There are eleven hours of time difference between Sochi and Calgary, which makes it there now 19:00, or 7pm. The 8pm opening ceremony there tomorrow, are shown here at 9am, in contrast with the Beijing [is chinese phonetics for Peking] Summer games opening when I had to sit up at night.

I wish our Olympic teams the very best and I know there is a lot riding on some of those top athletes. However, I remind myself that any winner would not be one, if it were not for all those who are not, but were willing to try. The is no winner, when there is not a not-winner! That will do for a diary entry, if I get anymore philosophical I’ll have to switch to the Writings!

Yesterday was unusual in several ways. It started with lots of work noises coming from upstairs, sawing and stuff. Then, Elisabeth phoned and wondered whether I could drive her to the hospital, possibly. I was late, so I said yes but after some getting ready and breakfast. She phoned again later to ask for a ride, since her other friend Denise remained out of reach. To this I agreed and left at just before ten am to pick her up and drive her to the Rocky View.

Back from this at about 10:35am I discovered that there was water on the washroom floor and the toilet tank cover. Water coming from above, but how? At my request a different and second plumber man later came down from the unit above me and we determined that waste water was coming from the apartment unit above me. I informed Janet the resident manager about this. Now I am waiting for the promised plumber to show between nine and ten am today.

I did not do any web work yesterday, in part because my routine had been upset and in part because I was motivated to suspend my regular activities in favour of some reading and thinking about ’spirituality’. This I did, reading in ‘Spirituality’ by Philip Sheldrake of the Oxford ’Very Short Introduction’ series. See Writings for more.

That was kind of it for this unusual day, except to mention that I picked Elisabeth up again at about three pm to drive her home. From what she told me, it was a good thing she went, as she was given a definitive diagnoses, medication and advice for follow up.

All day long I kept entertaining aspects, ideas and values relating to spirituality; it was in the air, so to speak. I had read the first few chapters of Sheldrake’s little book late last fall in preparation for my January talk. At that time I did not find the content very helpful, but yesterday the urge to read in it some, persisted.

I decided to start with chapter seven (7), the last one in the booklet. This worked in the sense that I could relate to it. After some time I picked the book up again and read part of chapter six (6), ‘Spirituality and Religion’ to which I could relate as well. In the evening I read the remainder of chapter six(6), leaving chapter five (5) on societal aspects of spirituality for today maybe! The beginning chapters I have read in, but will need further attention.

By this time is was getting late and time to check in, so I got ready for that. Part of my routine is a short contemplation - ‘an over thinking’ translating from Dutch - at the close of the day. I do this every evening, but I want to report on yesterday’s outcome.

From my early explorations on religion as a youth, I recalled reading the books of two converts. One was by a Roman Catholic priest who took on the Protestant faith, the other by a Protestant minister, married with children, who converted to Roman Catholicism.

Moving on in my recollection process, I came to my confession of faith in the denomination - Gereformeerd - of my up bringing. Up to that time I had been confounded by my inability to reconcile all the different denomination that I learned about within my society. For example, in my home town of Zeist alone, there were at least four (4) reformed denomination each with one or more churches in our town of about fifty thousand.

Each such denomination claimed the Bible as their source of wisdom and guide for living, holding this holy writ as true and authentic. At the time my question was, how I could reconcile these conflicting takes on this one true source of guidance and teachings. [At nine the plumber did arrive and is now opening up the ceiling of my bathroom.]

After quite a bit of reading at that time, such as the mentioned books among others, I came to a conclusion that resolved the mentioned conflict. It was that the Bible was true as such, but that it our human interpretations that were ‘at fault’. In other words, our human nature and limited abilities - sinful nature possibly - led to these various and often conflicting interpretations.

Human short comings is the phrase that comes to mind as I write this. This insight, that our human shortcomings underlay these differences resolved for me the difficulty of professing to the taught faith of my own denomination and to which I now proceeded, at the time that is.

And, all in this process of recollection last night, I realised that this all happened sixty (60) years ago this coming Easter. This in turn lead me to draw a comparison between the much more recent insight I now have regarding ‘Existence Divine’. It made me realise that in it too, I had found a reconciliation. One that built on the one of sixty years ago, but now applied to all human religious traditions and expressions.

It made me realise that in it too [sixty years hence], I had found a reconciliation.

Namely the idea that Existence Divine is experienced by us humans in so many different ways, each and every one being an expression of the way we humans understand and experience the mystery of Existence Divine. Each one human religious tradition based on revelations, insights and discoveries throughout our human history, accumulating over time commensurate with time, place, people and circumstance.

At the conclusion of my evening contemplation, I realised that this insight about ’Existence Divine’, late in my life dating back to 2006 at the occasion of my talk ‘In Search of the Sacred’, is an extension and generalisation of that insight of sixty years ago. At that time I needed to resolve the differences between local denominations, but was aware of the world’s faiths.

Now sixty years later, I am seeking to formulate and bring into expression a view that reconciles our religious cum spiritual nuances, varieties, differences and at times, also conflicts, in our planetary society.
<10:17am, with editing and plumber interrupts now 11:27am and the plumber having left and completed the job so far.