I thought I was done with blogging, but it seems it wasn’t done with me.  Last Sunday, I went to church (!)  I had heard several times, that Glide was a “different” kind of church.  In fact, it describes itself as a “celebration”.

I was encouraged by the fact that I was with the  Claudia (who took the photo above) – and that I didn’t immediately burst into flames as I walked in the door!

The opening prayer is displayed on a large screen, and ends “Halleluja, Shalom, Right On, Namaste”!  This set the scene for a fantastic service full of love.  In fact, love (specifically “self love”) is the central theme.  There was much talk of “losing religion, and finding faith”. One of my favourite quotes was “Don’t use Jesus to be a narrow-minded bigot”!

I went to a Catholic school, but haven’t been to church in years.  (Not since I asked a vicar if I could have sex with my boyfriend, and he told me I would go to hell if I did!)  I loved the non-denominational  aspect, the charity, the handing-out of fans, and tissues… but most of all I liked the music.  Wow, that choir can sing.  It made my heart resonate.  I cried throughout most of the service.

People think I am tactile, but I don’t really like to be touched unless I am initiating it.  I was perturbed at the suggestion we should embrace our neighbours, until I saw the joy and happiness in it.  At one point, an old man (wearing a perfectly-tied double windsor) took his shoes and socks off, snuggled up to me and started snoring.  Claudia held on to me and we laughed and laughed.

The central message, at least on this Sunday, was to relax, to try and love yourself, to chill the “f”out, and let the God, Allah  the universe (or whatever you call it) take care of you.  I am going to try and work on that.  Maybe I shouldn’t have been striving so hard.  I have experienced this a few times over the last few months.  If you just take a step back, things sometimes come to you.

(A quick anecdote on this, nothing to do with god/religion/faith, I wanted tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert this this week and was disappointed they were sold out.  I started to try and “produce” them and find ways to just bulldoze it and make it work.  As soon as I took my foot off the pedal, they dropped into my lap.  Of course, not everything is going to be easy, but I am trying to be thankful for every little bit of life.)

I do know, that in my darkest days, there was a support there that I didn’t know was there.