Relationships with Spirits

I was reminded Monday by Papa that everything we do depends on the relationships we build with our spirits—I feel like this makes an important point which is poorly understood.

We don’t have generalized relationships with the spirits. The spirits represent forces but are decidedly not abstract. We treat them as intimate, as if they were standing right in front of us, and talk to them as if they were standing right there, in a physical body (and sometimes they are.)

Everything we do is contingent on building those relationships, on the way we learn to understand them and the way we treat them. And like relationships, time spent building that relationship with them causes them to influence us, changing the way we express ourselves, think of ourselves, and understand ourselves.

The fascinating thing about them is that they let us build those relationships and honor them, treating us as if we are capable of growing into that intimacy. We can approach them with a bad heart, we can approach them with the intent to deceive, we can approach them with the desire to get things, and they will honor that and let us set the tone for the relationship. Then they will offer us a chance to change, to drop the ways we’re trying to get out of genuine intimacy with them, and sometimes they will offer multiple times.

If we turn them down, they will honor that, too.

If it is in you to do, I urge you to approach them with the desire for intimacy and honesty. If you are to build a relationship with them, there are far worse things to base it on.