“Love is accepting people for who they are and what they are, regardless.” Alicia Keys
My journey has finally begun. I have had this idea ever since I was recommended a book called, Post Traumatic Church Syndrome, by Reba Riley. In this exceptionally eye opening memoir the author Reba Riley visits thirty different religions before she turns thirty. Wow! Now take that in for a few moments, not many people have or would even be slightly interested in doing such a thing. Talk about jumping out of your comfort zone!
Now her reasons may be a little different than my own, as she takes this journey in hopes that it will bring her some kind of healing from past church scars. I myself am not necessarily seeking healing to deep cut wounds but rather am motivated to go down this path for other reasons.
I honestly did not think that taking on such a task, visiting 30 different religions before I turned 30 (all to be done in a little less than a year), was all that big of a deal. But then I started mentioning it to friends and family, you know just the idea that I thought was pretty cool and open minded and that’s when I started to realize that this wasn’t really a normal thing to do. The looks of concern, the questions as to why I would want to do such a thing. People asking me, “You’re not going to go visit Scientology or any kind of temples are you?” I smile and try my best to take in their concerns while in my head I am thinking, “Well yes, I do believe that I am and I plan on loving every minute of it!”
When someone tells me not to do something or shows “concern” for one of my extreme ideas, well it just lights the fire in me to go for it even more. Now that all seems a bit teenage rebellion but I promise this is all coming from a good place and in a good way I like to say, “Challenge accepted!” So once I realized how many people wouldn’t touch this idea with a twenty foot pole, I knew that I indeed had to give this a try!
The motivation may not be life altering deep. I may not be seeking answers to my deep dark questions or feel like I need some kind of great healing in my life, but rather that I am curious. I am curious about other people, other religions, other beliefs and what draws people into all the different ones.
I have these ideas in my head of what a catholic, an atheist, a monk, a Jehovah’s witness looks like and yet I know that the picture in my head is so utterly incorrect. I know that there are real people behind every religion and that just because we may not agree on every “religious” point, doesn’t mean that we don’t have a hundred other things in common. We are all people at the end of the day and we are all seeking questions to answers that we don’t understand and most of us want to believe that there is something bigger than ourselves out there somewhere.
My sole intention going into this challenge is to BE OPEN MINDED. To purposefully knock down the doors of my own judgmental castle and put myself in situations that are slightly uncomfortable. I realized recently that it is not enough to just want to be less judgmental and less prejudice but that in order to get over that, walk through it, crawl underneath it, freaking blast through the middle of it if I must, I have to, face it all head on. And so that is where my head is at as I begin this challenge of visiting 30 different religions before I turn 30.
I recently watched a Netflix documentary on Taylor Swift and towards the end she spoke something that really hit home with me. Taylor Swift said, “I am trying to become as educated as possible on how to respect people, on how to deprogram the misogyny in my own brain. Toss it out, reject it and resist it.” I couldn’t have said it better myself Taylor!
So this is my journey and I have no idea where or to whom it will lead me to but I know deep down in my heart that I won’t be the same person on my 30th birthday!
Stars and Sunsets 