As part of our Summer series on religious naturalism, I invited us to consider the mysteries that the earth might have to teach us.

There are lots of times we get to learn about the earth, to understand ecosystems and to understand the systems and processes that are going on around us all the time. The spiritual dimension of things, however, doesn’t always lend itself to answers like that. Sometimes we have to contend with the mysteries of the world.

Spiritual mysteries are different than other mysteries that are full of clues we have to find and riddles we have to solve. Instead, we get to sit with a spiritual mystery, and by sitting with it, it’s profound power works on us bit by bit, until we are changed, never the same person who first confronted the mystery. Sitting with a mystery requires our attention, our curiosity, and above all our presence. It’s about being with a thing, which isn’t the same thing as understanding a thing.

So, I’ve invited anyone who would like to join to come sit with the mystery of nature by making a little community of us and it at the Beaver Marsh in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the evening of July 22 at 7pm. You can read all about this part of the Towpath Trail here.

The parking lot is located at 3912 Riverview Rd, Peninsula, OH 44264. I’ll plan to be in the parking lot near where the trail begins at 7pm, so we don’t have to navigate the hot, afternoon Sun. This will be rain or shine –– if its a downpour, we’ll have to find ways to commune with the rain.

If you can make it, I hope you’ll join.

Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD

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