Today I wanted to give you things I do to connect spiritually You might not affiliate yourself with any one religion.  Or you might consider yourself to be “spiritual”. This episode is not trying to convert you, just to spark your creativity on how you can connect more to your spiritual side. If you listen to the show you know that I’m a follower of Christ, but I wasn’t always.  And even today, I’m considered a bit unorthodox by many of my Christian friends. Much of what I believe today is influenced by what I was taught as a child, which doesn’t necessarily match what others think. This might be you. So today I’m going to tell you what I personally do to connect spiritually.  You can take some of it for yourself or leave it.  That’s up to you. Connect with Nature: First let’s talk about something that anyone can do, and that is connect with nature. When I’m feeling disconnected, frustrated, or basically just un-spiritual, I tend to want to go outside.  I like going outside and standing in the daylight.  I go to my milkweed plants and search for monarch caterpillars. Just being outside, soaking up the sunshine makes me feel more connected to God and more spiritual. I know I’m lucky where I live, because not only is it sunny most of the year, but also I look out on “open space” in my backyard.  What that means is that no one can build on the land behind me as it’s set aside for wildlife.  That set aside is only for 400 feet, but right now I have a whole mountain behind me. When I go outside in addition to the sunshine, I listen to the birds.  They are singing whether it’s cloudy or sunny.  And it’s something about the singing of the birds that calms me down and I connect spiritually to God.  I don’t even have to talk with God, I’m just there. And wherever I go, I listen for the birds.  Even in urban areas, there are usually a few around, chirping.  And if we listen carefully we can hear them.  Even crows cawing can soothe your spirit sometimes. Listening for wildlife around us can bring us a spiritual connection that we don’t have in our urban busy lives. You know what’s interesting, is that I have been training myself to listen for the last couple of years.  It’s difficult for me because I consider myself to be hard of hearing.  It’s usually when I’m in a crowded room, the talking all runs together and I cannot make out individual conversations.  So it’s hard for me to be in big groups of people. But, since I’ve been training myself to listen, I can actually now hear the sounds of my worms eating.  Sounds gross right? But I have a worm farm in my backyard.  I started it when I first started growing organic vegetables and didn’t want to put chemicals in my garden.  Now I just grow milkweed for the monarch butterfly caterpillars to eat.  But I kept the worm farm.  There’s something about watching them take food and turn it into compost that relaxes me.  And now at night when I go out to feed them, I can hear them eating. Yesterday I was outside and I could hear the flutter of the butterflies wings when it flew by me.  There was a time that I would never have heard any of that. And all of this listening is bringing me closer to God. Perhaps if you listen more to nature it will open your spirituality as well. Color Meditate/ Mind Mapping   I attend church almost every week, and I create drawings of the word that the pastor says.  Sometimes I’ve found that by drawing out the words it helps me concentrate, and then I remember what is being said. Even though my pastor is a great public speaker, is funny, and connects with his small audience of about 150 people, I have a difficult time concentrating, and even staying awake during the sermons. I’m not sure if it’s because during the week I’m so busy, and on Sundays, I tend to decompress.  After church,