Faith

Faith.

I grew up Hindu. kind of. we didn't go to temple. we didn't pray, my mother did every Saturday, but no one else in the family. We didn't have rituals like pooja for this or that, until much later after my wedding. We went to India and saw lots of temples and pooja rooms (praying rooms). I saw the faith that people had relayed thru their actions...touching my grandfathers feet to show respect, love for the elders in general, and family.

But, we ate cheeseburgers, never talked about the meaning behind the faces that were being prayed to, the basic tenets of the religion. We celebrated Christmas, never the other Hindu religions.

Then I went to College. The very large University of Minnesota. I was asked to go to church 21 times, Christian church. I must have looked very lost. I knew more about Christianity than Hinduism anyway: the Easter and Christmas movies, Moses, etc., The name Jesus is everywhere in America, books, shows, movies,etc., The 10 commandments always appealed to me. But I didn't go to Church.

I met people from all walks of life, many different religions, Judaism, Islam, Mormon, Jehovah Withness, Budhism, Paganism, Jainism and the different facets of Christianity: baptist, methodist, catholic, protestant... They all seemed so convinced in their personal beliefs. They all seemed to need that belief, that Faith in something.

I took lots of religious studies classes, spoke to lots of people. I have come to the consensus that I do not want to take anyone's beliefs away from any person, and do not want to state that any one is the one.

But i do believe; i believe in something bigger than all of us. Maybe something that predetermines our fate.  I have determined that by being GOOD, spreading kindness, i feel a sense of happiness.