Faith

“I am not dying,” Jack said. “I’ve simply come to the realization that the amount of sand in the top of my hourglass is far less than the sand in the bottom.”

The Wishing Game, Meg Shaff

Looking through photos to use for this post about faith my eye first went to places of worship. I choose this photo because it brought back treasured memories of a trip with a dear friend. While out on one of our walks in the 7th arrondissement, where we were staying, we happened upon The American Church in Paris. The church was open and there was a children’s recital going on. Proud parents were listening intently to their offspring showing off what all those months of music lessons had accomplished. It could have been anywhere. Families brought together to listen to music.

Faith isn’t only found in a place of worship. It can be discovered anywhere, at anytime. It is simply, trusting in something we can’t see or prove. The concept of faith or belief is found in many traditions both religious and secular. It can also be seen in everyday life. We believe the car will get us to where we’re going or that when we flip the light switch the lamp will come on. We don’t know how it works, but we have confidence that it will. I’m writing about a more profound faith. A trust in something higher. Thomas Aquinas wrote faith is “an act of intellect asserting to the truth at the command of the will.”

I am often asked how I come upon what I am going to write. This post was inspired by the quote that begins this page. It started me wondering about our return to faith as we age. Spirituality can be connected to religion or not. It might just be a belief in something bigger than ourself. As the sand in the top of our hourglass becomes less we often search for a higher meaning to life. For me this takes shape in my belief in God. For others, it might be something else. Aging has made me more accepting, less arrogant, willing to see there is more than one truth.