In this age of information overload, we all can find ourselves looking for ten easy steps to Inner Peace, Joy, and Spirituality. On Saturday, March 21st, Rev. Dr. Deborah Martinez showed us that it’s actually easier than that — there’s actually three easy steps:
1. Take care of yourself so you can help take care of others.
2. Don’t hurt yourself and don’t hurt others.
3. Use everything for your upliftment, learning and growth.
Deb calls it “The recipe for a spiritual life.” And she would be the first to tell you, “Nothing new here, folks. These are the MSIA guidelines.”
But, what was new was Deb’s way of presenting an old subject in a new, expanded, humorous, and delightful way. I heard from a number of assistants that some people actually signed up for this Spa Day (not knowing what it was going to be about) when they heard that Deb was the one who would facilitate. I can readily relate to this. I am one who truly enjoys Deb as a facilitator having gone through three years of the DSS (Doctor of Spiritual Science) with her in the facilitator chair.
Deb reminded us that Spirit works with us in an individual way. She explained that in MSIA we are always looking at how spirituality can be practical for us — so we try to incorporate spirituality into our everyday lives. “So,” she asked, “how do we go about living a spiritual life?” She discovered that, for her, it meant, “how do we keep things simple?” And the BIG QUESTION: “What does spiritual living really mean?”
She reflected to us what she thought being a spiritual person meant early on in her life. At one point, she said, she adhered to the “monk theory”: that to be a spiritual person you had to be a monk, off somewhere living in a cave chanting all day. Over the years, she said, this theory fizzled out — it just was not practical to live in a cave.
“I am really impressed with people like Mother Theresa”, she said. “I think of her as a
