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Jane Duncan Rogers's avatar

Lori I love this! You are telling it like it is. When I stopped being a spiritual seeker, I discovered I was a spiritual finder, just by being still enough to recognise that I’d got everything the wrong way round in life. Just like nearly everyone else. Fortunately I found that hilarious!

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you, Jane; I know soon I will also see the humor. Great perspective.

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Jane Duncan Rogers's avatar

The funny side comes. At least it did for me. But for a long time I couldn’t see that.

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Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

This is gorgeous. The pathless path. This is what I'm writing about this week too: On Being Dead, except not from the vulnerability of it happening in real time. I'm with you, sitting beside you. There is something so true about it.

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you, Susan. We are together on this pathless path.

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Susan Kacvinsky's avatar

I admire your courage.

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Rob Taylor's avatar

Your experience reflects the frustration experienced by many...the ambiguity of religious dogma and so-called "spirituality." There's consciousness, brain, and body. No more, no less. ☮

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you for this validation, Rob.

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Peggy Fokkema's avatar

Well Lori bickel I am happy to run into you here on substack.

More and more. I'm getting through these layers of substack to find what truly resignates with me I am still in the dark. Reading this post..I thought I was the author . I'm 62 and have an autoimmune disease that hit at 50 after running my business for 30 years. I've been a lone wolf most of my life running from my indoctrination running toward a mother's acceptance Just basically running to avoid myself . Keeping it short, I will just say that last year has been incredibly difficult on top of a life of difficulties and I've had to say goodbye to a lot . In doing so I find myself lost and still in need of discovering what and who the hell I am . I will continue to follow you because I need to learn more. Hopefully I will biggest thing's going to be learning to like myself. I guess I guess that would be a start all right

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you for sharing, Peggy. It sounds like we are both doing a lot of shedding and saying goodbyes, which is emotional and difficult. We have been conditioned to look outside ourselves for validation, so focusing on liking ourselves for who we truly are is a new way of being.

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Just me's avatar

My new guiding light in an old Beatle’s song hit me just recently: Let it Be….I don’t need a guru, a plan or fear. The unknown is yet to come and working on being curious rather than fearful means, let it be. 🧚‍♂️.

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you, and I love your name, "Just me".

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Flavia Sekles's avatar

I love this piece -- it's authentic, it's vulnerable, and -- while I don't know you (yet), it feels true. Your writing -- this is poetic prose, Lori -- is stunning. I am finding the same as you as I look for identity in my post-corp life: writing and having this platform to push it out into the world is a lifesaver.

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Lori Bickel's avatar

Thank you, Flavia. It is definitely a journey as we look for a new identity that feels authentic.

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