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The importance of spiritual formation
The importance of spiritual formation
The importance of spiritual formation
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Personal Narrative- The Path Towards Grace, Love and Peace
When I was 16 I left my parents home. One month before I left, I wrote this in my journal:
“What is the fluttering in my belly, rising up through my chest? An apprehension — a fear — excitement? I am anticipating a change — a falling down — a caving in of something I expect to be solid. I’m in a strange place, moving slowly forward with nothing that can be measured — an internal advancement, a shedding away of old selves. I am pared down.”
The story of my leaving still feels like something written in code — a code no one could understand on the rational mind level. It was my soul’s decision and no amount of explaining or writing has helped enlighten those who did not understand it. I barely understood it myself. To those who did understand, I had to say very little. They knew within the first two minutes of my telling. They were inevitably people who, at some point in their lives, tried to bury their own soul’s yearnings, who had decided to live a perfectly fine and reasonable life, until the day they could not. That day of “soul excavation” remains crystal clear in their minds. As do all the nudges and urgings from the universe that led them there. Once I left, I looked back and saw this path towards that day so clearly — to me it made perfect sense. So much so that when friends asked me later, “How could you leave such a life — not having to work, good parents, nice house?” I would answer, “How could I not?” And yet, I had never felt so humbled. With my leaving came the realization of how very little I had known my Self all those years. I did not leave gracefully.
I did not expect my soul to be such an urgent and powerful force. Nor did I plan to leave when I did — but once I did, I felt supported and encouraged by something I could not name. The path ahead kept lighting up as if with neon. Go there. Do this. Fear accompanied me and frustration, guilt and desperate prayers, but no longer did I feel that deep sadness I could not name, which Sarah Ban Breathnagh, in her book Simple Abundance, says is “you missing your authentic self.”
I feel lucky now that as a child I took on little of our culture’s burden around success.
Today’s world is filled with technology and this technology, while helpful, has its downfalls. One of the major downfalls of technology is its overbearing presence. In order to develop a full plan for spiritual transition, we must include a time of solace that removes the distractions of technology and life from the picture. One we have a clear head, we can move forward towards deepening our spiritual life.
gave your life, for some reason, collapses. In a religious meaning, I believe it is best described by St. John of the Cross as “the soul’s journey to the divine union of the love of God” (Perrine). The darkness represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching t...
1. The voting game was interesting, and it was an analogy to real life situations. Initially I was confused and really did not understand the game. At first I assumed that if I voted the number 1 I would not receive any money, and if I voted the number 0, I would receive money. I was thinking this was a tricky game, and everyone would vote 0 because if they voted 1 they wouldn’t receive any money. I was wrong. Only fifteen students voted for the number 0: the rest voted for the number 1. I received $30,000 while the people who voted the number 1 received $38,000, $8,000 more! I then understood the game and how I should vote, but then a classmate pleaded his case and hoped everyone would vote 0, so the money we received would increase and we
Joshua Nealy, a prominent medical school graduate, died last night from complications of losing his dream of becoming a practicing physician. He was 39 years-old. Soft-spoken and borderline obsessive, Joshua never looked the part of a “professional”, but, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the last three years of pursuit of his long reputed dream profession, a position, which he spent nearly 10 years attaining. Sadly, the protracted search ended this past March 18th in complete and utter failure. Although in certain defeat, the courageous Nealy secretly clung to the belief that life is merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. It’s not a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of her dear friend, Emily, the girlfriend turned fiancé and dPT expert of Berkshire County, described Joshua as a changed man in the last years of his life. "Things were worse for him; not following his dream left him mostly lifeless, uninspired," Sammons noted. Ultimately, Joshua concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess the powerful ability to change ourselves and the world around us; the choice to make ours from nothingness.
The body and the spirit are connected through the entity of emotions and feelings, which are formed through experiences, understanding, and knowledge about the world. As Australian poet Gwen Harwood’s poem’s “Triste Triste and “Alter Ego” seeks to find and reconnect an individual’s inner-self again through both the body and spirit, Kenneth Slessor’s poems “Sleep” and “ ” explores how the separation of the body and spirit can be seen as a positive component towards the core experiences of human life. As each of the poems captivates a sense of intertwinement within the body and mind, the poems seem to reflect and mirror one another, drawing upon similar experiences and emotions which are conveyed through the persona’s journey.
