The last spiritual experience I had was on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, gazing out, mesmerized, by the infinite expanse of blue, gray, and purple water. It was not a life-changing revelation. It was simply my brain firing a series of neurons that gave me a sense that there IS something higher than myself, and that I am a small, but significant part in the impossibly complicated, but perfectly balanced equation that is life, evolution, and time.
I spent the first 18 years of my life across the street from this giant basin of water leftover from an advancing glacier that scoured the crap out of the land. My husband calls Lake Michigan my “obsession,” and it’s no wonder. This living body of water is synonymous with every childhood and coming of age experience I ever had. I saw people die in Lake Michigan–surreal scenes where helicopters in the moonlight shone down their search lights, illuminating the black, churning water that mercilessly swallowed up some poor human soul. The lake was terrifying!
My worst fears were born from the unforgiving, angry waves of Lake Michigan. But so, also, were my greatest joys born from the calm, milky black water of sultry summer nights. The lake was a witness to my tenderest adolescent moments, my deepest friendships, and my stupidest experiments on the limits of the human body. This ever-changing body of elements watched me grow up, mature, and become a human being capable of feeling.
God has always been Lake Michigan. But I’m sure God is in other places, which leads me to this blog. I’m documenting my search for God and the human spiritual experience. I don’t foresee myself ever truly finding it, and saying, “I’m set in my faith until I die.” God is elusive, and rightly so. It is not my intention to offend or degrade any religion, non-religion, political persuasion, or gold-plated cow statue worship in the writing of this blog. I congratulate all of those who have found God and all of those who have no desire to find God; at the very least, I hope my quest for God entertains you.
Wonderful, Autumn. I think all of us who grew up on Lake Michigan have similar feelings and the grandeur of that body of water. It starts out the journey for God for many of us here on the Lake. Look up the works of Andy goldsworthy, Scottish sculptor and the film of his work called Rivers and Tides. He touches on so much of this idea but with all of the Earth.
Hi Autumn! I love this post. I wish you a wonderful journey. It’s a life-long quest… welcome
. I’ve been on it ever since I left my parents’ house, and am still walking steadily. One step at a time with an open mind, right? Much love to you.