us on our wedding day.

Because it is a day of such deeply personal and spiritual meaning, I would like to share with you a few of my private beliefs and thoughts on the nature of love and divinity.

Words on Love and the Divine

Spirituality and faith can be very personal things, and even within the same religious groups every person's experience and definitions are their own.

My personal spiritual journey through life has been one of wide-ranging exploration and a near-constant and insatiable need to learn of practices, traditions and beliefs from across the world and throughout history. My personal, though sometimes undefined, search to understand the divine has led me down a great many paths, and finally to the path I've come to walk.

Along the way, I have learned an appreciation and respect for every belief and tradition, partly from coming to understand their intrinsic value and partly from having the opportunity to see and understand how interconnected they all truly are. I find both a measure of pride and solace in the tolerance that spending time looking at things from other's point of view can bring, especially in a wolrd where tolerance is in short demand and the lives of most people are so hectic and narrowly-focused.

There is truth and depth in every interpretation of faith and the divine - and the central and most important principles of how one lives their life remains a greater truth that lies at the core of nearly every philosophical and religious teaching. The various laws, semantics, dogmas and details differ wildly, but in all there is usually contained an element that respects the sanctity of life, a belief that others should be treated in the manner in which we hope to receive treatment, that a form of love or compassion expressed the truest elements of what is best and most healing in the society, and that there is a duty born in truth and honour that we owe to ourselves, our world around us and the divine in our lives. If you search the core tenets of your faith, whatever it may be, you will most likely find these truths and laws echoed there. Perhaps one may think these are common sense - but sense is rarely common.

For many, I think at some point in their life they find a greater meaning, something that rings true to the questions in their souls and fits the subconscious human longing for the touch of the divine upon their hearts. For some, it is the beliefs they were raised wtih that have been there throughout their lives. Others find their truths along the way, in what they learn or experience or simply stumble across, sometimes in a flash of revelation or epiphany.

I have been asked many times what I believe in, yet I never find it a simple answer. The easy and yet most complex answer is simply to answer that I believe in God, but that is not even a fraction of a true answer. The God of All Creation has been given so many faces and names throughout human history, and it is sad that more dissent and conflict has come from human interpretation of the nature of the divine then from any other cause.

Each soul needs to interpret faith as they feel it, as their hearts believe the divine presence speaks to them. Whether you call that presence Fate, Destiny, God, Goddess, Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, Buddah, The Great Spirit or any of thousands of other names, identities and concepts, what truly remains important is that you do call it, and hear it and feel it - and know what it means to you and how it effects your life. What you call God is never what is important - dogma and scripture and teachings - these are all human interpretation and no one can ever truly claim to be more correct then any other. That is a matter of ... faith.

When we learn to love the presence of the holy and sacred in our lives, and learn to love ourselves through the gift and beauty of the life we have been given, then we truly learn the capacity to accept and to love others and to share that life and that love with them.

Nothing will ever be more important or a greater success in your life then to learn to love and be loved. All that is joy and beauty and contentment flows from that greater understanding and sharing of love. Love isn't something you can keep or protect. Love only grows when it is shared and freely given away. Love with conditions or requirements is too selfish to be the true and absolute love that all souls deserves to experience in their lives. That true and unconditional love is the first and best miracle that will ever touch any life.

In this I am blessed to have found and known and shared the depth of love that can only come from that kind of miracle, from the peace of the soul and from the sharing and loving touch of the Lord of Light.