As I was driving into the church parking lot I had to take a deep breath. After leaving another frustrating day at school and then going to work right afterwards, I needed to calm myself down. I looked in the rear view mirror one more time to make sure I looked halfway presentable. I fixed my wind-blown hair by pulling it back in a high ponytail and put on some Burt’s Bees lip balm before exiting the car. I grabbed my Bible and notebook and locked the doors. As I walked towards the youth building a wave of comfort washed over me.
Summer vacation, and school ends for about three months, and then you have as much fun as you can, then back to school… right? Well I had to go to summer school, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Everything was going fine, I had a job after summer school, and that was going fine as well. They say that summer is supposed to be fun and exciting, and it usually is for me and my family. However in July my father started coughing up blood. My father usually doesn’t make it his top priority to go to the doctors, so he waited about four weeks until he really didn’t feel good.
Symbolism and meaning is by far one of the most important aspects of the tattoo industry. “The abstract emotions and human awareness of emotions show what really is going on in ones life (Johnson)”. For that reason tattooing is a form of self-expression, and can stand for literal interpretations. For the most part these interpretations are the conveying of spiritual meaning, or marking milestones such as life or death” (Johnson). For those who think tattooing is just for looks or put a bad judgment on it, should also realize that ones personal interest reflects upon their lives. “Many individuals get their first tattoos during adolescence or young adulthood.”(Bravermark) Due to the mainstream culture, these traditions traditionally associate with stereotypes. Stereotypes defiantly have a huge impact on life. Which leads to the next point? Whether flaunted or hidden, sought as art or brought out on a whim, the tattoo has left a huge impact on generation after generation.
According to life course theory, peers will have a significant influence on delinquent behavior in early adolescence and this influence grows as the primary social environment in which an adolescent functions shifts from parents to peer networks but then diminishes in late adolescence as it shifts to an increased commitment to conventional activities. This explicitly points to a changing pattern of influence within the social institution of peers.
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
Thompson, W. E. and Bynum J. E. (2010). Juvenile Delinquency: A sociological Approach Eighth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Each year hundreds of thousands of teens are arrested for committing criminal offenses. For many adolescent, juvenile delinquency is just something that comes with growing up but for some it becomes a cycle that continues until their adult years. Juvenile delinquency not only effect the offender themselves but it also places a burden on society as well. Among the most abundantly stated causal factors of juvenile delinquency is broken homes. The relationship between a parent and child have been explored by countless amounts of researchers. “Children in disadvantaged families that have few opportunities for legitimate employment and face a higher risk of social exclusion are overrepresented among offenders” Juvenile
Throughout this journey of life many outside forces manipulate whom all of us become. Who created my personal connotation? Through every relative, friend, and composition it boils down to me. I have taken all these beliefs and crammed them into a 6 feet, 2 inch frame. The real journey lays ahead, the journey from young adulthood to old age. I only pray this journey includes many travels and few destinations.
I remember the day as if it were yesterday; I was sitting in my sixth grade classroom deliberately packing my belongings away in my jam-packed locker. As I reached for my belongings, I endured all of the eventful memories that took place in that school and in my home state. All the friendships that I made would abolish. My friends sobbed as I sobbed. I anticipated this very day for about six months. As all of my belongings were finally packed, I gave my final good-byes and headed out. The mixed emotions trembled through my head. I became exceedingly furious then miserable then furious again. Hatred filled my eyes as we drove farther away. I became bitter with my family and secretly blamed it all on my
When I left my room, my mother knew that I had gone through a rough time, and I did not want to talk to her about it. Even though there was only a month left in my school year, I promised myself that I would be completely truthful to my friends, my family, my heritage, and myself. I expected all my friends to leave me, but I was fully prepared for this. However, none of this ever happened. My friends didn’t leave me, I wasn’t alone at the lunch table, I wasn’t even seem differently by those around me. I had failed my family by doing this, and I wished I had stopped acting like someone I wasn’t sooner. This is one of the only mistakes I have made which I consider a failure because it had taken me close to a year to fix, and this is why I consider it my most successful failure.