Member for

4 years 7 months
Who are you? Tell us about your path, hopes, dreams, or otherwise. Consider this your first sharing with the community.

My name is Bob.  I am a father of two wonderful children (now adults) and a husband to my loving and interminably patient wife, and I generally feel blessed with those relationships and how my life has progressed, but getting here hasn't always been easy.  My life has been a series of steps where every time I have been lost, I asked the universe for direction and have received answers or new steps to take.  I dropped out of college in my first semester due to lack of preparation, and lost my job shortly thereafter.  These events put me in a tailspin where I felt lost in life and just drifted along surviving, but with little self worth.

Several years later, I asked God for help overcoming an addiction to cigarettes and was successful.  A month later, I left my religion due to what I felt were inconsistencies, and during that intense period of questioning, I asked the universe - God, creator, whatever - to tell me the truth.  I was directed, in response, to look up a friend I hadn't talked to in years.  The two of us immersed ourselves in studying a couple spiritual philosophies and practices that ultimately put me in contact with my inner spirit to the degree that I no longer question my relationship to God and I recognize that the universe is friendly and there is a plan and a purpose for us all even though we may not always understand what it is.

Although I have been inspired by many spiritual ideas, books and people, I have learned not to define myself by the external sources I've studied, and instead to listen within, to find the truth where it is (as I perceive it in the moment), and to be willing to adjust when what I want to believe and what is actually happening don't coincide.  I recognize I am not perfect yet, and that how people interpret truth varies, so one of my challenges is to be patient, loving and kind as much as possible, but to still speak my truth and live my process as faithfully as I can.

My professional career has had me work for about 9 years in the grocery business, followed by about 9 years as a stay at home dad (a time when I also returned to college and got my degree), and the many years since as an accounts/loan representative at a financial institution.

I have helped start and maintain multiple non profit organizations, including this one, and a local independent movie society where I live, along with having performed poetry as part of a traveling musical fellowship group, and I even write events columns for my local newspaper.

So I have had numerous opportunities to experience different aspects of life, but if I had to share one thing, it would be the recognition that we're all brothers and sisters of a loving creator even if we don't know all the answers yet.  Just know that if you need friends you can find some here, so reach out and ask if you need help or have questions or want to find out more, because we're all just trying to work it out together and enjoy the friendship and the inspiration we share with each other.