creation story, and I was getting to grips with the flood, but neither of these stories explained why Father Edwards wore a pretty dress. But I did as I was told and carried on reading.
The more I read, the more questions I had, and the more dissallutioned I became with Catholisism, but my love of God became deeper and more personal. In my mid teens I abandoned the church that I felt had abandanded God in favour of pomp and imigary, But I never abandoned my faith, and it never abandoned me. In the years in between I have studied many religions, faiths, cults, sects, communes, etc.etc.etc, and yet I have never found anyone who shares the same relationship with God that I do. As I have never found a community that has the same principles as I do, I have had to 'wing it', and just hope that I am living the kind of life that He wants. I follow the basics, I live a good, clean, honest life. I do not defile my body, (though I do have to admit to a rebellious teenage tatoo), I honor no God but Him, I offer help to those I can and I pass judgement on none. But I have always felt there to be something lacking, some guidance I could not find, some knowledge hidden from me, some truths yet to be revealed. And then I was guided here. I'm not saying you are my answer, but from the literature I have read, and the comments made on these forums, I think you may just be the start of a beautiful journey to an even closer relationship with Him. I would like to thank you all for the inspirations I have already received here, and I look forward to many hearty discussions with you all. Thanks again,
Natalie
For those of you curious about my tag, Zzyzx, California is a settlement in San Bernardino County, California, formerly the site of the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa and now the site of the Desert Studies Center. The name Zzyzx, was given to the area in 1944 by Curtis Howe Springer (an American radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and Methodist minister, he was niether of the last two), claiming it to be the last word in the English language. Springer made up the word's pronunciation (zeezicks). He established the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa at the spot, claiming it to be a religious and holy site, and that the waters had miraculous powers blah...blah...blah. I use the tag to remind me that no matter how far I travel or where I go, I'm never far from either false, self proclaimed religion, or a spiritual desert. Natalie
